The Seamless Soul: Reflecting Inner Harmony Outward
Hello everyone, Simon Jacobson here. It’s always a pleasure sharing a few words. We’re continuing our Bible series, “Meaningful Life,” taking the narratives, events, characters, and personalities of the best-selling book of all time, the Bible, and applying them to our personal, emotional, psychological, and spiritual lives.
Today’s topic is seamlessness. Does your outside reflect your inside? Another way of putting it: duplicity versus integrity.
Let’s begin with a fascinating linguistic contrast. In English, the word for the human face is also associated with the word for “surface,” as in “on the face of it,” “on the surface level.” We use it to describe something ostensibly true but without diving deeper.
In Biblical Hebrew, the word for “face” is panim. Panim also means “inward,” the inside. So, in Hebrew, the same word encompasses both the external and the internal. It speaks to the idea that what you see is what you get, that the inside is reflected on the outside and vice versa. There’s a congruence, an honesty in the Hebrew understanding of “face.”
The Innocence of Children, the Duplicity of Adults
Think about young children. We were all children once, completely transparent in our emotions and expressions. We said what we felt, cried when we were sad, and laughed with unrestrained joy. Why? Because children possess an inherent seamlessness, a purity where there’s nothing to hide. It’s only as we grow older that we develop a self-consciousness, a duality where we learn to shield parts of ourselves from the world.
This duality isn’t inherently negative; discretion and privacy are essential aspects of a healthy adult life. However, it also opens the door to duplicity. Children don’t instinctively know how to lie. The concept of an inner world differing from outward appearances is learned, often from observing adults.
The Priestly Garments: Where Beauty Meets Integrity
The biblical verses discussing the priestly garments offer profound insights into this idea. These garments were commanded to be beautiful, meticulously crafted and visually stunning. Now, one might think, “Why such emphasis on outward appearance, on garments?”
It’s easy to dismiss the fashion industry as superficial, driven by vanity and fleeting trends. But the Torah, in its wisdom, understands the power of aesthetics. The outer appearance, while not eclipsing the inner, should reflect it. The beauty of the priestly garments was a physical manifestation of the priests’ inner devotion, their spiritual service.
True beauty, we learn, emanates from within and finds expression in the outer world. It’s an inside-out phenomenon. Our actions, our demeanor, even our attire should reflect a certain dignity and majesty, an outward manifestation of our inner refinement.
The Seamless Flow: When Inner and Outer Align
Imagine a life lived with such integrity that your internal world is mirrored in your external reality. This doesn’t mean we lack depth or complexity; rather, it suggests an authenticity, a sincerity that permeates our being. Like a beautiful song where the melody and lyrics blend seamlessly, expressing a unified emotional truth, we too can strive for this harmonious integration.
When our inner and outer selves are aligned, we experience a profound sense of peace. We shed the burden of pretense, the fear of our carefully constructed facades crumbling. Truth, unlike falsehood, doesn’t require constant vigilance and upkeep. It simply is.
Embracing Our Own Seamlessness
So, how do we cultivate this seamlessness in our own lives? It begins with awareness. How often do we find ourselves deviating from truth, even in small ways, to appease, to protect, or to manipulate? Each moment presents a choice: to perpetuate the dissonance between our inner and outer selves or to bridge the gap with honesty and integrity.
Imagine the liberation of living in congruence with your deepest self, where your interactions, your work, and your very presence radiate the truth of who you are. It’s a journey of self-discovery, of peeling away layers of pretense to reveal the authentic essence within.
And as we do, we become beacons of something rare and precious in this world: genuine, integrated beings reflecting the Divine image in which we were created.
Join me next week for another exploration of “Meaningful Life.”
This has been Simon Jacobson. You can find more of our programs at MeaningfulLife.com, and I encourage you to explore further by watching this video on the topic: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kxqdGnHuUgc
Be well, stay well, and I look forward to sharing more moments together.
