Beauty and the Divine

 

The Bridge Between the Relative and the Divine

What is it about beauty that makes us pause? The way the light catches the edge of a leaf or the familiar rhythm of the waves crashing against the shore—these moments stir something deep within us, a sense that there’s more to life than meets the eye. Some would call this a glimpse of the Divine. But is this sensation of awe merely a response to beauty, or could it be that what we’re sensing is something more profound—an actual perception of the Divine Reality itself?

This is the delicate dance between two perspectives: the poet’s reverence for beauty as a gateway to the sublime and the mystic’s realization that beauty is not just a door but the room itself. Both experiences are valid, revealing a facet of the human encounter with the sacred. But they are not the same.

Gerard Manley Hopkins, in his poem Pied Beauty, captures that reverent pause, the awe-filled moment when the world’s diversity and imperfection hint at something greater:

Glory be to God for dappled things —

For skies of couple-color as a brinded cow;

For rose-moles all in stipple upon trout that swim;

Fresh-firecoal chestnut-falls; finches’ wings;

Landscape plotted and pieced — fold, fallow, and plough.

Here, Hopkins is awestruck by the “dappled” nature of things, the imperfect yet mesmerizing play of color, form, and texture that saturates life. He celebrates the divine in these “pied” things, seeing them as gateways through which the transcendent peeks out. It’s as if the world is whispering to him, “There’s more here than you can see.” But the poet remains on the threshold, impacted by beauty, yet aware that the fullness of Divine Reality is just beyond his grasp.

The mystic, however, walks through that door.

Impact Versus Perception: Two Ways of Seeing the Divine

What if the beauty that moves us so deeply is not just a signpost but the destination itself? Mystics, like the Sufis, would tell us that the Divine doesn’t just flicker through the cracks of reality—it is reality. When Rumi says, “The form is but the shadow of the essence of reality,” he isn’t suggesting that forms merely hint at the Divine. He says those forms are the Divine, fully manifest if only we could see it.

This brings us to a subtle but significant distinction: when we stand before beauty, does the presence of the sublime move us, or are we perceiving the Divine Essence? Poets like Hopkins are deeply impacted by beauty—they feel the Divine through the patterns of nature and are transported to a place of awe. Mystics, though, claim that their realization allows them to go beyond feeling about the Divine; they see the Divine directly. It’s not an interpretation—it’s a perception of reality in its naked form. In all its complexity and imperfection, the world is the Divine, fully alive in every moment.

This distinction aligns with the Diamond Approach’s insight that beauty is an essential quality of true nature. In this view, beauty is not merely something we admire or feel impacted by—it is an aspect of the very fabric of existence, one of the pure qualities of being. When we encounter beauty, we see something aesthetically pleasing and experience a direct expression of reality’s essence. Beauty reveals the truth of our nature and everything around us.

But how do we truly perceive this essence, this beauty that is more than skin deep? The Diamond Approach* teaches that perception can take many forms, and true perception—what might be called objective perception—goes beyond our ordinary senses. It is not limited to our usual way of seeing, often clouded by subjective judgments, past experiences, or conditioning. Instead, pure perception involves seeing things as they are without the mind’s filters. Clarity of vision allows us to witness the Divine Essence in all things, including ourselves.

Beauty and Perception: The Inner Eye

“Beauty lies in the eye of the beholder.” But what eye are we talking about? The Diamond Approach suggests that to see beauty in its essential form truly, we need more than our physical eyes. Our organs of perception extend beyond the five senses. There is a deeper capacity within us—an inner perception—that allows us to see the subtle qualities of existence, including beauty, presence, love, and truth. The limitations of physical sight do not bind this inner eye; it sees the essence of things, perceiving the Divine directly.

The ordinary eye sees the surface, the shapes and forms of things. But the inner eye, or subtle perception, sees through these forms, recognizing the Divine essence that animates everything. The mystic lives with this inner eye wide open, perceiving the interconnectedness of all things as a reflection of the Divine. While perhaps less explicit in their perception, the poet still feels the tug of this deeper truth, sensing that the beauty they behold is more than a mere aesthetic experience.

This deep perception allows us to see beauty as an essential quality, not simply as pleasing to the eye but as a direct reflection of the real. The relative forms of the world—what we experience through our senses—are, in fact, bridges to the real, to the unchanging essence beneath the surface. The poet’s sensitivity to beauty opens a window to the Divine, while the mystic’s pure perception reveals that window as an illusion, leading directly into the room of true nature.

The Infinite in the Finite: Unity Within the Many

What do we make of this distinction? Both perspectives point to the same truth: the Divine is present, whether sensed through beauty or perceived in essence. But perhaps this is where the poetic and the mystical diverge in their relationship to form.

For poets like Hopkins, the material world serves as a bridge to something more significant—beauty becomes a symbol of the Divine, a doorway through which we glimpse the infinite. But the Divine remains somewhat elusive, shimmering just out of reach, always suggesting but never fully revealing itself. It’s like standing at the edge of a forest, feeling the breath of the trees but never quite entering its wild, sacred heart.

Mystics, on the other hand, live within the forest. They do not merely see the trees as symbols; they experience the forest as a direct manifestation of the Divine. For the mystic, the Divine is not hidden behind form. It is form. Rumi’s insight that “everything we see is a clue to this hidden reality” points not to separation but to profound unity. There is no “behind the veil”; the veil itself is sacred, and once realization dawns, the distinction between form and essence dissolves.

Yet, the relative world—the everyday forms, feelings, and moments that shape our lives—remains the bridge that leads to the real. The poet’s sensitivity to beauty and imperfection opens the way to realizing the mystical truth. In their clarity, the mystics can perceive the unity in all things, but they don’t discard the relative; they embrace it as part of the whole. We need both—the bridge and the destination.

Beauty as a Doorway, or the Room Itself?

Another poetic sage, William Blake, warned us against mistaking forms for the Divine essence. He recognized the danger of getting so caught up in the wrapping paper of life that we forget to open the gift. In The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, he writes:

“Thus men forgot that All deities reside in the human breast.”

Blake’s critique is sharp: when we reduce the Divine to symbols, rituals, or forms, we confine something infinite within the boundaries of our own making. Yet even Blake doesn’t reject form; he urges us to see it for what it is—a temporary expression of something far deeper, a mirror reflecting the Divine that lives within us.

Mystics take this further still. For them, form is not a mere reflection—it is the thing itself. The Divine isn’t reflected in the spotted skin of a trout or the blaze of a sunset; it is the trout, it is the sunset. There is no need for metaphor or symbol when the Divine stands before you, fully revealed. The falcon in the Sufi parable is not just a bird pointing to Divine wisdom—it is wisdom itself, wings, and all.

But again, this isn’t a hierarchy of experience. Whether you are standing in awe of the falcon or seeing its essence as Divine wisdom, both experiences are valid and available to us as human beings. What matters is not the level of realization but the recognition that divinity is present in all things.

Living Between the Lines: How We Engage With Reality

So, what do we do with this understanding? Do we strive to perceive the Divine in everything, as the mystic does, or do we allow ourselves to be moved by beauty’s powerful suggestion of the sublime, as the poet does? Perhaps the answer is both. We live between these perspectives, capable of being impacted by beauty one moment and in the next, sensing the unity that underlies it all.

Beauty Can Serve as a Bridge Between the Relative and the Real

Beauty can serve as a doorway, inviting us to glimpse something transcendent. But that same beauty can also be the Divine itself, fully present, fully alive, if we allow our perception to deepen. The poet and the mystic are not in opposition; they are two sides of the same coin, two ways of experiencing the sacred. The difference lies in how deeply we are willing to look and whether we are content to marvel at the surface or ready to step into the heart of it all.

In the Diamond Approach, the notion of direct perception and pure perception reveals how subtle shifts in awareness change how we experience reality. We see things as they are through pure perception—untainted by personal history, emotions, or mental interpretations. This is a state of inner clarity, where beauty is something that we witness externally and resonates within us as a direct reflection of our essence.

In this way, the saying “beauty lies in the eye of the beholder” becomes even more profound. When awakened to its deeper, inner capacity for objective perception, the eye of the beholder is no longer limited by ordinary, subjective sight. The beholder is no longer just admiring beauty from afar but experiencing it as a direct encounter with the Divine. The beholder becomes one with the beauty they perceive, recognizing that it is not an external event but a reflection of true nature within themselves.

Through inner perception, the boundaries between the relative and the real dissolve. What once appeared as a fleeting moment of beauty becomes an eternal expression of the Divine. The “relative” world of changing forms is a constant invitation to recognize the unchanging “real” that permeates everything. Beauty in its relative form is the bridge that leads us toward a deeper understanding of the essential, where the real is not hidden but revealed in every aspect of life.

The Role of Subtle Perception: Seeing Essence in All Things

In addition to pure and direct perception, the Diamond Approach speaks of subtle perception, which refers to the ability to perceive things beyond the surface level. Subtle perception allows us to sense reality’s hidden, essential qualities—the light within form, the presence within stillness, the Divine within the mundane. This capacity is not limited to mystics alone; it is available to all when we cultivate the inner sensitivity required to recognize the essence of things.

Subtle perception teaches us that beauty is not simply an external characteristic to be admired but a reflection of an inner reality. It invites us to see the world with new eyes, eyes that are attuned to the sacredness that permeates everything. When we engage with life through subtle perception, we realize that every object, every interaction, and every moment is charged with the Divine. Beauty is no longer a fleeting moment but a continuous presence, an ongoing revelation of the real.

In this sense, the poet’s appreciation of the “dappled things” in Hopkins’ Pied Beauty becomes a step toward deeper perception. Hopkins’ awareness of the diversity and imperfection in the world is not just a poetic observation—it is a reflection of an emerging subtle perception, a recognition that beauty lies in the variety and uniqueness of each form. Each “rose-mole” on the trout, each “fresh-firecoal chestnut-fall,” is a manifestation of the Divine Essence. The relative forms of the world—those fleeting, imperfect things—are not separate from the real but are expressions of it.

The Bridge to the Real: Beauty as an Invitation

The Diamond Approach insightfully frames beauty as an aesthetic experience and an invitation to the real. Beauty is a bridge that connects the relative to the real, drawing us from the surface of things into the depth of their essence. It is not merely an experience to enjoy but a pathway to awakening.

When we see beauty in the world, we are not simply witnessing something external—we are seeing the Divine reality shining through. Whether we are admiring the curve of a leaf, the intricacy of a cloud, or the reflection of light on water, we are truly perceiving the unchanging, eternal quality of existence. Beauty is the language of the Divine, spoken through the forms of the world, and our ability to recognize it is a reflection of our essential nature.

This brings us back to the idea that “beauty lies in the eye of the beholder.” It is not that beauty is subjective or relative to personal taste. Instead, beauty is a reflection of the beholder’s capacity for perception. When our perception is refined, when our inner eye is open, we see beauty not as a fleeting moment but as the expression of the Divine. And when we perceive beauty with this clarity, we are no longer separate from it—we are one with it.

Living Between the Relative and the Real

So, how do we live between the relative and the real? How do we engage with beauty as an experience and a doorway to something deeper?

Perhaps the answer is to embrace both perspectives. We can admire the beauty of the world with the eyes of the poet, allowing ourselves to be moved by the diversity, complexity, and imperfection of life. But we can also cultivate the perception of the mystic, learning to see the world’s beauty as a direct manifestation of the Divine. By deepening our perception—through mindfulness, inner work, and subtle awareness—we can experience beauty not as something external but as a quality that flows from the very essence of reality.

In the end, beauty is not something separate from us. It reflects our nature, a mirror of the Divine that lives within us. The relative forms of the world—the trees, the sky, the people we encounter—are not obstacles to the real but are the real in disguise. The poet and the mystic know this, each in their own way, and each reminds us that the Divine is not something distant or unattainable. It is here, now, in every moment, waiting for us to see beyond the surface.

Our bridge is the relative world, full of imperfections and fleeting beauty. The real—the unchanging Divine essence—is the destination that has been here all along. The only question is: Are we ready to open our eyes and walk across that bridge?

by John Harper at scienceandnonduality.com on October 8, 2024

*The Diamond Approach to Self-realization, developed by A. H. Almaas (Hameed Ali), integrates spiritual psychology with modern depth psychology, offering a path that emphasizes the discovery of one’s true nature through the direct experience of essential qualities such as love, beauty, strength, and truth. It teaches that self-realization is not merely a psychological process but a profound spiritual unfolding, leading to the realization of the inherent unity between the individual and the Divine.