Arts and Aesthetics

The Virtually Internal Pole of Beauties

Man's virtually internal pole in regard to beauties has several aspects:

1-Awareness about the universe: As a living being, man sometimes gains profound knowledge of the universe and the amazing events in it.

2-Variety-seeking in man's life: Monotonous affairs make man feel depressed and bored. Seeing even the most beautiful things without any variety will not please him. If someone looks at the same beautiful picture all the time, he/she will get bored, for the picture is a rigid result of the artistic taste and talent of its creator, not his/her mental states or artistic talent. Observing a human being is not tiresome, however, for it conveys the glory of life and the universe. This is precisely the immensely significant point that separates a beautiful piece of natural scenery, with its special life and flowers rooted in the streams, from a work of art or plastic flowers, for the connection of a flower to the stream of the lively universe prevents it from becoming limited and lifeless; this is what prevents man's variety-seeking taste of life from getting bored. 

3-Intelligible beauties: Ideals such as justice, freedom and sacrifice – essential to spiritual evolution – are regarded as beauties. If separated from observable beauties, the unity and balance between man's life and spirit will vanish.

The Virtually External Pole of Beauties

The aspects of the virtually external pole of beauties are:

1-The dependence of the universe upon God: By feeling himself and the universe dependent upon God, man can better observe the immense, wise glory and beauty in the universe. In other words, there is both beauty and order in the universe.

2-The relation between the part, the parts and the whole in beauty: When discussing beauty, we should not analyze each of its smaller components and search each one for beauty, and having not found it, question the total beauty. Although the whole consists of these parts, the quality of the whole is not necessarily derived from adding the quality of each one of them separately. In fact, the beauty arises from the human mind contacting the whole system.

The Differences between Observable Beauty and Intelligible Beauty  

We will now discuss some of their differences:

a)Man perceives observable beauties by means of his senses, but he cannot directly do that in the case of intellect-based beauties, where he must use human values and principles; even if observable beauties have any influence here, it will only be limited to serving as a code or signal for intellect-based beauty.

b)Observable affairs including beauty can be subject to quantitative calculations, but intellect-based beauties arise in the human character, which cannot undergo any calculations.

c)Observable beauties lose their appeal after some time, whereas intellect-based beauty always remains attractive, like the pleasure man gets from the beauty of justice, free will or freedom.

d)How the two forms of beauties are felt and witnessed is also different. In observable beauty, physically physical effects bring about the realization, but in intellect-based beauty, it is accepting the immensity of mental activities that is effective.

The Definition of Beauty

Beauty is the recorded effect of perfection, and perfection is being located on the path of what is deserved and proper – except for when the beauty is two-dimensional, like man, who may be externally beautiful, but immensely filthy internally. 

According to this definition, all beauties, even the physically observable ones, have a trace of perfection in them. There are three reasons to prove this:

1-If a beautiful phenomenon consists of components, they must be proportionate and orderly. For example, if a flower is regarded as beautiful, its shape, situation and color must be well-balanced, so that every part of it is proportionate and harmonious. 

2-Beauty has a virtually internal aspect, i.e. without man's intrinsic, natural interest in beauties, he could never appreciate them; the mere internal reception is a virtual greatness for man itself. 

3-If a phenomenon is not beautiful, man will not enjoy it. This  is quite apparent in the case of intellect-based beauties.

Suppose in a beautiful landscape, somebody very dear or close to us is killed brutally; will that piece of scenery still seem beautiful to us? If a few drops of the blood of somebody very dear to us, killed brutally in a crime, is placed on a work of art, and adds greatly to its beauty in the eyes of anyone not knowing about the killed dear one, will it also seem beautiful to us? Does the beauty of a beloved seem as beautiful to others, too? This is why we added this statement to the definition of beauty: 'except for when the beauty is two-dimensional, like man, who may be externally beautiful but internally filthy.' In Persian literature, this is described as 'a snake with beautiful lines and spots.' 

گفـت ليلـی را خليفه  کــآن  تويـیکز تو مجنون  شد   پريشـان  و  غوی

از دگــر خوبان تو افــزون نيستـیگفت خامش چون  تو  مجنون  نيستی  

ديدة  مجنـون  اگر بــودی تــو  راهر  دو  عالـم بی‌خطر بـــودی  تو  را

(Are you Leili, whom Majnoun is so crazy about?" the caliph asked Leili, Majnoun's beloved. "Are you the one who has him wandering in the deserts? You're not outstandingly beautiful; what has Majnoun seen in you that has caused such a storm in him?" Leili replied, " Yes, you should ask that, for you are not Majnoun. If you did see like he does, you would willingly devote everything you have, ready to face all the perils of both worlds.)

What Jalal-addin Mohammad Rumi means here is that if you watch this world – or even both worlds – with purity, you will become fascinated and infatuated by it.

Perfection and greatness is the basis for beauty, so the more aspects and dimensions of perfection and greatness a beautiful phenomenon has, and the more familiar its viewers are with those aspects, the greater the intuitive feeling of beauty will be. Such intuitive visions of beauty are something not many people can have.