beauty

Beauty is a feeling which comes to us when there is a certain resonance between that which we are seeing, perceiving, and our inner being, with its aesthetic sense. One of the remarkable things about the enlightened state of consciousness is that this feeling of beauty arises again and again; continuously, one could say. Beauty is seen in the smallest of things: a grain of sand is enough.

Of course, a sunset, a waterfall, a night sky: hopefully everyone can respond to such things with a sense of beauty. But when the mind is still, not obsessing about specific people or things – when the mind is receptive, like a womb – any seed planted in it will flower into this beauty, this feeling of beauty.

For really, the enlightened state is the state of consciousness when one has given up fighting with oneself; when the inner conflict has dissolved. In that state of spacious, receptive silence, even one’s own being is felt as full of beauty. It is as if the energy of creation in existence is manifesting itself directly as that feeling of beauty. Specific objects are not needed; anything can trigger the beauty: a crumpled crisp packet, a plastic bag blowing in the wind, anything.

So allow some space to come into your consciousness. When the mind is not busy with its petty concerns, when there is some space, some stillness, the feeling of beauty comes so easily. Allow your prejudices to drop away. Look at the world with fresh eyes, the eyes of a child, seeing everything anew. In that state of innocence, the beauty of all that is will be seen in its full glory.