"Stu" wrote: "Love, truth and beauty is the recognition of this harmony around us. They are part of nature, its part of us. No supernatural stuff need apply. Even a hardened materialist can appreciate the organic unity of these ideals."
Edg: You know those Necker cubes where the diagram of a "box" shifts perspectives back and forth before your eyes -- with the brain being challenged to mindfully hold one of two perspectives? That's the process of enlightenment to me -- you just suddenly flip to the other POV. Blake would approve, eh? And this is echoed in the adages of the masses such as "Fish or cut bait," "Stand for something or fall for anything," and/or "Do you see the glass as half full or half empty." Note that communal wisdom underlines the natural ability of all folks to DIRECT ONE'S ATTENTION. The appreciation of beauty is obviously not so hard wired that it prevents us from seeing ugliness. I remember taking my children onto my lap when they were crying or pissed off, and I'd usually be able to tweak their minds such that they began to laugh even while their tears or their clenched fists were still griddle hot processes. Like that, beauty is always there, but the secret of life is that ugliness is as valuable as beauty. Yeah, Shiva's needed to dance a jig -- gotta have a destruction phase to progression. In Art there's photorealistic works that amaze one with the exquisite gem edges, leashed iridescence, and shiny glintings, and we swoon. Generally missed by all who view such an artwork is that using one's eyes to see creates just such an artwork -- looking at the back of one's hand is just such an experience with its 3000 lines per inch detail, its 10,000 hues seen, its astounding depth of view, its perfect structures, anatomies, and sense of light -- and, ITS REAL! Flip onto that perspective 24/7, eh? -- ya think it might be a mental technique that would evolve ya? I laugh that there's all these videos games out there that are straining to achieve realism, yet, every kid has reality smacking his face like bugs on a windshield on a dark road in mid-summer Iowa -- like Huxley's birds calling "Attention!" in his dystopia "Island." Smack, smack, smack. Heaven is right there in our faces down to the neenee-nana-nanosecond. Each view, each sound, each report from any sense is as rich as, well, as rich as God could create. Try flipping into God consciousness -- you can do it just like being able to see a Necker cube change. I think anyone has this ability to suddenly shift into ephiphany at ANY MOMENT, "caused" by ANY INPUT. 'Course, there's no such thing as input, but you know what I mean. Edg
