Guiding Thought
How do we distinguish fundamental beauty from fleeting, or superficial, beauty? What is the nature of illusion? What is the nature of dis-illusion? How do we get through illusion to Truth?
Reflection / Contemplation
Urgency and Ease: two states that have occupied my attention these last couple of days. Well, they have been with me all along perhaps and pop up now and again (along with all of my other contradictions), with mixed frequency and intensity. Here they are in relation to Truth and Beauty.
Folks who like to play the Truth game are pretty certain that theirs is the one and only game in town. Politicians and religious leaders are obvious players as are those in their camps of being “Right”, as in my “Right” is more right than your “Right”. Plug in whatever topic you want. There is no shortage of opinions or expressions thereof. I have no shortage of opinions myself. I am also very clear that our incarnate reality is more complex and nuanced than the black and white pronouncements of what Truth is.
The term “Both/And” was introduced into our lexicon when I was in graduate school and became a substrate for much of the material we were exploring. The gist of Both/And allowed for two truths or positions of being right to co-exist. That is a wallop of gray, now isn’t it? I was much younger then, and now have some decades behind me with direct experiences with black, white, and gray. Both/And are occupying more of me these days, although it can be a hard concept to live out and explain these days given the political climate of our times.
And then there was the term “Allurement”. What a Beautiful word that was presented in a course on Evolutionary Cosmology by the physicist Brian Swimme (he is worth checking out in my books, as he is on the thinking big committee). As best I can recall, the term described as having all the right conditions for something big and beautiful to occur (like our Earth) – a mix of the right ingredients and being at the right place at the right time. Too much too soon and you implode, or too little too late, and you fizzle out. We just have to stay aware enough to know when to leap, otherwise the opportunity is lost.
I can’t help but apply this concept of allurement to my seemingly contradictory states of urgency and ease, the Both/And. Well, you get me, of course, but you want the right kind of me to show up and express the best of me that I am able to do, and not have me implode or fizzle. This is the bigger fundamental Truth of Beauty: Beauty, True Beauty can handle the contradictions.
Guest Contributor Lita Artis
Journey of Beauty is now available as a free book.
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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)
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