21 levels of Self-Deception: THIRD EDITION by Tom Wallace - HTML preview

T W E N T Y - O N E L E V E L S

Likewise with beauty, whilst partly accepting beauty as an image or an ideal, we nonetheless saw actual encounters with beauty — nature, other people — as the inspiration for creating more beauty — for ‘being pleasure’. The danger is always in ‘commodifying’ these values — making them something we seek to ‘own’ or ‘appropriate’ rather than something we live. What is it that makes grace and beauty different from say equality, justice or freedom? We could say that grace and beauty are given to us first. They are the gifts from the universe, from which equality, compassion, justice, freedom and celebration all flow. Or we might say that when we open a space for formlessness within ourselves then grace and beauty are the forms that are thereby created. Or we may simply say: I am grace, I am beauty. It is necessary simply ‘open a space’ within ourselves to allow grace and beauty to flow — to be the means of grace. The ‘opening a space’, ‘letting go’ or ‘stepping aside’ process is both easy and difficult. As Meister Eckhart reminds us, ‘the soul grows by subtraction, not addition’. It is in letting go of things, feelings, thoughts, attachments, habits that the space grows in us to allow grace to flow. But, in a way, some concrete task to perform may be preferred rather than, apparently, doing nothing. This is the difficult part. There is a ‘letting go’ that is really just not bothering, or being complacent or lazy. This is as bad as trying to solve things by trying too hard. Being gracious is the quiet, dignified and settled way of getting the balance correct. To be gracious is to will others to be at peace with themselves and at peace with the world.

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