A quick note from Amber. Thank all of you who complimented our composite profile photo. It's true that Heather’s adorable, she's as cute as a spotted pony. But, as Michael says, it's wise to remember that the beauty you see lies not in the things you observe, but in you. So, our compliments to those who complimented...
On that topic, here’s a passage from one of Michael's books:
Lemia takes John's hand; they stand and look to the lake and mountains. "This scene,” Lemia asks, “it possesses great beauty; is this not true?"
"Yes, yes of course," John responds.
"Then know this," Lemia says, "the scene you are observing, it is not real in the greater sense of the word, it is only that which your mind perceives and conceptualizes as physical reality. But the beauty, John—the beauty is very, very real—it is a true expression of the Infinite. Not in nature but in you exists all the beauty you behold. The beauty upon which you look in wonder and awe is as a doorway, and through this doorway of wonder you may sense the Infinite of which I speak, the vast perfection in which we all exist. Each person has keys to pass the doorway to the virtues of greater awareness and expression of the Real; and each has his own. Your deep love and awe of beauty is one of your keys, John. Do you understand? Do you sense this? In the end, beauty and virtue are one—the unity of the part with the whole.”
John is staring, not at the lake and the mountains, but at Mastress Lemia. And from the look on his face, were I asked I would say that yes, he does understand. Beauty, Emerson says, is but infinity gazing upon its own reflection. If so, then beauty is never so much in the eye of the beholder as in his or her mind—the deeper the mind, the more profound the beauty. Perhaps this is why the shallow see only the most superficial of nature's beauty, and the wise see it in all things, and equate beauty with truth and eternity. Beauty is not mere harmony and proportion, as Plato and Aristotle thought, but the living consciousness, the unseen essence in things.
That passage is from ‘In the Valley of Supreme Masters - Book Two - A Chronicle of Power,’ Chapter 15 (Wisdom Masters Press, ASIN B00Z23ZROY).
Hume wrote: "Beauty is no quality in things themselves: It exists merely in the mind which contemplates them; and each mind perceives a different beauty." — David Hume, Essay 23: Of The Standard of Taste (1748). And that’s probably the reason that: "Gratior ac pulchro veniens in corpore virtus" (Even virtue is fairer when it appears in a beautiful person). — Virgil, Æneid V. 344 (29-19 BC.)
A wonderful evening to all, Amber
Comments