On Beauty, Truth, Goodness, & the Elevation of Consciousness

[TheAwakenedHeart]

"As the consciousness of human beings developed, flowers were most likely the first thing they came to value that had no utilitarian purpose for them, that is to say, was not linked in some way to survival. Jesus tells us to contemplate the flowers and learn from them how to live. The Buddha is said to have given a ‘silent sermon’ once during which he held up a flower and gazed at it. Seeing beauty in a flower could awaken humans, however briefly. The first recognition of beauty is one of the most significant events in the evolution of human consciousness. So when you are alert and contemplate a flower or crystal without naming it mentally, it becomes a window for you into the formless. There is an inner opening, however slight, into the realm of spirit." -Eckhart Tolle

"The beautiful, the true, and the good — these are the fundamental values that have been recognized since antiquity as the intrinsic qualities from which all values are essentially derived. Just as a million shades of color can be mixed from three primaries, so too can a million shades of quality be traced back to these primary values.

The first writer to associate the beautiful, the true, and the good together, and to exalt these three as primary was the famous Greek philosopher Plato. And since Plato in the 4th century B.C., this triad of terms has continued to impress itself upon the minds of thinkers down through the centuries. This is not to say that all the proponents of beauty, truth, and goodness have been followers of Plato; some have discovered the significance of this triad through decidedly non-philosophical methods. But whether they are arrived at through intuitive inspiration or rational deduction, these three terms keep showing up in the writing of a wide variety of notable luminaries, including thinkers as diverse as Immanuel Kant, Sigmund Freud, Albert Einstein and Mohandas Gandhi.

In addition to philosophers, scientists, and politicians, many mystics and spiritual teachers have also championed the idea of these three essential “windows on the divine.” This list includes Rudolph Steiner, Sri Aurobindo, Thich Nhat Hanh, and even Osho Rajneesh. For example, Sri Aurobindo describes what he calls “three dynamic images” through which one makes contact with “supreme Reality.” These are:

1. The way of the intellect, or of knowledge — the way of truth;
2. The way of the heart, or of emotion — the way of beauty; and
3. The way of the will, or of action — the way of goodness.

Aurobindo comments further that “these three ways, combined and followed concurrently, have a most powerful effect.”

...

There have certainly been many attempts by philosophers to provide concise definitions of these concepts. Thomas Aquinas defined beauty as: “unity, proportion, and clarity.” Whitehead defined truth as: “the conformation of appearance to reality.” And Kant defined goodness by reference to the “categorical imperative,” which says: “Act according to those maxims that you could will to be universal law.

But in order for beauty, truth, and goodness to have this consciousness raising effect, these values have to be practiced and lived out. Indeed, the practice of the primary values actually serves to energize our consciousness by providing input and throughput for its systemic metabolism. Like electricity, values are not static or absolute, values are “alive, free, thrilling, and always moving.” And recognizing the energy-like quality of values shows us how their practice is best approached as a kind of circuit by which their experience is taken in and given out.

We metabolize truth by the practice of learning and teaching, we metabolize beauty through appreciation and expression, and we can fully experience the spiritual nutrition of goodness through the practices of service and stillness.

The practice of truth involves the discernment of that which is most real in what we experience. Truth is like a light that illuminates the potential for progress, giving us the power to see how things really are, and thereby to improve any situation by making contact with actual conditions. The practice of beauty involves feeling the pleasure and delicious satisfaction that results when our emotions become entrained to the vibrations of universal unity found in nature and in certain forms of human art. Beauty provides a fleeting glimpse of relative actual perfection. According to Whitehead, “beauty is the final contentment of the Eros of the universe.”

And like the practices of truth and beauty, the practice of goodness can also be understood through the giving and receiving rhythm of service nurtured by stillness. Service is a way of communicating goodness to another person. But service doesn't have to be about volunteering at the soup kitchen; the spiritual practice of service also includes all the ways that we can teach truth and express beauty. And we can receive goodness directly from its source through the spiritual experiences provided by contemplation, meditation, prayer, and worship; practices which might be collectively characterized as forms of stillness.

In my experience, the ideals of beauty, truth, and goodness represent philosophy's finest hour — these are the concepts by which philosophy makes contact with the spiritual and helps to define the way forward from a middle ground in between science and religion. The concept of the primary values of beauty, truth, and goodness is a conceptual cathedral. And these concepts do produce spiritual experience in the way that they name and describe the “eternal forms” by which the “gentle persuasion” of evolution enacts the universe's essential motion of consciousness seeking its source."

(http://www.integralworld.net/mcintosh4.html)

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Do you agree or disagree with the general idea that beauty, truth, and goodness have consciousness raising effects?

[Frumens]

My first thought was that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. But yeah, why not? Everyone has their own spiritual strong points. For some people it's basking in nature's beauty, and for other people it's analytically deconstructing reality.

[Deathquota]

Verum Bonum Pulchrum.

I find the phrase an abomination, but for personal reasons. Sorry if I come off as hostile, but I was once made servile by such flowery language, and some people who carry this exact phrase. I love mankind, but I hate the One who mocks me. If you really want to know, it is because of altruistic behavior encouraged by the Christian paradigm. If you carefully observe how the intellectual and emotional work together in your life, and then act based upon this, then you have likely satisfied this wise saying geniunely in my perspective. It is vital to live by one's philosophy if you want it to amount to anything.

Me personally? My grand moments were deconstructing myself and being born anew.

Everyone has their own spiritual strong points. For some people it's basking in nature's beauty, and for other people it's analytically deconstructing reality.

You would do best to heed this advice. I am an idealist, maybe you are. In fact, I am a panpsychic idealist. However, I am also a being of only one Virtue. I intend to live my life in accordance with my virtue. I still enjoy romanticizing with the vulgar. My invitation to the spiritual came through Kundalini, almost a year ago. I have had time to contemplate what is a "higher consciousness", and what constitutes a "higher" spiritual path. Higher consciousness right now is when I am in tune with myself. This is manifested through appreciating truth and beauty. But goodness is my dilemma, mainly because of how it's essence emerges in a problematic way in my life. I alone have received the personal responsibility of ordering the Self, and that is where I have gone wrong in the past.

[Frumens]

I'm a nondualist, which incorporates idealism and then dissolves it into pure consciousness. If I were to speak from the Advaita perspective, I would say that there is no "higher" consciousness, because the self is changeless. But we don't have to limit ourselves to that dialectic.

The analytical method is in no way superior or inferior to the heart method. I've been working on opening up my heart more over the past few months.

[RoseRed]

I think that depending on the individual's make-up that one may be superior to the other in terms of what comes more naturally to the practitioner.

[Frumens]

I agree, but I also think that people can discover new aptitudes within themselves as they grow.