This is quite revealing, actually. They begin with this bare bones metaphor and then flesh it out into something transparent.
Consider, my friends, yourselves as physical beings who are dressed in many layers and types of attire that cover that which you call your nakedness. You have many items which you do, which you place upon yourselves, many various ways in which you arrange those portions of your body which may grow from day to day. That which you call your hair is arranged in such a way as to make a certain impression, or to please you or to please society. And when you are armored with all of the clothing and the appearance that you desire, then and only then do you meet the world as you perceive it outside yourself. With each layer of clothing, with each arrangement of your hair and your odors and the various manifestations of your physical being, you are separating yourself from the outside world and limiting the responses which you will need to receive in your turn. These are your defenses on a physical level against those things that you do not consider part of yourself. They are your definition of yourself. Perhaps this is not conscious. And perhaps your definition is very carefree. Yet it exists, my friends.
The thought of allowing your physical being to wander naked in the physical world is not one which seems very desirable. And yet, my friends, all beings are naked. All beings are unified even in their body, even on the level of physical illusion, by the total naturalness and validity of all of the functions and manifestations of their physical form. In nakedness, those differences which seem so obvious when one begins to speak, when one begins to limit oneself by clothing and by cultural differences, fall away and one can see that we are all one.
On a mental level, shall we say, or an emotional or a spiritual level—we must correct this instrument—mental, emotional and spiritual levels, those levels which are unseen, are those we would take up at this time. On these levels, you also have clothing and limitations. You have your mental and emotional limitation closely connected with your concept of who you are, and these may be considered like unto your clothing. But inside your clothing my friends, is the most terrible limitation of all. Like tight bandages, your unseen self is wrapped in a terrible stricture consisting of those feelings which you have towards others concerning those things which you feel they have done to you [for] which you have not forgiven them. And, on the other hand, my friends, your feelings of guilt for things which you have done to your brothers and sisters for which you do not feel forgiveness. You will never be whole, my friends. You will always be cripples as long as you carry these bandages about your spiritual body. Oh, my friends, this instrument has within her memory a story of a man who went home with a beautiful woman and as she undressed she took off her wig, her make-up, and her padded brassiere and her wooden leg, and suddenly she wasn’t very beautiful anymore.
My friends, all those that you look at, within this group and elsewhere, all these, my friends, are cripples. They all have wooden legs. They all have wigs. On the level of your human personality, they are wrapped in the tight bandages of those things they have not forgiven and those things for which they feel they are not forgiven. And therefore they manifest within the illusion in imperfect ways. And you, my friends, manifest within the illusion in an imperfect way.
Now we return to meditation. As you begin to go into the silence, perhaps you have games you play, as we would call them, in which you attempt to carry your clothed spirit, your limited spirit into the silence. Do not do this, my friends. Picture yourself, mentally, taking guilt and discarding it as you would a piece of clothing. Taking resentment, fear—putting it aside and walking as your shining naked self into the waters of cleanliness. After you have bathed yourself in total forgiveness, total cleanliness for the moment, you can emerge and in your mind you can sit down and listen. Listen for those signals which will come to you in the silence. You are a whole and complete person. Within you is perfection, wisdom and all the attributes of love. Yes, you will come out of meditation. Yes, you will begin to wrap the bandages about yourself. But as you come again and again into meditation, strip yourself clean and allow that soothing feeling of wholeness to come into your awareness. You begin to view your brothers and your sisters with something that does approach true love, for you will see, behind whatever manifestations may occur, that whole and perfect being that dwells perhaps very far beneath, perhaps very obviously beneath the mental, the spiritual, the emotional, and the physical clothing.
We have always greeted you in love and in light, for that is all that there [is.] We can greet you in nothing else. As you go into the silence, know that you are within that which is love. There is nowhere to go. You have no outer influence to seek. All that you desire is within. Meditate, my friends. And always we will aid you in any way that we can.
Personally, I’m not sure I would want to expose myself this way. (Just kidding.)