Of Truth & Beauty

The pursuit of truth and beauty is a sphere of activity in which we are permitted to remain children all our lives.
-Albert Einstein-

There is Truth and there is Beauty.  Some may chose one over the other.  Few are those who find the delectable discovery that when Truth and Beauty are combined it forms a symphony that approaches divinity not only in its depth of creative power, but also its scope of infinite possibilities.  Today I saw but a glimpse of that rare beauty that such a combination can bring. 

Since I was in my early twenties I have had a number of experiences that have shaken me to my core.  At first, these experiences came slowly.  Recently the frequency of these experiences has seemed to accelerate—almost exponentially.   Each experience has had its own indistinguishable nature.  No two experiences were alike.  Some were like being shot out of a cannon; some took days or weeks to conclude.  Some were composed of one big experience.  Others took a string of fairly large incidences.  Today I had a number of small insights, coincidences and experiences that all centered around one central theme.  This theme was about the nature of Faith.

The very idea of faith has been one in which I have had trouble with for quite a long time.  Previously I never saw it as necessary.  I felt that looking at the underlying truth of any matter was much more important than having faith in something unsubstantiated. It seemed foolish, I thought, to put blind trust in something that had no facts or reason behind it.  Yet I always felt that “a leap of faith” is what drives evolution, and the discovery of the unknown.  The two ideas seemed irreconcilable. 

Today, for the first time in my life, the two ideas were not irreconcilable any longer.  I now seem to have a perspective that not only allows for a “leap of faith” but also gives it the wings to soar.

All one needs do, I found, was to allow for the possibility—to entertain any possibility.  One does not need to take this possibility too seriously, yet one needs to open the gates of their imagination just a smidgen to allow that possibility to exist.  For when that is done, the human mind will eventually start to figure out how that might be possible, and when there are a few human minds at work on such a possibility, then success is even more likely.

Jesus spoke of having only the faith the size of a mustard seed as being enough to move a mountain.  What I believe he meant by this, was that if you allowed just the seed of a possibility—a tiny amount of faith to acknowledge that a mountain might be moved—then one would naturally find a way for that mountain to be moved.  If we open our eyes we can see this in the modern era.  We have many marvelous technologies now that were not even conceivable for the vast majority of the time we have, as a species, been here on Earth.  These advances all required a smidgen of faith to start, as well as being backed by the foundations of truth.  And the greater beauty was that these discoveries inspired others to build and discover more and more.  Now, in today’s world, moving a mountain not an impossible task for human beings to accomplish—for we have the knowledge and vision to accomplish such a task.

A few weeks ago, a friend of mine who has been on a spiritual journey of discovery, came down from the mountains of Taiwan. He and his wife gave up everything, including money, to put trust in existence.  The timing of his visit was absolutely perfect.  He contacted me just as I was looking to contact him.

When he came, he had some outrageous spiritual theories.  Some of which I had heard before he went into the mountains.  They seemed irrational and absolutely crazed in some aspects.  They completely made no sense especially in view of modern scientific knowledge.  When he came he asked me to have faith in him, simply as a friend.  I opened myself to the possibilities that my friend’s theories were true.  I did not believe completely that they were, but I instead imagined, as if, they were true.

I never completely came to agreement with my friend in the end, although we spend days talking as if the foundation of his theories were factual.  We built upon these theories, expanding it with our ideas and imaginative speculations.  In the end they allowed me to make some spiritual discoveries that I have been testing, with great success, since his visit ended.  My theories are different than his.  Yet I would possibly never have come to such conclusions if I had not opened my mind to what he believed.  I took a leap of faith, and since I never abandoned what I felt to be true, I not only survived any potential crash, but have also soared. 

If our perspective is founded on a layer of truth, at least as close to the truth as we currently know, this can provide us with a secure foundation.  Yet, if we layer our perspective, with beauty provided by our imaginations, we can add an extra layer of color and texture to nature without losing site of what is real.  This frees our imaginations to find solutions to problems that are currently impossible, and with time, awareness, patience and cooperation we might eventually discover ways to make the impossible truly possible.  

By mixing truth with beauty we can create and discover more, for it gives us greater motivation to create and discover.  Books, films, art are often more powerful when they mix truth with beauty.  Discoveries are more compelling when they not only give us the facts of how and why certain processes in nature happen, but also give us the possibilities of where these discoveries might lead us. 

The culmination of my day ended up with me, by sheer coincidence, watching a movie that was about the power of faith.  An army of extremely talented and creative people created this beautiful film.  Its central theme was faith, which had strangely also been the central theme of my day.  This movie was woven in a most delightful way that mixed realism and fantasy in the visuals, the message, the characters and the plot. 

This day and this movie gave power to this idea that all we need is simply a tiny amount of faith—just enough faith to imagine possibilities. By doing so we can, through our imaginations, add beauty to our perspective without abandoning our foundations of truth.