1/28/02 6:20 – 6:40
Beauty is not a quality of symmetry , though symmetry is inherent in beauty. Rather it is a quality of parts being proportionate to each other’s state.It is about proportion. A beautiful life is one well proportioned between inner and outer, self and other, giving and receiving. A beautiful life is something few humans strive for,. Few even conceive the notion , that a life, like a work of art can be made beautiful.
Should one chose such a goal, consider the elements of beauty. It elevates in the viewer, the soul’s being able to wonder and have appreciation. This is an infusion of energy and an expression of harmony. If one examines relationships in life, which inspire, elevate and delight. Which do not? Compare them to identify what it is in one and not the other that has the capacity to heighten your awareness, to bring gladness to the heart.
Beauty has the capacity to engender a sense of completion and unity, between what is observed or engaged and the sense of self as a reflector of beauty. Beauty herself enriches the viewer, so too do beautiful qualities about ones life.
A beautiful life is one that stands as a valuable guide for others. It will necessarily induce in others, a sense of fullness, to the extent that it will inspire. At the same time, it will point to the disorderliness in the lives of those who see it. This can mean that while there is appreciation from some, there may be hostility from others, perceiving in a beautiful life, what is not in their own. Thus one must clothe the beauty in way that is not too self apparent but that the same time is suggestive of what is beneath is it. Thus a life that is beautiful, radiant, must be revealed not all at once, but in ways that suggest, but not totally expose. Like a beautiful woman should not be nakedly exposed to create the allure of attraction, so too with a life—it should be properly clothed so as not to expose it to thoughts and person’s who do not yet appreicate the wonder of that effort.
How we reveal the beauty of a well proporitioned life is important, to its carriage and longevity. It requires a degree of privacy between the self and no other. At the same time, it is right to present that well designed life to the world as a quiet example. In other words, what we are trying to say, is that a beautiful life becomes an example, but all aspects of it need not be shown to the world. Some things should always remain private and others kept for sharing only with inimtate others.
If one cultivates a beautiful life, tends to it the way a beautiful garden is nurtured, seasonally, regularily, watering it, protecting it from destructive influences, recognizing its seasons of planting, nurturing and harvesting in all actions, one can find in the task of ones daily life, the experience of tending to the creation of a life that is itself aromatic, luxurious, colorful, soft, beautiful to behold, delicate to the touch, pleasing to the eye, revealing to the heart. Indeed, it is a question of attitude and notion, that a life can be cultivated in the same way the earth. Which of you has the patience to tend to life the way one tends their garden? And who among you sees that the Edenic paradise is already planted inside your soul’s memory to reflect into the world. A beautiful life indeed, living out of the edenic template. All that is needed is already here.
ZMH