Beauty & the Human Spirit
Helen Keller once said ‘The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched, they must be felt with the heart.’
At times throughout our lives we face an emptiness that is crying out for a mystical experience. The experience may beg for questions such as:
- In what situations can a mystical experience be found in beauty?
- Is beauty really in the eye of the beholder or is it a universal phenomenon?
- How can beauty alert us to ways in which we need to be transformed?
- Can beauty inflame our souls to a higher spiritual experience?
- When can beauty allure us to new spiritual paths?
- In what way can a strong spiritual life emerge from experience of beauty?
- In what ways can beauty emerge from living in the sacred?
- Under what circumstances can the human spirit create beauty from the brokenness of life?
- Can beauty have its origins in spiritual or emotional darkness and melancholy?
- How can beauty come out of adversity & distress?
- What is the relationship between physical beauty and spiritual beauty?
- What is the connection between inner and outer beauty?
- What makes a person beautiful?
- What are the consequences of a distorted sense of beauty?
- In what ways can beauty a gift or a curse?
- How does creating a space of grace and order contribute to beauty?
- How do music, dance and art contribute to or distract from beauty?
- When is movement and speech beautiful?
- Is beauty an expression of our nature?
- Can beauty help us feel more connected with all creation?
- How can beauty help us appreciate the gifts in others?
- How can the beauty of nature become a life lesson?
- What is beauty?
- What does beauty mean to you?
- What is the source of beauty?
- What is the role of beauty in your life?
- Where do you find beauty?
- How do you recognize beauty?
- Is beauty innate or acquired?
“Everything
has beauty, but not everyone sees it.”
-Confucius
“True
beauty lies in purity of the heart.”
-M.
Gandhi
“Open your eyes and you will see the beauty of the
Universe. Open your mind and you will understand the Universe. Open your heart
and the Universe is yours.”
- Buddha
“Everything in the universe is a
pitcher brimming with wisdom and beauty.”
-Rumi
“Since
love grows within you, so beauty grows. For love is the beauty of the soul.”
-Saint
Augustine
“The
body without spirit is not capable of real accomplishment. Although it may be
in the utmost condition of beauty and excellence, it is, nevertheless, in need
of the spirit. The chimney of the lamp, no matter how polished and perfect it
be, is in need of the light. Without the light, the lamp or candle is not
illuminating. Without the spirit, the body is not productive.”
-Abdu’l-Baha
“Never
lose an opportunity of seeing anything beautiful, for beauty is God's
handwriting.”
-Ralph
Waldo Emerson
“Every
cell in your body is seeking fulfillment through joy, beauty, love &
appreciation.”
-Deepak
Chopra
“O
Thou Whose face is the object of my adoration, Whose beauty is my sanctuary,
Whose habitation is my goal, Whose praise is my hope, Whose providence is my
companion, Whose love is the cause of my being, Whose mention is my solace,
Whose nearness is my desire, Whose presence is my dearest wish and highest
aspiration.”
-Baha’u’llah
“When
you reach the heart of life you shall find beauty in all things, even in the
eyes that are blind to beauty.
-K.
Gibran
“It
is time for parents to teach young people early on that in diversity there is
beauty and there is strength.”
-Maya
Angelou
“Something
very beautiful happens to people when their world has fallen apart: a humility,
a nobility, a higher intelligence emerges at just the point when our knees hit
the floor.”
-Marianne
Williamson
“Men
who suffer not, attain no perfection. The plant most pruned by the gardeners is
that one which, when the summer comes, will have the most beautiful blossoms
and the most abundant fruit.”
―
Abdu'l-Bahá
“The
spirit in man has been created in accordance with the image of beauty, so that
whenever it either hears or sees anything beautiful, it may have a propensity
towards it, and seek for communion with it.”
-Muhammad
Al-Ghazali
“Let the beauty we love be what we do.
There are hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the ground.”
-Rumi
Peace
is of the heart, not of the mind. To
know peace you have to find out what beauty is.
The way you talk, the words you use, the gestures you make, these things
matter very much, for through them you will discover the refinement of your own
heart. Beauty cannot be defined, it
cannot be explained in words. It can be
understood only when the mind is very quiet.”
-Krishnamurti
“The
only lasting beauty is the beauty of the heart.”
-Rumi
“When man in all conditions is pure and immaculate,
he will become the center of the reflection of the manifest Light. In all his
actions and conduct there must first be purity, then beauty and independence.
The channel must be cleansed before it is filled with sweet water. The pure eye
comprehendeth the sight and the meeting of God; the pure nostril inhaleth the
perfumes of the rose-garden of bounty; the pure heart becometh the mirror of
the beauty of truth.”
-Abdu’l-Baha
“Where shall you seek beauty, and how
shall you find her unless she herself be your way and your guide?
And how shall you speak of her except she
be the weaver of your speech?
The aggrieved and the injured say,
"Beauty is kind and gentle.
Like a young mother half-shy of her own
glory she walks among us."
And the passionate say, "Nay, beauty
is a thing of might and dread.
Like the tempest she shakes the earth
beneath us and the sky above us."
The tired and the weary say, "Beauty
is of soft whisperings. She speaks in our spirit.
Her voice yields to our silences like a
faint light that quivers in fear of the shadow."
But the restless say, "We have heard
her shouting among the mountains,
And with her cries came the sound of
hoofs, and the beating of wings and the roaring of lions."
At night the watchmen of the city say,
"Beauty shall rise with the dawn from the east."
And at noontide the toilers and the
wayfarers say,
"We have seen her leaning over the
earth from the windows of the sunset."
In winter say the snow-bound, "She
shall come with the spring leaping upon the hills."
And in the summer heat the reapers say,
"We have seen her dancing with the
autumn leaves,
and we saw a drift of snow in her
hair."
All these things have you said of beauty,
Yet in truth you spoke not of her but of
needs unsatisfied,
And beauty is not a need but an ecstasy.
It is not a mouth thirsting nor an empty
hand stretched forth,
But rather a heart enflamed and a soul
enchanted.
It is not the image you would see nor the
song you would hear,
But rather an image you see though you
close your eyes and a song you hear though you shut your ears.
It is not the sap within the furrowed
bark, nor a wing attached to a claw,
But rather a garden for ever in bloom and
a flock of angels for ever in flight.
People of Orphalese, beauty is life when
life unveils her holy face.
But you are life and you are the veil.
Beauty is eternity gazing at itself in a
mirror.
But you are eternity and you are the
mirror.”
-K.
Gibran
“Never
downplay your intelligence. Dumb is not
cute. Integrity, dignity, and wisdom are the true indicators of beauty.”
-Marianne
Williamson
“Without transcendence, life has no beauty”
-Deepak
Chopra
“Mortal
charm shall fade away, roses shall give way to thorns, and beauty and youth
shall live their day and be no more. But that which eternally endureth is the
Beauty of the True One, for its splendour perisheth not and its glory lasteth
for ever; its charm is all-powerful and its attraction infinite.”
-Baha’u’llah
“The most beautiful thing we can
experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science.”
-Albert
Einstein
“The flower that blooms in adversity is the rarest
and most beautiful of all.”
-Mulan
“May you walk in beauty.”
-Navaho
blessing
“A human being is a part of the whole
called by us universe, a part limited in time and space. He experiences
himself, his thoughts and feeling as something separated from the rest, a kind
of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for
us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons
nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening
our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of
nature in its beauty.”
-Albert
Einstein
“O SON OF
EARTH! Wouldst thou have Me, seek none other than Me; and wouldst thou gaze
upon My beauty, close thine eyes to the world and all that is therein; for My
will and the will of another than Me, even as fire and water, cannot dwell
together in one heart.”
-The
Hidden Words
“Beauty
is the gift from God.”
-Aristotle
“You
are altogether beautiful, my love; there is no flaw in you.”
-Song
of Solomon
“Knowledge
is light, life, felicity, perfection, beauty and the means of approaching the
Threshold of Unity. It is the honor and glory of the world of humanity, and the
greatest bounty of God.”
-Abdu'l-Bahá
“We
delight in the beauty of the butterfly, but rarely admit the changes it has
gone through to achieve that beauty.”
-Maya
Angelou
“Beauty's
voice speaks gently: it creeps only into the most awakened souls.”
-Nietzsche
