What Use Is "Beauty"?

Text and images by Chen Chi-Hsiang

Outline of the Lecture on "Beauty"

Starting with two questions below:

Have you ever been amazed by "beauty"?

Have you ever been "touched" in life?

Beauty is "priceless"; it cannot be bought or sold, nor given. It can only be realized. It has no economic value, yet it is priceless. Beauty is the utility of uselessness—the energy of life and the profundity of existence.

Beauty is everywhere, unrelated to art; art is also unrelated to beauty. Beauty transforms with time, space, and state of mind. Beauty is the flow of energy that sustains the universe.

"Beauty" is a gift from Heaven, originating from your "mind-nature".

Blossoming hearts reveal the power of the mind—intention, present awareness—all things find their joy in quiet contemplation. One beauty, all beauty.

Beauty is present-moment intuition. Being touched comes from the heart.

Beauty is that fleeting moment of spiritual resonance.

Beauty is unrelated to "concepts." "Beauty" is a kind of witness experience of life.

"Beauty" is a "door" leading to heaven; "beauty" reveals your authenticity and presence.

"Beauty" originates from the subject and transcends the object (the target).

Beauty is absolutely not an imported product. "Beauty" is yourself. Beauty is a calling force of life, witnessing existence.

Think about it: when you see the beauty of a blooming rose, does the beauty come from the rose, from your touching, or from that momentary shared understanding?

Knowledge is merely the finger pointing at the moon, bringing you to the threshold of "beauty." You must knock open the door yourself to "witness" and "realize through experience."

Intuition transcends the senses (sight, hearing, smell, taste, touch, mind). The senses are like opening a window, but they are not the entirety of life.

In the Heart Sutra, the five skandhas are empty. Only in "emptiness" can one transcend aesthetic experience and embrace this existing universe.

Intellectual "beauty": observing, analyzing, understanding, experiencing, and glimpsing the truth (the content of art itself—namely, formal vocabulary and narrative connotations). This leads to an aesthetic experience derived from understanding the content, becoming knowledge.

"Beauty" is ineffable. Beauty lies beyond words; what can be said is not that thing.

When you share a moment of understanding with "beauty," subject and object become one. When you return to consciousness and exclaim "beauty," thought intervenes, "beauty" vanishes instantly, and subject and object separate.

Because "as soon as you think, God laughs," stories and events take shape.

An Orthodox priest said: "If you can explain it, then it is necessarily not true."

The "beauty" that touches the nerves can only be described as: beautiful, pretty, pleasing to the eye, joyful, touching, comfortable, etc.

"Beauty" shifts with the heart. For example, glancing at a painting hanging on the wall before leaving for work in the morning is absolutely different from seeing it upon returning home after work in the evening. In love, everything is colorful, brilliant, and pleasing; in anger, the sky is gray. Art or nature opens your heart and resonates with you, touching your consciousness, which is how you are moved. Natural landscapes present local attributes and characteristics, becoming local consciousness and energy. Art helps us understand the culture to which it belongs; artworks are the inner life of culture.

The relationship between beauty, truth, and goodness: Being touched comes from the "heart," never from "knowledge." Open your heart to view the vast universe, love it, embrace it, enter the profundity of existence, and witness the truth of life. "Beauty" is "love"; there is nothing more beautiful than "love" in the human world. "Beauty" is "goodness"; hypocritical things are never beautiful, no matter what. "Beauty" is "truth"; only "truth" is the true meaning of beauty.

Aesthetic experience—transformation: "Beauty" is just one option in art or nature. Transcending aesthetic experience is intuitive "transformation" and sudden enlightenment, such as religious portraits that point directly to the human heart, meaning putting down the butcher's knife and attaining Buddhahood on the spot. Within "aesthetic experience," transformation occurs: transforming humanity, cultivating mind-nature, deepening spirituality. "Beauty" can heal the human heart, soothe mind-nature, bring peace to society and people, and create living beings.

"Fine products" and "Ultimate products": "Fine products" are excellent and perfect; "ultimate products" transcend perfection, blending into nature, yet not belonging to nature. They are completely natural outpourings, manifestations of divine power through artists or creators, displaying a supernatural revelation with an extraordinary stature.

The awe of beauty: "Beauty" is a condition deep within the soul, lying beyond words, being the mystery of existence and the experience of the mind.

"The revelation of art is the wondrous recognition of the total aspect of all things shining with light."

"If you cannot find your god in daily life, then you will not find Him anywhere."

Campbell—Aesthetics of Life

British literary giant Oscar Wilde said: "Only perception can heal the soul, and only the soul can heal perception."

Cassirer believed that 'artworks are intuitions of human nature and inner life, manifested in sensible forms of images. In the aesthetic intuition of artworks, people can see themselves and also see the world.' Einstein said: "The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. That is the source of all true art and science. Those who are strangers to this 'emotion,' those who can no longer pause in wonder or stand rapt in awe, are as good as dead; their eyes are closed." (Putting Down Opposition, Meeting the Inner World of Joy by Richard Rohr, translated by Wang Shumei, Revelation Publishing). Oshu wrote in Wisdom Nuggets: "Dedicate your life to beautiful things, do not give your life to ugly things, because you do not have much time and energy to waste. Our lives are so short, our source of energy so small; wasting it on sadness, anger, resentment, and jealousy is simply foolish."

This lecture outline was compiled from a sharing session on December 20, invited by Mr. Su Dong Zhenhui to his Tainan "Boyu Enterprise Company" to share with all employees.