Diarmuid O’Murchu, a fascinating Irish scholar and social psychologist, puts forth one of the best descriptions/explanations of Bohmian of dialogue* in his excellent book, “Quantum Theology.”
I had always thought of this process (though I had no name for it) more as a way of being, really. When I thought consciously along these lines, it was in terms of “nonattachment,” or “objectivity.”
In my best moments, I strive to live life as a “dialogue.” I.e., unattached to any one point of view, deeply listening, open to all points of view without having to “have it” or “take it on” on a personal level, and being response-able — able to respond — hopefully with the greatest good in mind. At the same time to be aware of my own preferences and choices, and also responsible for my own condition in so far as I am consciously able (which one works at to continue to become more conscious). And always aware of beauty, supporting it, nurturing it, being surrounded in it.
This is the closest to a personal “credo” I have articulated in recent times. Deepak Chopra has said, “Quantum physics are the mechanics of creativity; reincarnation is the quantum leap of creativity…the soul takes on new expression.”[1] Until recently I considered Deepak’s comment to refer only to the life/death cycle. Today, I see its application to my own credo and attendant learning spirals: quantum leaps of understanding that leave me dying in one reality while popping into another – one that sometimes defies wordy articulation but can be summed up in a sweeping gaze while at the beach.
And, I have come to understand that I am endeavoring to practice beauty.
The dialogue between theology and science is not a dialogue at all; it is a drama of the human spirit. ~Alexei Nesteruk
* Wikipedia definition: [Bohmian] dialogue has no predefined purpose, no agenda, other than that of inquiring into the movement of thought, and exploring the process of “thinking together” collectively. … allow group participants to examine their preconceptions and prejudices, …explore the more general movement of thought. … Dialogue should not be confused with discussion or debate, both of which, says Bohm, suggest working towards a goal or reaching a decision, rather than simply exploring and learning…
[1] Excerpted from a lecture in workshop, “Seduction of Silence,” April, 2005, Lake Lanier, GA
I’ve never liked November. I don’t exactly know why, especially since there are so many celebrations in my family in November as well as, of course, Thanksgiving. And I’ve always enjoyed Thanksgiving, so why do I dread November?
Perhaps it is the dreary weather so often encountered in the Northeast, where I grew up and lived for so many years. Lack of sun, the gray and too-barren landscape, early snow storms conspire to undermine my personal practice of Beauty. I can find that Beauty in November’s landscape — but I have to work harder at it, and that bothers me.
Camillia sasanqua
It is easier here in the Southeast. The camellias are blooming red, pink and white in my yard. The Live Oaks wear their stoles of Spanish Moss which sways elegantly in the November breezes. There is plenty of sunlight. I need only to look out to encounter True Beauty in this place’s November.
Spanish moss hanging from a Live Oak in the southern evening
My November discomfort may be related to the holidays — or what I call the holi-daze. Over the course of my life I have spent too many of them alone, and that has been difficult. When I recall all the past holidays that were filled with family and loved ones I too often compare and contrast with the “alone” holiday experiences.
But as I have written elsewhere, comparing and contrasting can be an unproductive trap. The action may eviscerate any truth of the Beauty at hand, here in the present.
And here I am, looking at my dread, figuring it out, moving away from it and beyond — I hope! And remembering that I am so grateful to be living in this country, in these times, where we have so much freedom to be. To be.
In my travels on the Way of True Beauty I have, of course, come across some wise and pithy statements about beauty, true eternal beauty. Here are some I’d like to share with you:
All contemporary crises can be reduced to a crisis about the nature of beauty.
~ John O’Donohue
…the perfection of Beauty is defined as being the perfection of Harmony…
~ Alfred North Whitehead
Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where nature may heal and give strength to body and soul.
~John Muir
Beauty is not in the face; beauty is a light in the heart
~ Kahlil Gibran
The individual human’s aesthetic response would alter the very course of history and the shape of things we live among. ~ James Hillman
We feel most alive in the presence of the Beautiful for it meets the needs of our soul…. we come to glimpse behind the shutter of appearances the sure form of things…. Beauty brings a sense of completion and sureness. Without any of the usual calculation, we can slip into the Beautiful with the same ease as we slip into the seamless embrace of water; something ancient within us already trusts that this embrace will hold us. ~ John O’Donohue
Luminous matter is the most rare stuff in our universe. At only 4{d26b639eb74f8edb8884074db06109d949b84d3d1d14796b516693be64172811} it is precious. It is what we and our world are made up of. Everything is sacred. Every thing. Every one. ~ Lisa Lindahl
And finally, another person that believes as I do, that True Beauty is the raison d’être of our Universe:
For the world is not painted or adorned, but is from the beginning beautiful; and God has not made some beautiful things, but Beauty is the creator of the universe.
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
If you have started to integrate the Way of True Beauty into your life, you might take one or some of these — whichever resonates strongly with you — write them out in your own handwriting and pin them up where you will see them each day. As I am known to say, “can’t hurt, might help!”
ps: I haven’t forgotten the images from Mother Emmanuel AME Church, or Baltimore, or Ferguson… they live in my soul, and inform my voice (as my friend Jess points out). But Summer, I choose to celebrate your beauty here.
Relationships are all there is. Everything in the universe only exists because it is in relationship to everything else. Nothing exists in isolation. We have to stop pretending we are individuals that can go it alone. ~ Margaret J. Wheatley
I hope by now it is clear that choosing to follow a path of True Beauty is in great part about noticing, cultivating and sustaining Beauty, an integral form of harmonious relationships. Becoming a Practitioner of True Beauty!
While relationship begins first between you and you — being the most authentic self you can be as discussed last week — the next most important and primary relationship is between you and the “Other,” or really a series of “others” whose main characteristic is that they are perceived as external of the “I.” While there is the Other of our immediate environment our first “other of flesh” is, most probably our birth family, then the family chosen and created beyond that. Thirdly are all the relationships one chooses to create just between folks and other species — pets and, say, houseplants. (I am currently in deep mourning for my 20+ year old Jade plant that is seriously ailing. I cannot admit it’s dying.)
Though all of the above may seem obvious, looking at the status of today’s families, community health, ecology and abused and abandoned animals — it isn’t. We only have to look around to see the growing anomie* in our culture.
*Anomie is the disorientation and alienation that arises in a society as a result of the erosion of its moral and social codes. People feel isolated and alone, without a supportive social or guiding framework.
True Beauty is the antidote for anomie.
Relationship is a word that has been so overused in our culture today. Perhaps because truly meaningful relationships are too scarce for too many. For instance have you noticed we now have “Relationship Brokers” in place of customer service departments in many businesses now? Too funny. Or sad.
So what is relationship really about? Hoo-boy! So many books, lectures, TV shows, gurus have gone on about this very subject! But there is actually science behind/about relationship. I’ll try to put it into non-science speak.
Relationship is about attraction and resonance. Being attracting, attracted and resonating with an other –only to find upon entering into the dance of relationship that one-plus-one equals not two, but three — and we are not talking about Baby, here!
The attraction of the two has created something bigger than the separate single units apart: the “field of attraction.” This field is the observable energy created by and between the two. Gravity is a field of attraction. I could say, quite literally, that the Moon fell for the Earth. I like that. The pull you feel towards someone is a real, energetic, observable thing.
Plato wrote about it, Shakespeare dramatized it, and virtually every culture has tradition and mythology around it; many worldwide believe that it is “love that makes the world go ’round.”
So while those millions of books have been written and therapies have been developed to help create and sustain healthy and happy relationships, at day’s (and experts’) end harmony in relationship relies upon the care and maintenance of that field. And that all boils down to “importances.” What is your order of importances? To what and where do you give time, energy and attention? How much to oneself, to the job, the sport, the maintenance of possessions, and to the journey of others around us? On what do you focus?
Ditto to the above for the Other who is creating that field of attraction with you.
And, then, just to complicate matters: can we accept the care, love and concern of an other flowing to us? We often hear of the joys of giving. But how many of us are uncomfortable with receiving? How is it to be the subject of another’s focus? Is it hard to simply say “Thank You” when someone does a thoughtful thing or pays one a compliment?
Finally, how do we communicate? How effective are both at expressing as well as listening? Effective communication is the key to authentic relationship, and successful, harmonic relationship itself is key to living a life of Beauty.
Personal relationships are not irrelevant or extra-curricular. They are a central expression of Harmony, of a life of True Beauty. In formally entering, i.e. consciously choosing a relationship with another human being we are entering the dance and mystery of the Universe itself.
Note, however, it is a core premise of the Way of Beauty that, in fact, all is in relationship. Not just human-to-human. Or man to dog. Or human to earth. All is in relationship, all the time. Being in conscious relationship, therefore, is a tall order.
To practice harmonic relationship:
1) Know that you are in relationship with all, all the time. Your energy effects the energy field of that and those around you.
2) Notice your order of importances. This is a big clue to your own attractions and resonances, if you need a clue… and often we do!
3) Focus on that which you want to include in your life and see more of in the world. If, conversely, you focus on the negative, it is the negative that will occupy your environment.
4) Communicate. You are in relationship. Duh!
5) Really, just follow all the Beauty practices as well as you can. The Way of Beauty is about increasing Harmony, the happy state of relationship.
“Consider the following. We humans are social beings. We come into the world as the result of others’ actions. We survive here in dependence on others. Whether we like it or not, there is hardly a moment of our lives when we do not benefit from others’ activities. For this reason it is hardly surprising that most of our happiness arises in the context of our relationships with others. ~HH Dalai Lama
This is one of my favorite Beauty practices. In part because it has a certain shock factor for some people first hearing of it and I can be mischievous. But mostly because it is a constant practice for me. It is a constant challenge to my daily operating assumptions. (My “doa”s?? Hmmm).
I don’t really believe in “truth” as I understand adherents of Science and the Age of Reason to use/define it. I find truth to be relative, subjective. This shocks my fundamentalist friends — whether they be vegan, Christian, Scientologist, or Democrat… .
A man of science who I heard speak once revealed that he and other scientists and researchers held a particularly skeptical attitude towards scientific theory: “SAFN,” an acronym for Somewhat Adequate For Now. To wit: inquiry into a realm of the largely unknown (say, quantum physics or deep space) would go on until an apparent pattern or story began to form from clues and evidence that was gathered over a period of time. Said story was then extrapolated into a probable scenario and, with a certain amount of agreement among the parties involved, deemed a bona fide “theory.” The definition for theory is “speculation, assumption, conjecture.” Left unchallenged by new or different speculation, assumption, etc., said theory starts to be assumed “truth” by the general public, and SAFN by the scientific communty. Often it is the very longevity of a theory that seems to be their proof. Think Big Bang Theory or the Theory of Relativity. Once it was the theory that the sun revolved around the earth…or that the earth (clearly!) is flat. You get the idea.
So what is true?
The concept of truth is, actually, very useful. It helps create our shared reality, core ethics and intent. However, the universe is expanding as it must, including all the dogmas, doctrines, “truths” that have gone before, are currently in vogue today, and those truths that are awaiting our discovery of them.
Currently we live in the Age of Reason, Logic and Science. I hold that in some ways it is the Dark Age of Reason and Science in that it disallows so many other ways of knowing. Specifically “gnowing.” Gnowing? Many indigenous cultures take for granted inner knowingness — gnowing is that way of discerning a current truth or sensing True Beauty through these many other conduits of garnering information. We often associate these “other conduits” to body parts: heart, gut, third eye. Some just toss it off as intuition.
To Practice “truth wariness:”
1) Be flexible in your perspective on truth. Challenge your own assumptions about the nature of a person, place, or thing.
2) Become aware of historical shifts in “The Truth”. Educate yourself about different belief systems. Reject anything touting itself as an “absolute truth” (including this statement).
3) Listen deeply to yourself; express your own truth with compassion for that of others. Communicate it with the intent to create an evolutionary response, not only from those without — but within yourself as well. Strive to not cultivate “fixed” ideas.
4) Deeply listen to others. What is true for them? Can you see it? Is it as they say? Can you live their truth for a bit without having to adopt it?
5) Examine your need to be “right.” Is it serving you or not? Do you want to be right, or do you want to be effective?
6) Make choices that move you in your correct direction. Indian philosopher J. Krishnamurti says this about the nature of truth: “Truth is not a fixed point; it is not static; it cannot be measured by words; it is not a concept, a idea to be achieved.” (Keeerect in my book!)
“Believe nothing, no matter where you read it or who has said it, not even if I have said it, unless it agrees with your own reason and your own common sense.” ~Buddha
The concepts of Truth and Beauty are often paired. It is assumed that one informs, or proves, the other. I contend that “truth” is a moving target — as is the popular notion of beauty (i.e. “glamour” — think fashion, aesthetic trends, etc.). But True Beauty is eternal, unwavering. It is as harmony: manifesting in many different instruments, relationships, and vibrations, but always … always harmonic.
There is no time, nor space. These are our illusions to help keep a sense of order.
That’s what science is telling us this week. (I say “this week” because who knows what will be touted as The Truth next week, month, year…. Remember when the earth was flat, and was the center of the Universe?) Anyway, I try to imagine the chaos I would perceive if left without those ordering concepts of space and time. It is a fun game…
…the tree is over there, and I am here. Noooo…the tree and I occupy the same space — oops! There is no space! So what am I left with? How do I wrap my head around that?
Here’s what saves me: experience. When I was a child — I can’t remember what age, but I recall being about eye level with the railing of the balcony — I had an odd and wonderful experience. The balcony was off my mother’s bedroom, on the second story of our house. I was standing there in clear morning sunshine looking into the branches and green leaves of trees. A slight breeze riffed through the leaves; a bird’s vibrant call rang out — and all at once I was one with it all. In every way. There are no words, really, to describe what occurred. I have never forgotten the experience. Interestingly what ended it was my noticing what was happening.
Throughout my life I have come across other experiences and terms to describe them: “out of body”, “trance”, “journeying” (in the Shamanic tradition), but none — neither experience or terminology — have adequately caught what I experienced that long-ago morning. Subsequently, still while quite young, I had two other similar experiences but not as complete and intense as that first one, as all too soon I would notice it was happening and that would slip “me” back into regular/normal perception.
There is a prevailing and ubiquitous disregard of Beauty and the sacredness of nature. Nature, the “natural world” is the primary manifestation of our universe’s luminous matter in this time/space/place we know as the planet Earth. Rare, precious, matter.
I find it of further interest to consider that currently a popular scientific theory posits that all matter “pops” into existence out of dark energy. And back out of existence again. It is what remains around that becomes our ‘visible and tangible’ world. One must wonder: since there is so much dark energy – 73{d26b639eb74f8edb8884074db06109d949b84d3d1d14796b516693be64172811} — why is matter so rare? Why doesn’t it manifest more and more often? Or does it, and it is just outside the realm of our current levels of understanding and perception? Hmmm.
While matter is an important form in which Beauty can manifest, indeed the form in which we are most familiar recognizing Beauty, it is not the only form. I suggest that Beauty is a field (as in electromagnetic field) and therefore a resonance. Sometimes we experience Beauty almost outside our sense perceptions, I think. We are uplifted for no apparent “good reason.” This all speaks to Beauty’s link to harmony, and how it (harmony, harmonic relationships) pops in and out of our experience and awareness.
Some propose that the Universe began with a sound. A single musical note. More than one, and you might have a harmony; wavelengths that flow together, in synchronicity, harmonious. Wavelengths exist in a field. We get into the physics here that lead to the metaphysics:
So I propose a further definition of Beauty:
True Beauty is the synergistic, flowing field that holds all in dynamic, resonating harmony as the next movement unfurls.
If you are a physics geek, at this point you might, most appropriately, find the moving computer illustration of the equation called the Mandelbrot Set. It is waaaay cool!
Diarmuid O’Murchu, a fascinating Irish scholar and social psychologist, puts forth one of the best descriptions/explanations of Bohmian of dialogue* in his excellent book, “Quantum Theology.”
And, I have come to understand that I am endeavoring to practice beauty.
