Guiding Thought
How do you distinguish fundamental beauty from fleeting, or superficial, beauty? What is the nature of illusion? What is the nature of dis-illusion? How do you get through illusion to Truth?
Reflection / Contemplation
It is in service to Beauty and this writing project that I disclose, yet another, collection I have. It is pens. My best friend from college and I are both in danger when we happen to be in an art or book store. “Do I need another pen? Yes. No. How many pens do I have? Oh this is beautiful. You have to get it.” We banter back and forth and in most cases, yes, we get the pen or pen sets.
I am picky about pens. What I love is the feel of the pen, the line and color of the ink, and yes, the aesthetics and look of the pen itself. Pens are in the forefront of my brain these days, because I am longing to get my hands on a piece of Beauty, this fountain pen that I see in a catalogue. 
With this in mind, I am taken into the world of Ken Wilbur, a contemporary philosopher whose works attend to integral theory and consciousness. I like how he talks about Truth: little “t” and big “T”. Little “t” includes facts, data, science. Big “T” attends to the bigger and not so easily defined realities which are in the realm of philosophers, theologians, metaphysicians, cosmologists, etc.
I can easily exchange the letters to little “b’ and big “B” for today’s guiding thoughts on Beauty. I am given to wonder if, and how much my collection of rocks, mantras, and, pens (and all the others I have as yet to divulge…ugh), are fleeting or fundamental. In the beginning of this project, I stated that I must be exposed to or create Beauty on a daily basis. Does this include pens?
We are incarnational beings, and our senses are a primary conduit for both the witnessing and the expression of Beauty. We have to have little “b” and big “B”, just like we have to have little “t” and big “T”. How can we not?
The rocks, the pens, the “whatever”, I know are fleeting; they will go away, but I do know that they offer a bridge to the big “B” if I allow it. It is infusing meaning into the “explicate” order of things. I’d like to think we get to practice walking both ways on the bridge.
Journey of Beauty is now available as a free book.
You no longer need to wait for the Guiding Thoughts to be posted here daily–you may move at your own pace. This link will take you to the document in Dropbox; you may download it from there.
I accept donations and gifts via paypal: paypal.me/SusanBillmaier Thank you for the energy exchange!
Here is the schedule:
Apr 18 Preliminary day Introduction: Why A Journey of Beauty (02.10.0)
Apr 19 Preliminary day Commitment and Dedication (02.10.00)
Apr 20 – 29 Days 01-10 Round One (02.10.01-10)
Apr 30 – May 9 Days 11-20 Round Two (02.10.11-20)
May 10 – 19 Days 21-30 Round Three (02.10.21-30)
May 20 – 29 Days 31-40 Round Four (02.10.31-40)
May 30 – June 8 Reflection days Gently care, de-fuse, and write one day of reflection on the Journey (02.10.41)
SusanWithPearls 