Anam Cara

Beauty cannot be forced. It alone decides when it will come and sometimes it is the last thing we expect and the very last thing to arrive. Creative artists know this well. Great skill and inspiration set the context or scene where beauty might emerge. But it is not the mind of the artist alone that can determine whether beauty will arrive or not. There is a wonderful passage in Rilke’s essay on Rodin where he discusses this mysterious dimension of beauty. Rodin’s art ‘was not based upon any great idea, but upon the conscientious realisation of something small, upon something capable of achievement, upon a matter of technique. There was no arrogance in him, he devoted himself to this insignificant and difficult aspect of beauty which he could survey, command and judge. The other, the greater beauty must come when all was ready for it as animals come to drink when night holds sway and the forest is free of strangers.’ This can also be true in the soul. When we devote some calm time to the heart and come off the treadmill of stress and distraction, we can enter into the beauty within. Each of us can prepare for that inner arrival: where ‘night holds sway’ and the inner forest becomes ‘free of strangers’.

In the cut and thrust of life experience, beauty frequently emerges when either great love or great sacrifice elevates an experience above its daily confine to another level of presence and possibility. Beauty is not quotidian, it is a rare delight. The Irish seanfhocal (proverb) says: An rud is annamh is iontach, i.e. that which is wonderful is seldom.

Though beauty is autonomous, there seem to be occasions when human presence can become congruent with her will. In creative work no amount of force or mechanical management can guarantee beauty. Suddenly, without expecting it, beauty is there. Yet ultimately beauty is a profound illumination of presence, a stirring of the invisible in visible form and in order to receive this, we need to cultivate a new style of approaching the world.

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OWARDS A

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EVERENCE OF

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PPROACH

. . . seeing that as I went, I left my beatitude behind me.

DANTE, La Vita Nuova

WHEN BEAUTY TOUCHES OUR LIVES, THE MOMENT BECOMES luminous. These grace-moments are gifts that surprise us. When we look beyond the moment to our life journey, perhaps we can choose a new rhythm of journeying which would be more conscious of beauty and more open to inviting her to disclose herself to us in all the situations we travel through.

Yet what you encounter, recognize or discover depends to a large degree on the quality of your approach. Many of the ancient cultures practised careful rituals of approach. An encounter of depth and spirit was preceded by careful preparation and often involved a carefully phased journey of approach. Attention, respect and worthiness belonged to the event of nearing and disclosure. In China they tell the story of subjects from Mongolia who travelled vast distances to see the emperor. In Beijing, they had to practise for months the decorum appropriate to that moment of encounter. When the emperor finally passed, they could not even look up. The whole journey was rewarded with a mere glimpse of the emperor’s feet. In the New Testament, a woman who had bled for years healed instantly when she touched the hem of Jesus’s garment.

Our culture has little respect for privacy; we no longer recognize the sacred zone around each person. We feel we have a right to blunder unannounced into any area we wish. Because we have lost reverence of approach, we should not be too surprised at the lack of quality and beauty in our experience. At the heart of things is a secret law of balance and when our approach is respectful, sensitive and worthy, gifts of healing, challenge and creativity open to us. A gracious approach is the key that unlocks the treasure of encounter. The way we are present to each other is frequently superficial. We become more interested in ‘connection’ rather than communion. In many areas of our lives the rich potential of friendship and love remains out of our reach because we push towards ‘connection’. When we deaden our own depths, we cannot strike a resonance in those we meet or in the work we do. A reverence of approach awakens depth and enables us to be truly present where we are. When we approach with reverence great things decide to approach us. Our real life comes to the surface and its light awakens the concealed beauty in things. When we walk on the earth with reverence, beauty will decide to trust us. The rushed heart and the arrogant mind lack the gentleness and patience to enter that embrace. Beauty is mysterious, a slow presence who waits for the ready, expectant heart. When the heart becomes attuned to her restrained glimmerings, it learns to recognize her intimations more frequently in places it would never have lingered before.

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HE

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TERNAL

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LACES

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HAT

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RACE THE

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OURNEY