BA Performance Design & Practice Work
Saturday, 19 November 2011
The truth of beauty the beauty of truth
The Truth of Beauty; The Beauty of Truth
‘Beauty is truth, truth beauty, - that is all
Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.’
-John Keats, Ode to a Grecian Urn
Have you ever found yourself searching the answer to a question which you had never quite put into words, or in fact were not even quite aware you were asking? The restless search for that ever-elusive and all-telling answer, that fierce drive that fires up your blood like a burning urge, to find the absolute meaning, to create the ultimate invention, to discover that which is bigger than yourself, that which is the very turning force of all that you are, and all that you know? And the illuminatingly delighted yet itchy unsettled feeling it gives, when you feel like you’ve almost got it, like your fingers are delicately grasping at the edges of it, and you feels as if you are on the verge of uncovering some deeply precious buried gem. There is nothing more enlightening and satisfying than finally having your hands around it, and seeing it real before you, and there is also nothing more frustrating than realizing that it is just a piece of the jigsaw and that as long as you will live you will never stop hunting and searching for the rest of that secret treasure?
I believe that we search for many things. Some of us search for the meaning of life, for the explanation of our existence, for that which will fulfill us and complete us so that we may rest in eternal peace. Some of us search for love, and beauty. Other search to leave their mark on the world, create their legacy, and be remembered through the ages. But essentially we are all searching for one thing – to find our place in the world, to connect and belong, and yet carve out our own individual position – to find and do something meaningful with life, and to enjoy it. In the end, we search for meaning. We want to mean something. To the world and people around us, in all our endeavors, and we want the things we do, the things we know, the people we find, to mean something to us. We want our one little life to have meant something, somewhere in this huge universe, in this vast scope of infinite lives of the past, the present, and the future.
This is why we are always looking to fit in, and to individualise, why we are always comparing everything and relating everything.
Why every little baby looks like that uncle, why every actress with a great body is a bitch because she’s prettier than us, why a jealous boyfriend puts his arm around his girlfriend when a good looking boy walks past, why we choose that chocolate bar over those gummy bears, why we compare ourselves and all we see, and look for a way to relate and connect.
It is how we establish that meaning, for if we cannot compare, if we cannot relate, then nothing means anything. And that is fulfillment. That is the meaning. This search.
We live our lives in search of our other half, of completeness, of the other side of the story, of the ups to the downs, of our place in society, in the professional world, in the family. We look for love in the world, and our search for beauty and joy is in this, in the truth of it, and in the balance of it, and in the coupling up and creating a family to pass down your traditions and genes, and making a name for yourself in the world. It is why these social conventions are at the core of human nature and so hard to detach ourselves from even when we feel so uninspired and unmotivated and simply pressured to conform. And yet even while looking to fit in and find that place, that person, where we belong, we are looking to stand out, to be an individual, to be special and different.
At the end of the day all we can be is be ourselves and whatever way that takes us, be true to your needs, to your heart, to your dreams, and to the constraints and possibilities of the reality in which you live. Do not live beneath or beyond this, and find peace with all that you are, all that the world around you is, let yourself love it all there is to love and hate all that there is to hate and find the balance of acceptance in between knowing that this is life, and this is you, and this is the world, and it is neither perfect nor terrible, but there is good and bad in all things and all people, light and darkness. Relate and compare with it in this way, not that everything is better than you, or better than it seems, and not that everything is inferior to you or worse than it seems, for that is not true meaning and not fulfillment – that is to live in pieces and only see half the bigger picture, either the good, or the bad, and never the truth of the both that are there at once, that are the halves of a whole. For while you search for your other half, know that the world exists in duality, that everything exists with its other half – with the other side of the story, and that there is only one face of truth but that it has two sides, and in comparing and relating all around you, you are acknowledging the that --- so search for the other half of all things that appear to you perfect, or terrible and know that they are only a half truth. Live your life free of deception and be true to yourself and the world around you or forever you will feel lost and like you have meant nothing and found no meaning and what an unfulfilled lifelessness you will live. Make your quest in life about truth, for the truth is a doubled-edged absoluteness, and never be fooled by the double-faced half-truths. Always expect more. Always question everything. And only when you acknowledge the good, that comes along side the bad, you will be able make peace with yourself, and with the world, and with the people around you.
Love the world as it is, not as you wish it was, as you pretend it is. Be loved as you are, not as you wish you were, not as you pretend to be. Never make more or less of what things are, but see them, know them, be them as they are, and if to you that can be enough then it can be enough to others, and here you will find true satisfaction. True contentment. True Beauty. True Love. True Peace. True happiness. True Meaning.
The ideal and the false or incomplete and insubstantial image of these things are never real, and never enough to hold onto, never enough to live in. If you find them in their true and absolute forms, the kind that will last and that are complete and that you can hold onto and mean something with and they will really mean something to you --- the only kind that can ever fulfil you --- for images and dreams that have no reality will never have taste or smell or touch they are but false visions that fade when you must wake, the only way to find the true fulfilment of love, joy, beauty ---you must look for the truth of them, and the truth is not ideal.
The truth has no perfection - perfection does not exist and it means NOTHING. But neither is the truth it all terrible and frightening and dark and ugly. The truth is that which is found somewhere in-between. The truth is the balance, the grey area, the object that has shadow and light. It is the tones and the depths and the dimensions. It is found there. It is found in the acceptance that there is good and bad balanced in the world and in all of us, and that we must accept and expect this and never let it surprise or disappoint us. And yet peace is found in goodness and positivity --- even if you know that all is not made of flowers and cupcakes, you must not deny that flowers and cupcakes are a good part of life and not abstain simply to avoid disappointment. If you can see the glass as half full, rather than half empty, you are well on your way ------- for you must know and confront the truth that the glass is not completely full, and not completely empty. But rather than seeing it as half empty find the positive outlook in yourself, the balance that will bring you peace that leans towards the good, that even if you can be content with your lot, it is the part of us that strives for better, that works to improve ourselves and our conditions, the part that searches for the breathing living hope of the good, even in the debris of earth shattering torments, it is this that can shape us and our outlooks on the journey to inner peace and fulfilment, and help us see the ourselves and the world as the best it is, while trying to make it even better, always strive for more, but always be content with things as they are, and never feel as if you have failed, for we only fail when we give up.
The truth is that the world is beautiful and ugly, that there is dark and light, the peace comes from accepting the balance of all of this and knowing that it is neither all black nor all white, that he is neither the villain or the hero but a HUMAN BEING that sometimes does the wrong thing and tries his best to be good. That you can love someone and yet not like the things that they do sometimes. That you can be sad and yet look out the window and still smile at a bird chirping on your window sill. And that is the true beauty. Finding that, looking for that, even when all seems dark and lost. And the truest beauty, the greatest achievement, the most complete sense of fulfilment comes from, accepting the good and the bad as it comes, knowing that for every downside there is an up, searching for the good in everything, seeing the world with a positive outlook yet not being ignorant of the flaws and the things we need to work on ---- the greatest and most vital part of it all, is seeing this, and then making it the path we choose --- and deciding that in the view of the balance of the world, we will focus on the good even if we see the bad and that we will do our BEST to work on the good, and to diminish the bad. That is the path to inner peace, and to the truth and the meaning and the fulfilment we search.
‘Beauty is truth, truth beauty, - that is all
Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.’
-John Keats, Ode to a Grecian Urn
Have you ever found yourself searching the answer to a question which you had never quite put into words, or in fact were not even quite aware you were asking? The restless search for that ever-elusive and all-telling answer, that fierce drive that fires up your blood like a burning urge, to find the absolute meaning, to create the ultimate invention, to discover that which is bigger than yourself, that which is the very turning force of all that you are, and all that you know? And the illuminatingly delighted yet itchy unsettled feeling it gives, when you feel like you’ve almost got it, like your fingers are delicately grasping at the edges of it, and you feels as if you are on the verge of uncovering some deeply precious buried gem. There is nothing more enlightening and satisfying than finally having your hands around it, and seeing it real before you, and there is also nothing more frustrating than realizing that it is just a piece of the jigsaw and that as long as you will live you will never stop hunting and searching for the rest of that secret treasure?
I believe that we search for many things. Some of us search for the meaning of life, for the explanation of our existence, for that which will fulfill us and complete us so that we may rest in eternal peace. Some of us search for love, and beauty. Other search to leave their mark on the world, create their legacy, and be remembered through the ages. But essentially we are all searching for one thing – to find our place in the world, to connect and belong, and yet carve out our own individual position – to find and do something meaningful with life, and to enjoy it. In the end, we search for meaning. We want to mean something. To the world and people around us, in all our endeavors, and we want the things we do, the things we know, the people we find, to mean something to us. We want our one little life to have meant something, somewhere in this huge universe, in this vast scope of infinite lives of the past, the present, and the future.
This is why we are always looking to fit in, and to individualise, why we are always comparing everything and relating everything.
Why every little baby looks like that uncle, why every actress with a great body is a bitch because she’s prettier than us, why a jealous boyfriend puts his arm around his girlfriend when a good looking boy walks past, why we choose that chocolate bar over those gummy bears, why we compare ourselves and all we see, and look for a way to relate and connect.
It is how we establish that meaning, for if we cannot compare, if we cannot relate, then nothing means anything. And that is fulfillment. That is the meaning. This search.
We live our lives in search of our other half, of completeness, of the other side of the story, of the ups to the downs, of our place in society, in the professional world, in the family. We look for love in the world, and our search for beauty and joy is in this, in the truth of it, and in the balance of it, and in the coupling up and creating a family to pass down your traditions and genes, and making a name for yourself in the world. It is why these social conventions are at the core of human nature and so hard to detach ourselves from even when we feel so uninspired and unmotivated and simply pressured to conform. And yet even while looking to fit in and find that place, that person, where we belong, we are looking to stand out, to be an individual, to be special and different.
At the end of the day all we can be is be ourselves and whatever way that takes us, be true to your needs, to your heart, to your dreams, and to the constraints and possibilities of the reality in which you live. Do not live beneath or beyond this, and find peace with all that you are, all that the world around you is, let yourself love it all there is to love and hate all that there is to hate and find the balance of acceptance in between knowing that this is life, and this is you, and this is the world, and it is neither perfect nor terrible, but there is good and bad in all things and all people, light and darkness. Relate and compare with it in this way, not that everything is better than you, or better than it seems, and not that everything is inferior to you or worse than it seems, for that is not true meaning and not fulfillment – that is to live in pieces and only see half the bigger picture, either the good, or the bad, and never the truth of the both that are there at once, that are the halves of a whole. For while you search for your other half, know that the world exists in duality, that everything exists with its other half – with the other side of the story, and that there is only one face of truth but that it has two sides, and in comparing and relating all around you, you are acknowledging the that --- so search for the other half of all things that appear to you perfect, or terrible and know that they are only a half truth. Live your life free of deception and be true to yourself and the world around you or forever you will feel lost and like you have meant nothing and found no meaning and what an unfulfilled lifelessness you will live. Make your quest in life about truth, for the truth is a doubled-edged absoluteness, and never be fooled by the double-faced half-truths. Always expect more. Always question everything. And only when you acknowledge the good, that comes along side the bad, you will be able make peace with yourself, and with the world, and with the people around you.
Love the world as it is, not as you wish it was, as you pretend it is. Be loved as you are, not as you wish you were, not as you pretend to be. Never make more or less of what things are, but see them, know them, be them as they are, and if to you that can be enough then it can be enough to others, and here you will find true satisfaction. True contentment. True Beauty. True Love. True Peace. True happiness. True Meaning.
The ideal and the false or incomplete and insubstantial image of these things are never real, and never enough to hold onto, never enough to live in. If you find them in their true and absolute forms, the kind that will last and that are complete and that you can hold onto and mean something with and they will really mean something to you --- the only kind that can ever fulfil you --- for images and dreams that have no reality will never have taste or smell or touch they are but false visions that fade when you must wake, the only way to find the true fulfilment of love, joy, beauty ---you must look for the truth of them, and the truth is not ideal.
The truth has no perfection - perfection does not exist and it means NOTHING. But neither is the truth it all terrible and frightening and dark and ugly. The truth is that which is found somewhere in-between. The truth is the balance, the grey area, the object that has shadow and light. It is the tones and the depths and the dimensions. It is found there. It is found in the acceptance that there is good and bad balanced in the world and in all of us, and that we must accept and expect this and never let it surprise or disappoint us. And yet peace is found in goodness and positivity --- even if you know that all is not made of flowers and cupcakes, you must not deny that flowers and cupcakes are a good part of life and not abstain simply to avoid disappointment. If you can see the glass as half full, rather than half empty, you are well on your way ------- for you must know and confront the truth that the glass is not completely full, and not completely empty. But rather than seeing it as half empty find the positive outlook in yourself, the balance that will bring you peace that leans towards the good, that even if you can be content with your lot, it is the part of us that strives for better, that works to improve ourselves and our conditions, the part that searches for the breathing living hope of the good, even in the debris of earth shattering torments, it is this that can shape us and our outlooks on the journey to inner peace and fulfilment, and help us see the ourselves and the world as the best it is, while trying to make it even better, always strive for more, but always be content with things as they are, and never feel as if you have failed, for we only fail when we give up.
The truth is that the world is beautiful and ugly, that there is dark and light, the peace comes from accepting the balance of all of this and knowing that it is neither all black nor all white, that he is neither the villain or the hero but a HUMAN BEING that sometimes does the wrong thing and tries his best to be good. That you can love someone and yet not like the things that they do sometimes. That you can be sad and yet look out the window and still smile at a bird chirping on your window sill. And that is the true beauty. Finding that, looking for that, even when all seems dark and lost. And the truest beauty, the greatest achievement, the most complete sense of fulfilment comes from, accepting the good and the bad as it comes, knowing that for every downside there is an up, searching for the good in everything, seeing the world with a positive outlook yet not being ignorant of the flaws and the things we need to work on ---- the greatest and most vital part of it all, is seeing this, and then making it the path we choose --- and deciding that in the view of the balance of the world, we will focus on the good even if we see the bad and that we will do our BEST to work on the good, and to diminish the bad. That is the path to inner peace, and to the truth and the meaning and the fulfilment we search.
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