Something weird has happened to me lately. I seem to see the beauty in everyone I meet.
I’m a normal human. At least I think I am. I have the same instinctual responses to physical beauty we all have. I look at people and am attracted and repulsed. Some people are physically beautiful and some people are not. Up until recently.
I took my son to an amusement park the other day and ... everyone there was beautiful. Everyone was radiant. Even people I know I would have viewed as “strange looking” before. It was both an awesome and rather intellectually weird experience. Intellectually I understood that something had changed in me and that I was no longer judging beauty by physical appearances. Emotionally I felt consumed by love.
Imagine feeling like everyone you meet in life is beautiful and amazing. That was what my day was like. It felt great even as I was puzzled by the emotional response I was having to people.
This is one of those enlightened states of being you read about. Some sage has achieved enlightenment and they not only glow, the people around them glow too. Except this was and has been happening to me, in real life. The best way I can describe what this is like is that I feel like I am seeing people's inner beauty superimposed over their outward appearance. It's stunningly beautiful to experience. In fact, I'd describe it as transcendent.
I haven't tried to see people differently. In fact, if you had told me this was something to strive for, I'd have laughed you off as some new age woo peddler. What I’ve tried to do and practice is compassion and honesty and individuality. I try to see the individual in the individuals I cross paths with. And I think this is what created the change in how I see and interpret beauty.
Every person I meet is different. Like the leaves on a tree. They are beautiful in their uniqueness. Even the faces of people in the paper accused of committing crimes look beautiful to me. They are human. Flawed humans, but still human and still ... beautiful.
Seeing beauty everywhere and in every human is a new experience for me. I find I can’t stop smiling at people. I feel surrounded by love pretty much constantly, my love for others, complete strangers. It feels great.
I hesitated writing this post because I didn’t want to sound pompous or egotistical. But I needed to share it because it’s been such a profound change for me and how I experience life that I felt like I would be lying through omission if I didn’t share this.
I didn’t try to seek this higher state of awareness or whatever it is I am experiencing. I only have been seeking to consider the people I meet compassionately. It’s become such a habit that I’m now doing it automatically and that has changed how I see people for the better and in a way that feels fabulous.
I keep saying this. There is a reason every major philosopher and religious teacher throughout history has taught compassion. It’s central to living well. Having such a profound change in how I physically see people feels so overwhelmingly loving that I don’t ever want to stop seeing this compassionate beauty. I am more committed now than ever to the practice of compassion. It’s worth practicing. It really is.
I’m a normal human. At least I think I am. I have the same instinctual responses to physical beauty we all have. I look at people and am attracted and repulsed. Some people are physically beautiful and some people are not. Up until recently.
I took my son to an amusement park the other day and ... everyone there was beautiful. Everyone was radiant. Even people I know I would have viewed as “strange looking” before. It was both an awesome and rather intellectually weird experience. Intellectually I understood that something had changed in me and that I was no longer judging beauty by physical appearances. Emotionally I felt consumed by love.
Imagine feeling like everyone you meet in life is beautiful and amazing. That was what my day was like. It felt great even as I was puzzled by the emotional response I was having to people.
This is one of those enlightened states of being you read about. Some sage has achieved enlightenment and they not only glow, the people around them glow too. Except this was and has been happening to me, in real life. The best way I can describe what this is like is that I feel like I am seeing people's inner beauty superimposed over their outward appearance. It's stunningly beautiful to experience. In fact, I'd describe it as transcendent.
I haven't tried to see people differently. In fact, if you had told me this was something to strive for, I'd have laughed you off as some new age woo peddler. What I’ve tried to do and practice is compassion and honesty and individuality. I try to see the individual in the individuals I cross paths with. And I think this is what created the change in how I see and interpret beauty.
Every person I meet is different. Like the leaves on a tree. They are beautiful in their uniqueness. Even the faces of people in the paper accused of committing crimes look beautiful to me. They are human. Flawed humans, but still human and still ... beautiful.
Seeing beauty everywhere and in every human is a new experience for me. I find I can’t stop smiling at people. I feel surrounded by love pretty much constantly, my love for others, complete strangers. It feels great.
I hesitated writing this post because I didn’t want to sound pompous or egotistical. But I needed to share it because it’s been such a profound change for me and how I experience life that I felt like I would be lying through omission if I didn’t share this.
I didn’t try to seek this higher state of awareness or whatever it is I am experiencing. I only have been seeking to consider the people I meet compassionately. It’s become such a habit that I’m now doing it automatically and that has changed how I see people for the better and in a way that feels fabulous.
I keep saying this. There is a reason every major philosopher and religious teacher throughout history has taught compassion. It’s central to living well. Having such a profound change in how I physically see people feels so overwhelmingly loving that I don’t ever want to stop seeing this compassionate beauty. I am more committed now than ever to the practice of compassion. It’s worth practicing. It really is.
