Actually, Beauty IS in the Eye of the Beholder

Reflection #68: It turns out, there are two types of beauty

I've always been staunchly in the camp that beauty is objective. Humans tend to find some things far more beautiful than others. And, from one perspective, it is true that beauty is objective. Consequently, I've never (prior to now) found any truth in the statement, "beauty is in the eye of the beholder."

However, like so many things in recent years, becoming more mindful and meditative has caused my mind to have numerous insights that have altered long held beliefs. Suddenly, a few days ago, I was struck by a deeper understanding of subjectivity.

And, like the drawing of the optical illusion that flips between the young beautiful woman and the old hag, my perception flipped and I could see beauty from the other perspective. I discovered a different way to look at the world and, suddenly it made sense: from this other perspective, beauty is in the eye of the beholder! (Though for those wishing to sell their art, I recommend pursuing a measure of objective beauty in your works, as objective beauty will appeal to more people).

Let me (attempt) to explain. Let's consider light first, and then we’ll come back to beauty.

In the objective world, the world we can measure, we know a lot of things about light. We can know the frequency of a given beam of light, we know that it is made up of particles called photons, we know that it always travels at a given speed, and we know that no matter can travel through space-time faster than light (though space-time itself can expand faster than light).

In other words, we know that the particular part of the electromagnetic spectrum that we call “light” has all of these objective properties.

However, if consciousness didn't exist, if there was no life, if there were no humans – nothing would experience "light." Who would perceive the light? Who would marvel at its brightness and clarity? Who would find the sacred in the sunset?

What I’m saying is that there would be photons without humans, but without humans, there is no such thing as light.

We could nitpick here since quantum light waves appear to collapse into photons only when observed, which would mean even photons wouldn’t exist without consciousness. But this nitpick doesn’t change my overall point.

“Light” is the interaction of a physical phenomenon in the objective universe with the subjective phenomenon of consciousness.

And so it is with beauty!

What can we say about an object of art? Or music? Or the same sunset we just mentioned?

These things are all phenomena with objective properties. It takes a conscious mind to make them beautiful.

This doesn’t mean the observed object or person will become beautiful to everyone, but you can transform anything you observe into something beautiful and sacred in your subjective experience, which is a real part of the universe. Your subjective experience is all you have and it will determine the quality of your life. It’s kind of like the old Zen saying: Zen isn’t thinking about God while washing dishes, Zen is making washing dishes into an act of worship.

That power is a sacred gift to you: It is within your power to beautify everything you gaze upon! Beautify your gaze, and suddenly the entire world becomes a delightful playground!

This is the ocean that mystics swim in, but these flowing waters are available to all of us. Open up thine eyes, and cast your consciousness forth, for you, when in the flow, are the one creating the light and beauty in everything upon which your gaze lands. And the key to unlocking this beautifying gaze is to find, uncover or, in reality, return home to your true nature.

“The earth is full of thresholds where beauty awaits the wonder of our gaze.”

— John O'Donohue, Divine Beauty: The Invisible Embrace

“Light Within” by Christopher Remmers - Image Credit

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Everything written in this post (and all my posts) is written 100% by me, Clintavo, a flesh and blood human seeking to grow my soul and come home my truest self; for that is the essence of creativity. I do not use AI to assist me with writing — that would deny me the very growth of my world through writing that I seek

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