Beauty

Beauty

Gurdjieff said that there are three types of food: the physical food we eat, the air we breathe, and impressions, that is, what affects our senses. Of the three, impressions are the most necessary food. We would survive a few days without food, a few minutes without air, but not a few moments without impressions.

The word is interesting. An impression is something impressed, engraved, something that modifies the substance that receives it. We are actually what we feed on. We are forged by impressions.

Ouspensky pointed out that we can choose the impressions that surround us, and that some people make really bad choices in this regard—for example, stopping to look at a car accident and then talking about it until they see another one, or focusing on scandal and injustice. Like all negative emotions, indignation, regardless of the rightness of the cause, ultimately fills us with dangerous psychological toxins. Up to a certain point, we can isolate ourselves from impressions that change us in an unpleasant way and expose ourselves to those that improve us.

Understanding the idea of beauty is difficult. But we can learn, through observation, that there are light impressions and others that are heavy and unpleasant. That the natural world is full of beauty, as is much art. That there are degrees and levels in beauty as well.

My teacher said that beauty produces its likeness in those who pursue it.

We can cultivate our sensitivity toward what we see, the music we listen to.

Sometimes we feel that a neutral, uninteresting, or even depressing environment is a good excuse for not being present. Something beautiful in front of our eyes is, on the contrary, the best reason to escape our many ‘I’s and be interested in the present.

An artist who paints transfers his state to the canvas. When we look at his work, we are stimulated and guided to reach the same state. A conscious artist, if we are open and attentive, makes us conscious for a few moments.

From 'A Question of Presence' by Sergio Antonio

Join the discussion

Image: Violets, Sweet Violets (detail), by John William Godward