Beauty - Need to Re-Discover It?

Beauty & Fashion by STEPHEN RUSSELL-LACY

The spirit of our times seems to no longer value beauty. Prince Charles was talking to the Royal Institute of British Architects at the occasion of their 150th anniversary about the proposed extension of the National Gallery.

“What is proposed is like a monstrous carbuncle on the face of a much loved and elegant friend.” (Prince of Wales)

He had seen much British architecture as sterile and plain ugly. Is this still true? And do we need to re-discover beauty around us? Defining beauty

When we see something beautiful its beauty is subjectively felt. Yet, the concept of beauty and ugliness is elusive and difficult to put into words and define. Perhaps this is because of individual differences in our appreciation of it. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. What one person finds beautiful, another merely sentimental. One, attractive, another repulsive.

Beauty has been said to be something to do with appreciating harmony, balance, rhythm. It captures our attention, satisfying and raising the mind.

It is not the objects depicted by art that defines whether something is beautiful or ugly. Instead it is how the object is dealt with that makes it possibly inspirational. Spiritual philosopher Emanuel Swedenborg suggests that what arouses our feeling that a human face is beautiful is not the face itself, but the affection shining from it. It is the spiritual within the natural that stirs our affections, not the natural on its own.

“The beauty of a woman is not in a facial mode but the true beauty in a woman is reflected in her soul. It is the caring that she lovingly gives; the passion that she shows. The beauty of a woman grows with the passing years.” (Audrey Hepburn) Beauty can also occur even in suffering. “Even in some of the most painful moments I’ve witnessed as a doctor, I find a sense of beauty... That our brains are wired to register another person’s pain, to want to be

Scruton suggests that living without this deeper perception is like living in a spiritual desert. He argues that the artists of the past were aware that life was full of chaos and suffering. But they had a remedy for this and the remedy was beauty. He reckons that the beautiful work of art brings consolation in sorrow and affirmation in joy. It shows human life to be worth-while. Beauty - A reminder of transcendent reality

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. But is beauty only a subjective thing? Is there also an objective reality to it?

Perhaps we need to re-visit the wisdom of the ancients. According to Plato, beauty, like justice, and goodness, is an eternally existing entity. He said it eternally exists, regardless of changing social conceptions and circumstances. This would mean that beauty has existed even when there was no one around to notice it.

It takes millions of years for light to travel the vast distance to reach our telescopes. So we now see the beauty of the stars as they were before human beings existed.

I would say beauty is something, that at its heart, has the reality of innocence - the innocence of absolute Love Itself.

“Beauty is truth, truth beauty, that is all Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.” (John Keats, Ode on a Grecian Urn) Beauty-Need to Re-Discover It? continued from pg 33

As a clinical psychologist, Stephen Russell-Lacy has specialised in cognitive-behavioural psychotherapy, working for many years with adults suffering distress and disturbance.

He edits Spiritual Questions a free eZine that explores links between spiritual philosophy and the comments and questions of spiritual seekers. You can share your views and find out more about making sense of life.

His eBook Heart, Head and Hands draws links between the psycho-spiritual teachings of the eighteenth century spiritual philosopher Emanuel Swedenborg and current ideas in therapy and psychology.