MAKE BEAUTY THE PATH HOME!

All of us are attracted to beauty- be it beautiful things, people or places!  And today I want to show you how to make beauty one of the easiest, simplest and most direct paths back ‘home’ to God or Divine Self!  

Most of us are aware that there is One God. And as all aspects flow from this One source, there is of course, only One Divine beauty! And whenever we experience, feel, touch, see anything that we consider beautiful, we are actually in touch with this One… beauty …indeed with divinity itself! Therefore “all things bright and beautiful”- be it art, jewels, a flower, a beautiful face, a quality - are tools helping us touch the Divine in tangible ways in the here and now! This is why, through existence, mankind has been drawn to beauty- because it is one of the easiest, simplest, and most natural and direct ways to touch our divine presence!    You do not need intellect, you do not need understanding, you do not need discipline, you do not need prayer – indeed other than the known paths of Gyan, Bhakti, kriya, and karma… beauty can be a path back home… because moment to moment, as you touch sense, feel, view the One beauty you are in direct communion with the divine! 

Think what happens to you when you come across a thing of beauty?  Actually do this - don’t read it intellectually- conjure something beautiful (stunningly so or simply so) in front of you and observe what happens! You enter a speechless space? Feel a sense of wordless wonder? And in this ‘space’ that the mind cannot   describe or label … it rests momentarily; and even as the mind and thus ‘ego’  moves out of the way …there is spontaneous meditation; for without the barrier of the mind, without the veils of your personal identity … you are wide open to All That Is!  Yes you feel free and expansive…and peace…and oneness…and love…and empty and full…   and employ all these labels in order to describe the description-less! You try all your ‘words’ because you are actually touching what lies beyond language - the splendid magnificence of Divinity Itself! Indeed this is why beauty beckons- because through it, unknown to you- happens the paradox of tangibly touching the intangible divine presence within and around! This is why your heart fills with that Ah! Because, as long as you are in touch with the One beauty, abstract ‘God or That’ … becomes the tangible ‘Ah this’!

And yet, there are times when we see things of beauty but do not touch the same sacred space because our feelings of wanting to own it, possess it, make it ours - comes in the way! These states arise in the mind, and as the mind and ego pops back so do the plethora of feelings that separate us from the One divine beauty! Feelings of lack in it not being ours! Thoughts of condemnation at why the other has it, does he deserve it?  Calculations of whether it is affordable or worth the cost…these are all subconscious veils that do not allow us to enter the Divine zone! And the object of beauty remains just that- another object to annex! Indeed you remain subject and object, rather than merge as the one the beautiful divine presence that permeates all!

It is interesting to observe, that this is why we more easily, enter the Divine zone through ‘Nature’ and its beautiful landscapes! Because when we admire a beautiful mountain or river or sky… there are no latent desires of wanting to own it, possess it, make it ‘mine’!  There is no jealousy against Mother Earth!   There is no sub conscious judgment against admiring luxury…which often happens in persons who consider matter less than spirit! And yet, if we are viewing the very same landscape as apiece of property that we wish to acquire, the divine zone is lost…because the mind and its calculations come back in! Indeed you may find the strange occurrence of finding very other land beautiful- other than the one you are wanting to annex- because in them you do not shift from the expanded self and its sacred zone into the limited ego mind! Of course divinity need not be touched only through nature, it can be through any object you find beautiful, when you are free from the desire to own, evaluate and possess!  It very often happens in museums temples and other such places - where ownership is not considered- where there is no ‘other’ that you feel has more than you - where the mind and its concerns are missing… and so you enter the divine zone more easily!

Indeed this conscious awareness of the One beauty helps you move away from needing to posses every beautiful object! You increasingly become aware that the many objects that you desire,  covet and perhaps want to possess (whether it is art on someone's wall or a jewel on someone’s neck or that beautiful garden you drive by) are only a window each, a tool merely, leading to the One Beauty- to the divinity within and all around!  This conscious awareness of why beautiful objects beckon – the understanding that it not really about the objects of beauty but where they take you- frees you from wanting to own or possess every beautiful thing! You can then enjoy the thing of beauty on another or in another’s home ...and enter the same zone within! You can then touch the divine presence through any thing! The desire to own or posses starts to loosen its hold on you!   In analogy ...its like walking past a mirror and seeing your reflection... you do not try and cut it out, paste it, own & possess it because you know it is your own beauty and you can reflect it wherever you go, in whichever mirror you choose, in whatever dress, in whatever manner!

This does not mean that you cannot enjoy beautiful things - indeed free from the desire to evaluate, own, possess all and knowing that each thing of beauty leads you to the Divine-  you will enjoy them all the more! In this will you be able to admire revel and appreciate it in nature, in self, or on the neck or wall of another! You will be able to make love to every facet of beauty and as it winks back in response, you will feel the description-less…wordless ‘That’ becoming ‘This’… rise within you!

At a deeper level, of course there is nothing that is ‘not beautiful’ when viewed through the larger lens! Divinity is immanent everywhere in everything –no matter what labels you may temporarily ascribe to something due to a limited vision! And as you begin to live in direct communion with Self; as you extend from self to Self; as your vision expands- you view all through this divine lens! You live in a field of appreciation! You see the pristine beauty of the soul in whom the world may call ‘ugly’! You see the strength of a soul who chooses such an experience for the Whole! In anger and fear and other seemingly depleting emotions and experiences you see only the Divine Love that propels forth such a cosmic play!  You see everything as a prop for this beautiful experience and expression of the One Divine Beauty…Divine Self!

As we go even deeper we move into state of being without labels! When everything just is: what the ancient seers called ‘neti neti’ –actually tried to describe the One formless description-less Beauty! (This is why a beautiful painting or poetry cannot be explained nor beautiful scenery really described!) Be aware how words fail or indeed limit us – for even as we use the word ‘description less’ –it becomes a description! Even as we use the word formless we ascribe it the form of formlessness!  Descriptions (adjectives) are not what they try to define but are only a pointer! For example we can describe chocolate as sweet and rich but chocolate is beyond those words! Yet in order to address the mind through any writing or speak- we need must use words- because the mind cannot understand that which is beyond words! Thus we use words to take us beyond words; we use the mind to take us beyond itself- but beauty does that spontaneously - it propels us into ‘neti neti’! Into what the west refers to as ‘Hallowed be Thy Name’! Into ‘Glory Glory Hallelujah’- attempts of mankind to describe the much discussed and conceptualized- Source! Yet the poets knew this Source beyond all abstract concepts- and thus their words can best sum up Source: “Beauty is truth and truth is Beauty.”

So come beloved readers appreciate everything around you… enjoy the One Beauty… and be in a constant state of seeing “God’! Allow everything to become a moment to moment homage to its immanent divine presence! Allow all that makes up your day to day world to be  a shrine, a grove, a thing of worship, an altar of beauty so that moment to moment you are in direct communion with the Divine or God …that you so seek through abstract ‘out there’ concepts!  Come beloveds, allow beauty to become the simple and most natural path back home! Allow it to take you deeper and deeper unto Source Itself!