Dear All,
Here am I lounging on the sofa reading a book that was given as a birthday present by my grandson. He thought I would like as it is about philosophy and walking. It’s a lovely book, all about the reflective delight in simply taking it slowly and observing the world in all it’s variety and wonder. This is the way to appreciate the beauty of life. As Goethe insists we must keep the feeling for beauty alive.
My father was a great walker as was my wife’s father, not quite in the same league as his best friend, John Hillaby, who took time out from being a science correspondent to make long distance walks and then write about his experiences. Like all great travel writers his concern was not about making it to the end of the journey but what was observed on the way.
As W H Davis writes in his poem Leisure: What is life if dull of care we have no time to stand and stare. Yes we need the exercise. Our bodies need that as do our souls.
And speaking of exercise for the soul, a new course of Stoic Philosophy As a Way of Life will be starting in a few weeks time. The theme appropriately enough is Stoic Beauty. Here are the details: https://www.schoolofphilosophy.org/courses/horizons-stoic-philosophy
Best wishes, William
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KEEP THE FEELING FOR BEAUTY ALIVE
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In these emails we have already seen how in considering the nature of love and allowing that consideration to be explored in the practice of living, there comes automatically a deeper appreciation of life’s fullness and an ability to respond more creatively to what comes our way.
And why do we feel it necessary to consciously undertake something like this? Why doesn’t it all come readily to hand? The great German poet, Goethe, was certain as to the reason.
Man surrenders so easily to the commonplace, his mind and his senses are so easily blunted, shut so quickly to supreme beauty that we must do all that we can to keep the feeling for it alive. No one can do without beauty entirely; it is only because people have never learned to enjoy what is really good that they delight in what is flat and futile so long as it is new.
Our task must be to find delight in something beyond the commonplace, allow beauty in some form to touch us, for only in this way may we be granted insight into the true nature of love.
By attempting to penetrate the surface of human experience and by exploring the principles that live within our own hearts, we may learn to listen to our own inner knowledge. That knowledge may of itself possess its own beauty.
Existing within us are common features which we all recognise, if but dimly, and even though these features are often ignored they periodically burst through and find their expression. Rather than waiting for events to force an awareness of them upon us, they need to be attended to and understood, in the confidence that, with greater understanding, there follows a more creative approach to life, greater understanding and fullness.
In addition we will be examining the possibility, in experience, that merely the attempt at connecting with these principles is of itself wholly creative and regenerative, and of these principles none is more immediately transformative than the spirit of love.
PRACTICE:
Keep the feeling for beauty alive. Seek it out in any way that suits your nature. Consciously recognise it, whether it be in the form of words or music, art or architecture, the forms of nature. Don’t try to seize it. Simply rest in its presence, even if it is merely momentary.
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