Thomas Moore – Lisa Z. Lindahl

The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and all science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger,who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead: his eyes are closed. ~Albert Einstein

Practice Being in Awe:

Life and living is full of surprises. There is a great deal of folk wisdom about this: “Expect the unexpected,” “Life is what happens while you are making other plans,” “Different strokes for different folks,” are just a few that come to mind.

And still we plan. And have expectations — of ourselves, of others.

The unexpected comes in different flavors: the generic “surprise,” “amazement” is laced with a bit of disbelief and may herald the new. “Wonder” is fraught with mystery and is a term often found in religious hymns and texts. We do not seem to expect wonder to become known, yet it often has a positive vibe. Is it an enduring state?

Then “awe.” Awe, like wonder, is a more sustainable and positive state, not just a mere response to the unexpected. Awe connotates a respect and reverence for its object or being. Delight and fear both may accompany awe in a strange yet desired concoction, but I feel awe is mostly delight and respect; like the feeling one might have if playing with a goddess — a sacred playmate.

“Awesome, man!”

To be at some point on this spectrum of Wonder – Awe is to be like a child again, and that can be a good and truly beautiful thing.

Years ago, Dr. David Simon, author and co-founder of the Chopra Center for Well-Being said something to me that stuck and has served in many situations. It was a conversation in which the difficulties and nasty stuff of living was being discussed in the context of trying to maintain one’s spiritual path. He said: “Look, disagreeable stuff happens; it always does. Right? And when it does, you can choose to be offended by it, or you can choose to be amazed about it.” I thought about that for awhile. I realized that when something occurred that I didn’t want or expect (“disagreeable stuff”) — something that surprised me on some level — it was easy to automatically respond with feeling offended. I jumped to negative judgment! Here was the alternative to stay in neutral surprise. To cultivate my child-like wonder rather than my gotta-be-right critic.

Anyway, this is a sharply edited version of why/how the cultivation of AWE is a powerful Beauty Practice. Suffice to say, wonder and awe facilitate the recognition of the True Beauty in a thing or situation. Being offended or repulsed does not. So if this synopsis is resonating with you, you might start cultivating being “awe-ful” by:

1) Identify some small thing that habitually “puts you off.” Approach this thing and try seeing/sensing it anew, as if for the first time. Can you move back to being amazed by it? (Think snake, bad driver, or licorice) How long can you stay there?

This practice is not about coming to like snakes or licorice, but merely changing your response to them. Rather than “ick!” and a possible rise in blood pressure, one may experience wonder and perhaps some mild curiosity. (“Does licorice come from a plant?”)

2) Where is the wonder in your life? Spend some time with and in wonder. For me this might be time watching the ocean or the sky. Or both!

3) Find an old tree. Really perceive it. Think of all the years it has been rooted in that spot. Can you feel awe?

4) Watch, or help, a child doing his/her homework. Remember that wonder of learning?

An enchanted life has many moments when the heart is overwhelmed by beauty and the imagination is electrified… ~Thomas Moore, “The Re-enchantment of Everyday Life“

A Few Bold Philosophical Statements

All contemporary crises can be reduced to a crisis about the nature of beauty.

~ John O’Donohue

Polarizing dualities can’t exist and luscious diversity may unashamedly bloom in a Universe where True Beauty is a primary paradigm and one of humankind’s guiding references.

This is true for me.

The ancient Greeks revered Beauty. “The teleology of the Universe is directed to the production of Beauty” declares the father of process philosophy, Alfred North Whitehead. “Beauty prompts action” says author James Hillman; “Beauty must replicate itself” states Harvard’s Professor of Aesthetics and author, Elaine Scarry.

“So what?” my friend and Chief Executive Skeptic, Lou, argues. “How is beauty relevant at all in a world burdened with wars, starvation and an-increasing gap between the uber wealthy and the rest of us – not to mention the truly poor?” This is said to me with a look that is a masterful mix of disdain and immediate dismissal; nothing more to be said or thought on the subject. For Lou, like many others, beauty is trivial, non-essential and its pursuit is a shallow endeavor. I say otherwise. I say we are out of touch with True Beauty.

Yes, in our modern times Beauty has become caricatured, trivialized and marginalized to an extreme and ridiculous point. It is confused with appearances, relegated primarily to the visual. Meanwhile the mass media elevates and enshrines bad news, violence, and coarseness. Elegance, graciousness are derided as hallmarks of the “elite” (odd, since neither of these need to cost anything!), while mediocrity and baseness are somehow socially desireable.

Throughout our recent cultural past, the lowest common denominator has become the highest thing to aspire to. Or, as one beauty philosopher put it, “It has become the habit of our times to mistake glamour for beauty.” (O’Donohue).

From Cosmetology to Cosmology

True Beauty (capital “B”) is a paradox that is far more complex – and simple – than (dare I say?) meets the eye. Most significantly, healing our relationship to Beauty will in turn heal much of the pathology that our culture is currently suffering. When talking about this Beauty we are talking cosmology, not cosmetology.

Cosmology, from the Greek, originally meant “to order the universe.” The term has evolved and broadened to reference the order and deep inner workings, relationships and patterns of almost any system. I attended a conference on “The Cosmology of Health,” for instance, that had speakers from every aspect of the health field. So when we address the cosmology of Beauty, we are observing all its aspects, influences and relationships. The patterns of True Beauty are everywhere, once we start noticing. Our deeply industrialized human community has come to trivialize and obscure this all-pervasive aesthetic force .

The Way of Beauty is this: To consciously practice the pursuit and cultivation of Beauty beyond surfaces and appearances, to recognize and honor its presence as well as actively engage in Beauty’s creation, preservation and return in prominence in our global culture. Indeed, practicing Beauty as presented here is to be in synchronicity with the healing of our planet and the physical and spiritual evolution of our universe and its inhabitants. To this end I have outlined practices (an overused term these days in certain circles), things one can do to be in and of True Beauty.

“Again, why? Why is be-yoo-tee the big thing? Wouldn’t it make more sense to help out the planet if we just stop making wars?” Lou has re-entered my space and in his usual impatient way, gotten to his version of the nitty-gritty. He exaggerates the word “beauty” and is making silly faces at me. I stick my tongue out at him, playfully, and ask him how he proposes to stop all the wars that seem to spring up like toxic mushrooms all over the globe. He has no answer, and admits to his hyperbole.

I respond, “I don’t know either, Lou, that restoring True Beauty to a more prominent place in human consciousness will quell our propensity to go to war. But I do know that understanding True Beauty will help at least! Anyway, be patient, please. See what you think when I’ve made the rest of my case.” He snorts and leaves the room; I turn back to my keyboard.

Timeliness is a factor here. The concept of Beauty’s essential centrality and importance is not new. Previous civilizations’ coda have revolved around Beauty. It needs, however to be remembered and reinstated into our cultural mores, now. For what is new is the current urgency for this reinstatement. Although the core and universal nature of aesthetics has been promulgated in the past, NOW it is critical to bring Beauty forward again, into global consciousness, as an integral guiding principal with its power to unite and heal. We have only to look around our crumbling institutions and old patterns to see that this is so.

” …from the soul viewpoint beauty is a necessary part of ordinary life.” ~Thomas Moore

Tag: Thomas Moore

Cultivating Awe

A Manifesto for True Beauty