While it is pretty obvious to me that there are few folks who awaken at night to ponder a philosophy of beauty -- you must excuse this meditation, because only inches from me, lies the naked, sleeping, body of my dear love -- So, I am awake to this "quantum mystery"... Old Jewish mystics solemnly affirmed that the Divine Beloved only created through "his" co-creatrix, Sophia, or Divine Wisdom... Similarly, St. Thomas Aquinas affirmed that the Holy only created through Beauty -- as if gazing in a mirror...
It is not for "nothing" that we human beings are supremely attracted to Beauty: here it must be clearly stated that every being has a share in that Original -- Divine -- Beauty: through and through, THIS is who we are... Now, to "possess" a share of THAT Beauty does not infer that we, as individual persons are "beautiful" in the ordinary sense of the word: few would argue that a red rose is not more "beautiful" than a dandelion, or for that matter, George Clooney to me... But I am not writing about the "temporary" beauty of either red roses, George Clooney, or any other "beauty"... I am, though, pondering that which is not temporary, but a condition of being: THIS is what the mystics point to...
What is that "condition of being" that most generously points to, or reveals, that Beauty-Before-The-Beautiful? THIS -- this -- sense of beauty is central to the mystical, no, to the essential human experience: THIS sense places infinite value on our feelings: our awakening into the transcendental in the immanent: our awareness that our abilities to understand and to empathize are conditioned upon our intentional cultivation of all those things that facilitate the beautiful in our lives...
Sex: the blissful giving and receiving of body-soul pleasure... Compassion: the lifting of the burdens of others... Justice: the pursuit of fairness and equality... Harmony: the day-to-day peaceableness of the Divine Beloved who says for all time, "On all my holy mountain there will be no killing"... Tenderness: the sweetness of blessed companions, of holding hands, of shared responsibilities, of intellectual stimulation, of holy conversation, of passionate daring, and of the anticipation of "smothering" kisses... The beautiful is gifted from Beauty to anyone / everyone who is willing to love others more than him / herself...
In short, Beauty-becomes-Beautiful in us as we practice beauty: leaving no one out or behind in our circle of personal and social kindness... Putting down my pen, I will fold myself into my Beloved's sleeping form, cup her breast, and share in her beauty...
It is not for "nothing" that we human beings are supremely attracted to Beauty: here it must be clearly stated that every being has a share in that Original -- Divine -- Beauty: through and through, THIS is who we are... Now, to "possess" a share of THAT Beauty does not infer that we, as individual persons are "beautiful" in the ordinary sense of the word: few would argue that a red rose is not more "beautiful" than a dandelion, or for that matter, George Clooney to me... But I am not writing about the "temporary" beauty of either red roses, George Clooney, or any other "beauty"... I am, though, pondering that which is not temporary, but a condition of being: THIS is what the mystics point to...
What is that "condition of being" that most generously points to, or reveals, that Beauty-Before-The-Beautiful? THIS -- this -- sense of beauty is central to the mystical, no, to the essential human experience: THIS sense places infinite value on our feelings: our awakening into the transcendental in the immanent: our awareness that our abilities to understand and to empathize are conditioned upon our intentional cultivation of all those things that facilitate the beautiful in our lives...
Sex: the blissful giving and receiving of body-soul pleasure... Compassion: the lifting of the burdens of others... Justice: the pursuit of fairness and equality... Harmony: the day-to-day peaceableness of the Divine Beloved who says for all time, "On all my holy mountain there will be no killing"... Tenderness: the sweetness of blessed companions, of holding hands, of shared responsibilities, of intellectual stimulation, of holy conversation, of passionate daring, and of the anticipation of "smothering" kisses... The beautiful is gifted from Beauty to anyone / everyone who is willing to love others more than him / herself...
In short, Beauty-becomes-Beautiful in us as we practice beauty: leaving no one out or behind in our circle of personal and social kindness... Putting down my pen, I will fold myself into my Beloved's sleeping form, cup her breast, and share in her beauty...
RSS Feed