Art & Beauty

Art is the interpretation, i.e., simplification to understandable terms, and expression of reality – of its physical, intellectual, emotional, and spiritual relationships. Art, in its most profound form, is an attempt to understand and express the God reality.

A work of art is the relationship of things (objects) and events that help us better perceive and understand our reality – it brings us closer to our true nature and the greater whole – it is a unifying factor between our “separateness” and our oneness.

The finest work of art is of life and living, i.e., the combination of all experience to express the unity of God. The ultimate work of art is, therefore, God.

All experience is beautiful in that it expresses the God-reality. The beauty we perceive through our experience, i.e., living, is only proportional to our understanding of the relationship of that experience to the greater whole.

All relationships are artistic or esthetic experiences through our ability to “see” their relationship to the God reality. We experience and define these relationships as art to the degree of our accumulated experience and our understanding of that experience – our relationship in that experience, other relationships, and to the greater whole as best we can perceive and comprehend it.

The beauty of most relationships (if not all) that we perceive is still incomprehensible to our developing but limited esthetic sensibility. To understand and express relationships, such as in art and life, we necessarily develop our own personal language, i.e., method of communication, style, point of view. This helps us observe, study, and understand our reality and our place and purpose in it in our own terms.

We create, arrange, and translate according to our experience and understanding of the past and future. Many artists may paint the same subject, but one may best perceive, interpret, and translate its inherent relationships in a way that brings us closer to the joy of understanding it – a unity and oneness with it. The “true” artist causes us to feel that the “right” solution, interpretation has been provided in the work; that is, all the parts and their relationships in it seem to fit. This can occur on strictly a subjective, emotional level without an objective analysis of the reason why. The more we feel an object or event closer to the greater whole, the greater the esthetic impact and the more we are inclined to call it art or something of beauty.

The beauty of a part can be enhanced by either harmonizing or contrasting with the whole; that is, in either case there is a story, a sense of purpose – implying something beyond itself. A part alone can not exist – it must relate to something else. A part inevitably implies something else in that it “needs” something else “to be complete” or, at least, approaches completeness. A part calls for completion. A part = apart= separate.

An art object extends its reality beyond its physical presence; indeed, all objects do this – it is, in most cases, that we are blind to the extension, the beauty, and the implications. It is the artist who interprets, simplifies, and expresses reality in a form more recognizable to the observer.

Art objects and/or events have levels of meaning – they can be “read” in depth: the depth being dependent on the communicability of the art and the observer’s esthetic sensibility– capacity to understand.

Art, as life, becomes richer through the continual discovery of its relationships, and more profound when the relationships show the beauty and unity of our own experience of who we are and our relationship with each other and God.

Original Sin

Original Sin is self-centeredness to the degree of our denial of other realities – “truths” separate from us, which equates to our denial of God.

We, indeed, are born in Original Sin in that we have little more than a genetic knowledge of other realities. We evolve, are “set free,” of Original Sin as we mature and become aware of our relationship with other realities and God.

Original Sin can be viewed as fear, fear of losing “me,” fear of losing “my” truth, “my” values, “my” ideas – things I base my identity on; it is the fear of being selfless and, perhaps, the fear of God.

Original Sin and the soul probably evolved at the same time: The soul accepts and seeks God; Original Sin denies a greater being than itself – ultimately, God.

Indeed, the greatest sin is ignorance.

Love & Joy

Love is oneness with life – and joy is its expression.

God is absolute love, which is absolute reality; love becomes manifest in us through this realization. We are aware of love to the degree we are capable of receiving, perceiving, comprehending, and accepting it – to the degree we become the reality around us. Love is reflected in our lives to the degree we can understand the lives and actions of others and in helping them find their own potential and unity with the world and God.

Joy is the expression of love. Joy does not destroy, nor create – joy just is.

Joy is felt in moments of selflessness, and its intensity is a function of that selflessness.

Joy is experiencing, to some degree, the infinity of the moment.

Joy is the feeling of “right” actions and situations. The suppression of joy is ignorance. And supreme joy is oneness in God.

We must extend our parameters of reality as if there were no limits, and find joy in each new world we discover, and share that world so others may grow with us to sooner be in the full realization of God.

Purpose

Ultimate purpose is union in God; and, indeed, everything inexorably follows this purpose.

Actions, decisions, life should be guided by what best serves this purpose to thereby ease the pain of disunity.

Our lives depend on, and are made manifest by other realities – other lives. We need to minister to the health of our environment to achieve its, and our, highest potential. We need to minister to the collective mind of the world with a shared knowledge of its interrelationships and relationship to the greater whole. We should encourage and help each other attain a transcendent awareness of reality, the world, and our place and purpose in it. We should strive to understand other realities so we may journey together in the peace and joy of God.

The Continual Present

 Our abilities to perceive are only equipped for small truths. Our perceptions are limited; therefore, our reality is limited.

We are now at the dawn of consciousness. We are just beginning to be aware of ourselves and our relationship with others, our environment, and the world in which we live.

We are indeed nascent creatures.