Category Archives: Beauty

intuition, aesthetics & what is beautiful…

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kiss the fragrance in static beauty...

What is at the heart of aesthetics? My thesis ranted about the poetics of aesthetics, the understanding of communication needed about ’what is art?,’ the philosophical codes used to navigate ethics, mataphysics, perceptions & sentimentality…..wow….but it’s much more intuitive…..the ethereal, aura of beauty….

…..as it is said, beauty is in the eye of the beholder…..

The beautiful, one way or another, always shakes us. Seeing the world through new eyes, leaving behind conceptual habits & narrow-mindedness makes life seem anew. Beauty takes us out of a ghost world, opens us to an unmeasurable, unpredictable abundance of sounds, perfumes, lines, textures, colors that amaze & renew us. Beauty brings a fresh wind to our minds. It does not attack with logic the stronghold of our beliefs, rather it introduces a new dimension that amazingly changes our viewpoint. The experience of natural beauty forces us to leave behind the empty boxes of our cliches & to perceive the world around us in all its complexity & richness. Just a few moments’ attention is all that is needed……

………Piero Ferrucci….Beauty & the Soul

no room for inertia in heart space

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sanctuary in the heart

Ever feel reborn in your own life? A clarity & a calling born of harmony.

No inertia in this space.

This path is the process of fearlessly peering into the mysterious nature of life & relaxing our mental & emotional grip on our own place within it…..Elizabeth Lesser

feeling roots, feeling knots, feeling sky,

feeling green, feeling wind, feeling breath….

this is the tangible place where we can see our heart….can envision our place…can connect to those roots & knots & sky & green & wind & breath….make it real….

Imagining Mystery

There is something

that contains everything.

Before heaven & earth

it is.

Oh, it is still, unbodied,

all on its own, unchanging,

all-pervading,

ever-moving.

So it can act as the mother

of all things.

Not knowing its real name,

we only call it the Way.

If it must be named,

let its name be Great.

Greatness means going on,

going on means going far,

and going far means turning back.

So they say, ‘The Way is great,

heaven is great,

earth is great,

and humankind is great;

four greatnesses in the world,

and humanity is one of them.’

People follow earth,

earth follows heaven,

heaven follows the Way,

the Way follows what is.

…….Lao Tzu……

…..the Way is the Heart…..

engrave your own yearning

a love day….may it be so….

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beauty held...

“Love is the only rational act of a lifetime.”..Stephen Levine

Kiss your friends & remember that kiss…..

When we do the hard work of stilling the mind & opening the heart, we come into love. First we love within, then we love the world. First we forgive ourselves, then we forgive others & life itself. Real love of others stems from love of oneself as a soul… not ego-loving ego, but soul-loving soul. Ego turns love into sentimentality, which is an idea of love. Love is deep feeling grounded in action. Love is the fruit of heartfulness. And heartfulness is a lifelong journey…….Elizabeth Lesser

I love beautiful ideas…try this….write about love…the ways you have loved, the ways you have denied love, the ways your ideas of love have changed, the ways you have turned away from love, the ways you have not loved yourself, the ways you try to love everyday…..

Here’s mine for this Valentine’s Day 2012…

A Story of Sorts….Tenderness & Gratitude

Life & dreams & days sometimes sneak into chaos. He knows. He brings tea. He brings the cat. He allows space. He tucks in the blanket. How can something so simple as comfort be so perfect?

…..something about purity of intention….

‘In love, there is no because’……Anaiis Nin

peeking ’round shadows….

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shadow work

The journey through the Landscape of the Soul changes one’s perspective. Seeing ourselves & the world from the heights of spiritual insight makes everything more real. It’s not so much that anything changes; rather, things become more fully what they already are. We don’t transform ourselves; we become ourselves. We journey into the Landscape of the Soul so that our life here in the world might reflect the unity & love we touched on in our communion with God. Wherever we go on our spiritual journey, all roads lead back to our humanness……Elizabeth Lesser

Awakening discernment is strangely non-coherent. Unspeakable really. A subtle opening, coming out from shadows….touching the morning dew rather than just seeing it…..like realizing you haven’t missed a thing….

It’s all simply right where you need it to be….

To understand all is to forgive all…..Voltaire

the inexpressible….listening to the shell….

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the other half of our shell

contentment really is a natural & gracious place for our unseen selves to be…affirming this is seeing the whole….the other half of all of our queries, restlessness & peeking hopes…

this is a provocative & intuitive lightness….a softer truth than our usual hard edges…

maybe this is where our muse finds us…it was there all along…

There is no place to search for the truth. Though it’s right beneath your feet, it can’t be found. Look at springtime….when the snow has melted, the scars of the landscape are no longer hidden….John Daido Loori

remembering beauty…do you hear the ocean in a shell?

these subtle shifts are so welcome….

a light touch, a gentler art, an enchantment…

Every art has its mystery, its spiritual rhythm….D.T. Suzuki

wild winter….

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wild & open

I have such a strange relationship with winter….complex….not so simple as love/hate….

but defintely ambiguous…..

love the deeper places I can go to hibernate & restore….

love the wild & open sky…..the raw & barren places which open new sensibilities….

love the white glare & the icy trees in sunlight….& wearing boots….

really dislike (hate the word hate ya know) being cold…..

really dislike being drowned in gray skies for long periods….

really dislike missing beach walks because it’s too cold….

dreams are more vivid in winter for me….I am astonished at how deeply I am drawn to the cold earth….such a mythical time of waiting…of cycles & sleep…

In Blue

———————————————————

I said to my soul, be still, & wait without hope

For hope would be hope for the wrong thing;

wait without love

For love would be love of the wrong thing; there is yet faith

But the faith & the love & the hope are all in the waiting. Wait without thought,

for you are not ready for thought:

So the darkness shall be the light, & the stillness the dancing.

Whisper of running streams, & winter lightning.

The wild thyme unseen & the wild strawberry,

The laughter in the garden, echoed ecstasy

Not lost, but requiring, pointing to the agony

Of death & birth.

T.S. Eliot

lookin’ for adventure….

filling the well where winter empties….

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filling the well...

Each person is born with an unencumbered spot, free of expectation & regret, free of ambition & embarrassment, free of fear & worry, an umbilical spot of grace where we were each first touched by God. It is this spot of grace that issues peace. Psychologists call this spot the Psyche, Theologists call it the Soul, Jung calls it The Seat of the Unconscious, Hindu masters call it the Atman, Buddhists call it the Dharma, Rilke calls it Inwardness, Sufis call it Qualb, & Jesus calls it The Center of Our Love. To know this spot of inwardness is to know who we are, not by surface markers of identity & not by where we work, but by feeling our place in relation to the Infinite & by inhabiting it. This is a hard lifelong task, for the nature of becoming is a constant filming over of where we begin while the nature of being is a constant erosion of what is not essential. We each live in the midst of this ongoing tension, growing tarnished or covered over only to be worn back to that incorruptible spot of grace at our core…….Mark Nepo

This may be the surge of winter’s unveiling…

The beginning, the soft spot, the pause in between things….

Nevertheless, it is worthy of resting with this beauty awhile here in these January days…to lift into this core where ‘the why or how’ isn’t quite so impelling for a few moments.

our potential….our list of treasures

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finding treasures...

down to earth & yet full of dazzling treasures….

don’t forget these simple truths…

It is strange to be here. The mystery never leaves you alone. Behind your image, below your words, above your thoughts, the silence of another world waits. A world lives within you. No one else can bring you news of this inner world. Through the opening of the mouth, we bring out sounds from the mountain beneath the soul. Human presence is a creative & turbulent sacrament, a subtle sign of invisible grace………John O’Donohue….Anam Cara

every now & again it’s good to remember these small places in our tucked away places…

list your favorite things….things to love…

your own list of treasures…maybe they haunt your silence…

old dogs

cloudy moons

downtown shops

really used bookstores

fat cats

a good glass of wine

dog-eared pages

warm socks

a deep breath

bedtime

unusual pottery

soft scarves

riding a bike

old baseball hats

crisp stationery

glitter glue

strawberry milkshakes

knarly trees

old photos

sublime poetry

blue water

windows

child’s pose (yoga)

a great pen

pearls

thunderstorms

long road trips

birds

silence

ok…..so I must continue this…it’s addictive….try it…don’t think about it too much….

isn’t that what gets us into trouble much of the time?….

do you need a list to remind you? do you follow your list of treasures? or are you disconnected from the things you really love?

let’s get closer to our real life…we stand in our own way…..

and yet…..we keep trying….

craving for the aesthetics of pleasure…

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beautiful food for the soul...

creativity & beauty go hand in hand….the loveliness of everything we touch with mindfulness, with making something come alive, with acting in accordance with your calling….this is real….

as delicate as placing a flower….as seemingly small as serving dinner…..it’s about the detail….the care & depth of ourselves we give…

pleasure is beauty….creativity is pleasure…..oh the excitement when it comes alive in simplicity…….

a first rate soup is more creative than a second-rate painting…..Abraham Maslow

in the search for pleasure…remember….

look inside & see what moves you, what makes you cry for sadness or joy, & respond to that…..in the giving of yourself to this work, give bravely & with honest passion & what will come will be a gift, not only for yourself but for those in your midst who have hungered for this work……Jan Phillips

my home, my heart, my paint….

I do believe it is possible to create, even without ever writing a word or painting a picture, by simply molding one’s inner life…..& that too is a deed……Elly Hillesum

Christmas Morning

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humble angel gifts...

The sweet breath of morning brings a sigh, a release into gentleness….

This wonderful little story is my idea of the beauty of truth in Christmas…

And this, I believe, is the source of our Christmas ‘stuff’…

Going beyond fear begins when we examine our fear: our anxiety, nervousness, concerns, busyness & restlessness. If we look into our fear, if we look beneath the veneer, the first thing we find is sadness, beneath the nervousness. Nervousness is cranking up, vibrating all the time. When we slow down, when we relax with our fear, we find sadness, which is calm & gentle. Sadness hits you in your heart, & your body produces a tear. Before you cry, there is a feeling in your chest & then, after that, you produce tears in your eyes. You are about to produce rain or a waterfall in your eyes & you feel sad & lonely & perhaps romantic at the same time. That is the first tip of fearlessness, & the first sign of real warriorship. You might think that, when you experience fearlessness, you will hear the opening to Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony or see a great explosion in the sky, but it doesn’t happen that way. Discovering fearlessness comes from working with the softness of the human heart……Chogyam Trungpa

Soft & tender hearts make their subtle & surprising appearances at Christmas….this experience of the sad & tender heart is what gives birth to fearlessness…..allow its sweet glimpse to surprise you…..

like Christmas magic…..