beauty

oscar wilde: beauty is a form of genius- is higher, indeed, than genius, as it needs no explanation.

Plato: Absolute beauty stands with the absolutely true and the absolutely good as a supreme value, and partakes of their nature. This beauty is first of all eternal; it neither comes into being nor passes away, neither waxes nor wanes; next, it is not beautiful in part and ugly in part, nor beautiful at one time and ugly at another, nor beautiful in this relation and ugly in that, nor beautiful here and ugly there, as varying according to its beholders; nor again will this beauty appear to him like the beauty of a face or hands or anything corporeal, or like the beauty of a thought or a science,
or like the beauty which has its seat in something other than itself, 
be it a living thing or the earth or the sky or anything else whatever; he will see it as absolute, existing alone with itself, unique, eternal, and all other beautiful things as partaking of it, yet in such a manner that, while they come into being and pass away, it neither undergoes any increase or diminuition nor suffers any change.

also:

Beauty is understood as that which inspires love: love is the desire to possess the beautiful, though the beautiful is then identified with the good. While desire is a longing for what we do not have, it is also an expression of that which is self- sufficient and eternal - as well as beautiful - in ourselves: at the lowest level, it is hte desire to procreate, to reproduce oneself, thus to give oneself a kind of eternal life. Creating progeny is as close as animals and simple people come to realizing the eternal in themselves, but, for the finer spirit, the kindling of love is the first step in a long spiritual journey, a journey which, if properly pursued, leads toweard the understanding of absolute beauty, goodness, and truth. Love, the desire for the beautiful, is thus the sustaining and guiding impulse of philosophy. The process begins when the lover starts to see the beauty of his beloved in everything around him. He recognizes from this experience that "the beauty of one form is akin to the beauty of another" and will relize that "the beauty in every form is one and the same." As a result, his desire for any particular instance, or individual, is tempered. Next he will come to appreciate how the beauty of the mind is more beautiful than that of the body. This recognition leads, in turn, to an understanding of the beauty of moral principles and laws, and beyond these, of the beauty of abstract though, especially philosophy. The appreciation of these exalted things results in a further independence from the need for lower ones. For those who persevere in this journey, the true philosophers, the final step 
is the revelation of true beauty.

Plotinus: We recognize beauty chiefly in the emotion it calls up in us, which is a profound perturbation, a "delicious trouble". that "remoter principle" which bestows beauty on material things is "something percieved at first glance, something the soul names as if from an ancient knowledge and, recognizing, welcomes it, and enters union with it. From an understanding of the diversity of human character, the lover comes to achieve a perception of the unity of human nature: the "world soul". The sure grasp of this unity, in turn, leads to the awareness of the power of higher intuition, "mind". Practice in intuition then leads to the recognition of mind as a single principle, "world-mind": this is the highest point that 
human thought can reach, but it is still one step beneath the ultimate reality, the One. As our thoughts ascend, they retrace the path of our own origin. The One is the source of all being; it is not static but superabundant: its nature is to spill over, to emanate. From its own perfect unity it spills over into diversity, into a less perfect form of existence in which knowing is distinct from being, knower from thing known: this is the realm of mind. From mind, being spills over into soul, a still less perfect realm, in which diversity is governed, that is, structured, by the principles of time and sapce. At the bottom of this hierarchial scheme is matter. In its pure emanations, uninformed by any unifying principle or form. The individual human being is composed of matter and soul. The soul, having descended from teh One, feels itself to be in exile. In experiencing beauty, it recognizes another part of that unity from which it came and is stimulated by a desire to return to it again - at first through union with the beautiful particular; finally, by virtue of proper intellectual training, in the single principle of mind. the ultimate step, direct union with the One, is beyond the power of the mind to achieve, for mind still requires a distinction between knower and know. In the final leap, so to speak, this distinction would have to dissolve: it can occur only in ectstasy, an inspired, super- rational state, by a direct emanation from above, when absolute being accepts us - if only for a moment - into itself.

Heh. am i the only one thinking that this "absolute beauty" is jus another name for "god"? well, certainly it pertains to any perceptions and conceptions of a supernatural being.

in any case, i kinda like all the rational thought floating around of what beauty is. though i doubt i'll be able to attain any said (note: concept of) nirvana (?).

truly, this is a beautiful world; but beauty transcends the senses: sight, smell, touch, taste, hearing - even superseding mediums which are cornucopias, phantasmagorias, smorgasbords of the senses. but is this necessarily intellectual thought? is comprehension of the beautiful, the perfect, and therefore the perfectly beautiful an intellectual, cerebral affair? in the first place, i dun think that there's any way possible in 
which to comprehend such ideals with the terriblyincompetent processor we call the brain. and hasnt anyone heard of epiphanies?

worse still, is when one has understood something to be beautiful (though comprehending to what extent it is is probably likewise limited), and then seeks to destroy it, like dear Iago says of Cassio in Othello: If Cassio do remain he hath a daily beauty in his life that makes me look ugly.

i guess thats pretty duh; the questions then are: is everything beautiful? are some things more beautiful than others? and can and should one find beauty?