True Beauty

This morning we had a slideshow of our photos running on our home TV, and both of us were looking at some pictures of when we were at Las Vegas a few years ago, at how beautiful some of the insides of the hotels are. It was Chinese New Years celebration and there were beautiful statues and decorations dotted throughout the complex and streets.

But then I contemplated a little deeper. Is this beauty there to lure people in to spend and therefore lose more money? Where did the money come from for the decorations if not the tears of those who have lost their hard earned money to a bad bet? Suddenly what I thought was beautiful became a manifestation of pain and sorrow.

It made me question what is beauty exactly. The beauty of a red sky at sunset is also the bleeding of the earth as the pollution erodes away the clean air, the spectacular beauty of the molten rock pouring from a volcano is also the deadly force that destroys lives and towns. The beauty of a cute baby's face is also the suffering of a less fortunate child who gets no such attention. What is a beautiful roast dinner to one, to a vegetarian is a murder scene.

As the Buddha said:

"...beauty that simply stands opposed to ugliness is not true beauty."

Beauty that discriminates is not beauty, and neither is it ugliness. Beauty that discriminates is discrimination.

So what then is true beauty? Does this then mean that beauty is nothing but an illusion? Is beauty just a notion we have constructed? A seduction to attachment that we should allow to pass without ado?

We know beauty when we see it, but let us look at the dictionary definition:

"The quality present in a thing or person that gives intense pleasure or deep satisfaction to the mind."

This satisfaction, the pleasure that peace can bring, is exactly what we experience only in the present moment. When there is nothing to grasp for, when we arrive, when we finally find peace, then we are truly satisfied.

And so I think that everything in the present moment is beautiful. Absolutely everything. The moment we transcend samsara we are taken to the Pure Land, everything is illuminated by Amitabha, we get to witness the Buddha-nature, the dharma in all things.

That doesn't mean to say that actions are beautiful. It may be difficult to see beauty in a scene of mass destruction for instance. But in the present moment there are no actions, there is no destruction, there is no karma. To see beauty we need to see beyond actions, beyond past or future, to all that is present in the here and now. We need to look deeply into things to see their true nature, their true emptiness, to see that what is lasting, what inter-is, is beautiful. Everything is illuminated by the infinite light of Amida.

It is that light that is beautiful. What we think of as pleasing to the senses is really just a glimpse of the Pure Land, but we mistakenly think that the source of the beauty is the object itself. In actuality, then, when we see something as beautiful we should acknowledge that the true source of that beauty is suchness itself, whether we see that through mindfulness, vipassana or through the mind of Amida via the nembutsu.

The next time I am sitting in awe at a beautiful landscape, decorations, or the beautiful face of my daughter, I won't doubt the beauty I see. I won't look deeply at an object only to replace one notion with another, instead I will see it as it really is, with notions extinguished. With this I will know that through the grace of Amida the beauty I am seeing is really the beauty of Amida's light illuminating the scene. That through this light I can look deeply into the present moment, into its emptiness, and in that I will see its true, satisfying nature, its true beauty.

The faith we have in this gives us enormous strength to act with a clear mind, and to resolve suffering. That is true beauty.

From the Dharmapada: The Path of Perfection:

"When one attains the release called the Beautiful, at such a time he knows in truth what Beauty is."

Namu Amida Butsu!