This week’s blog is inspired by a conversation I had recently with Paul Moss, former Head at St James’ School in London. At the centre of St James’ ethos is the intent to provide for the spiritual, intellectual, and physical development of every child. Their inclusion of spirituality, in addition to the Platonic ideals of beauty and harmony, led to a fruitful and pleasurable discussion about the many similarities with our school ethos and my own personal beliefs. Our conversation led me to ponder on the value of one-pointed concentration – how ‘being present’ can arise from dedicated attention to making, or experiencing, something beautiful. Also, that the experience of beauty (rather than the attachment to it) is akin to a meditative experience.
Often Buddhism is seen as being focused on ‘suffering’. The Buddha is reputed to have said: “I have taught one thing and one thing only, dukkha and the cessation of dukkha.” Dukkha is often translated (from the Pāli ) as ‘suffering’ which furthers the notion that Buddhists are preoccupied with this aspect of the human condition. It is more skilfully and less superficially translated as ‘dissatisfaction’ and has a range of meanings that convey universal aspects of our experience; life frequently feeling unreliable, stressful and unfair.
Buddhism asks us to align ourselves with the way things are in each moment of our experience. The dharma – the teachings of the Buddha – is often described in the Pāli texts as ‘lovely at the beginning, lovely in the middle and lovely at the end’. So, what is this beauty, this loveliness? Somehow it is an experience that is attractive and pleasing, but at the same time, and most importantly, an experience that takes us beyond what we know. There is a transcendent, truthful dimension to the experience of beauty, a dimension that is mysterious, though probably not unfamiliar to most of us. Perhaps it is most accessible when listening to or playing music, reading poetry, or being in nature.
Beauty is also to be found in our connection with others and I believe that this transcendent quality is to do with being present; being fully present brings us into communion with our own mystery of being and the rhythms of life. These rhythms are in harmony with the way things are, the way, for instance, that everything arises and then passes away.
What we teach and model at our school and in our community is of vital importance in opening our children to the experience of beauty, and I believe we do it well. We enable this sense of connection through Forest School and through absorption in learning, writing, art and play. This beauty is also the compassionate, generous connection we have with each other; the deep listening and caring so eloquently expressed by the Buddha (in the Metta Sutta) as the ‘heavenly abodes’ or four immeasurables. It is there in our teaching of mindfulness meditation, in our mindful eating and practice of reflection.
Thank you to Paul, for an inspired conversation that has brought beauty and harmony to a busy week. I will leave you with this poem by Derek Walcott:
Love After Love
The time will come
when, with elation
you will greet yourself arriving
at your own door, in your own mirror
and each will smile at the other’s welcome,
and say, sit here. Eat.
You will love again the stranger who was your self.
Give wine. Give bread. Give back your heart
to itself, to the stranger who has loved you
all your life, whom you ignored
for another, who knows you by heart.
Take down the love letters from the bookshelf,
the photographs, the desperate notes,
peel your own image from the mirror.
Sit. Feast on your life.
- Clare
With thanks to Dhivan Thomas Jones for help with definitions of beauty.