The beauty and the sublime will save the world

 

"The beauty will save the world..." 

I have always liked this phrase. I enjoyed observing beauty, but honestly, I didn't really understand how it could save the world. I couldn't even question what it truly was.

I didn't know very well where God shone, nor could I differentiate it from the sublime.

My room was just white. There was nothing on the walls, no peculiar smell except for the scent of the tobacco I smoked every day at my window. I didn't like my sheets or my duvets, and many times, I believed that only I was the reflection of my mess. I never realized how the state of my room was reflecting on me.

I remembered that my sister and I found a feng shui booklet at home when we were children. It was an easy-to-read book with drawings showing the correct arrangement of furniture and things in a house. It seemed superstitious, but whether it was or not, we never wanted to have the bed facing the door again.

In what way could what is outside mold what is inside?

One day when I questioned the idea that we are what we think, I also started to question where thought comes from. I thought about the importance of symbols present in our lives and how they are indispensable factors of our existence as humans.

Since all our habits and beliefs are formed from thoughts, and the brain cannot create information it has never known or seen or perceived, how can I heal the source of these beliefs that have been leading my life if I am no longer satisfied with their results?

The answer is that everything that passes through our senses will transform into thoughts, and then everything else is formed.

If we nurture a thought, it can become a habit and later a belief. Further on, the belief will be so strong that we will proudly say, "I am like this, I am not like that," even though this "like this" can simply be changed. It is not an absolute and unchangeable condition of being or not being.

We are not prisoners of the state of being, although often we are the ones who lock ourselves in these cages.

We believe we are victims of our own lives, as if destined to "be how we are, or have what we have," as if we did not have the responsibility to change what no longer serves us. This includes thought.

If thought is formed by what we allow to pass through our senses, why would I occupy my ears with music that says nothing good or important?

Why would I watch tragedies on TV that produce no pleasant thoughts?

Why would I listen to words from people who wish to offend me or somehow diminish my self-esteem?

Words that mean absolutely nothing to someone who knows themselves, but if heard for a month straight, even someone sure of themselves would end up believing and losing sight of themselves.

Why feel smells that don't bring back good memories?

Why want to touch something that repulses you?

The environment molds everything. It is like the phenotypic expression of the mind's functionality.

Since this is how we control our thoughts, which are the roots of the results in our lives, why do we often choose to produce the worst possible ones?

Could it be learned helplessness?

I did a lot of this out of excessive ethics, but that is exactly why the good guys always get screwed, right?

And why would I choose to screw myself?

Life is dual, and the mission is to balance both sides. Neither will win alone; fullness can only be achieved through the identification and balance of our duality, or we will remain continuously in Pyrrhic battles.

I realized then that I need both beauty and the sublime.

I then tested my mind.

I bought new duvets and sheets, new candles, and incense. I placed my dragon calendar on the wall and some photos and symbols near my desk. There were now plants, and my ukulele was facing me. This is how my room looks now.

I observed what emotions I was feeling after these changes.

The calendar reminded me to act, of the year of the dragon, the concept of time, days, months, years, when I plan and mark start and end dates of the things I want or will do; my ukulele reminded me that I was a musician and that I could play it anytime, and how good it was to know that I could. My photos and symbols spoke to me daily, bringing to the surface thoughts about myself, about how I was that day and how much I have changed since then, also bringing reflections about my deepest things, which at that moment were somehow tools of self-knowledge, it was the discovery of God's shine.

I left a number drawn on my panel; it was the number of my next weight. So every time I knew I had eaten enough and still wanted to exceed, I looked at the drawn number and asked myself, do you want to see this number on the scale next month, or would you rather eat now, even knowing you are not truly hungry?

I started to pay attention to how we embody the archetypes present in many song lyrics and in movie protagonists, and for some time, listening to what was pleasant to me and brought me a sense of well-being, I realized how much that also made my thoughts and consequently my days better.

And why choose the worst?

It is impressive how a logic of thought or behavior often used in the work environment or in organizing your room can also be used to deal with relationship issues with others or with ourselves.

What I mean is that often, we do not realize how this happens. It may seem that taking care of the beauty of my house has nothing to do with taking care of my own beauty, but in fact, we do this all the time, using a single logic of thought to serve many or all other areas of our lives.

Today I understand the importance of beauty, and I think I have understood how it can save the world. There is a form of universal communication, a language that we all master but forget. The language that says without saying and never lies is, in fact, the language of symbols. And I think the analogy only exists and can be exemplified and utilized because of the language of symbols.

There is indeed something that connects us, something that speaks to us, that motivates us, and makes us happy, something that brings comfort and makes us feel at home.

And why not choose to feel this way?

Are we not loving ourselves enough?

I spent a long time remembering the names of Kant and Dostoevsky, who had been written on the board amid mathematical formulas.

And why did I choose to remember for so long?

Metaphors only exist because of the existence of symbols.

However, beauty and the sublime are within us, communicating through recognition of what is outside.

We have all these artifices that fill our eyes and spirit because when we come into contact with symbols and signs, we recognize them and remember a little more of what we forgot when we arrived here.

It is like the prodigal son returning home, but in this case, it is the return to oneself.

It is the expression of art!

If we all remember our beauty, then the world will indeed be saved. We just cannot forget that the sublime inhabits the same place.

When it is very difficult to change from within, change the world around you, and the inside will instantly change.

Thiara Màtos..