Beauty (kalyàõaor subha) is the quality of being pleasing to the senses and the mind. An object, a sound or even a behavior or an idea can be described as beautiful. The Buddha said that while personal physical beauty is a blessing, it is also true that it can lead to clinging and egoism. However, there is a beauty beyond the physical, what might be called personality and attitudinal beauty.
In Buddhist psychology, certain types of thoughts like kindness, generosity and honesty are described as being beautiful (sobhana). It was this type of beauty that the Buddha had the most regard for. `If someone is jealous, selfish or dishonest, they are unattractive despite their eloquence or good features. But the personwho is purged of such things and is free from hatred, it is he or she who is really beautiful’ (Dhp.262-3).
Buddhism recognizes that all beings are part of a whole, and the whole is beautiful. Beauty is without any specific form, and in effect could be called formless, yet it also serves as a unifying force. Because all beings are interconnected, all beings have intrinsic beauty.
To drop into being means to recognize your interconnectedness with all life, and with being itself.
Peace and Love, Jim
