My mind goes back to those two Summers is 2005 and 2006 when, as the International School of Art, we traveled, painting and drawing as we went, through Europe. The bright colors now come back to me: the brilliant red and magenta of each nationality, the blue and yellow of designs, different as they were from each other but in another sense all similar. In Hungary, the dark red skirts which spun outward as the dancers swung around in their delightful whirls, each woman and man adored with black aprons embroidered with flowers in yellow and blue. Then in Czechoslovakia, the colors were lighter in pink and brilliant green, vests laced up the front, all embroidered through many Winters of whiling away the daylight and snow-bound hours crocheting. The Polish mountaineers showed the same fondness for bright colors and home-spun harmony, seemingly copied from the flowers every family had planted in their thatch-roofed house with its stork nests on its chimney. Everywhere the flowers were of similar varieties—sunflowers, lilies, hollyhocks, and many kinds I did not know. Everywhere the designs betokened a bond between the less affluent, no matter what flag the Treaty of Versailles had placed them under. #RandolphHarris 1 of 14

What does it mean that these less affluent people used symbolic forms, cones, circles in their designs as they sewed costumes for a marriage ceremony or when they painted flowers on the walls of their huts? It should come as no surprise that the basis of our culture is reflected in its art, even in the most fundamental of art’s formal elements—line. The young painters of Cezanne see nature in cones, rectangles, squares, circles, and likes which are the forms that make up abstract art. Depending on how these forms are employed, they can seem extremely intellectual and rational or highly express and emotional. These people, knowing nothing of Cezanne, had for untold centuries seen nature in these same abstract forms, as though they were inwardly commanded to interpret their view of nature in precisely Cezanne’s ways. When I looked at the designs on vases and drinking cups in Hungary or Poland, I recalled the friezes on the vases of ancient Greece which are the treasure of almost every museum in our civilized World. What does it mean that everywhere we find human being seeking art in the same kind of designs and forms, from the Navajo Indians of North America to the natives of Africa to ancient Greece to the less affluent of Europe? What is this thirst, the yearning in all peoples which cannot be denied to make something which gives them delight? #RandolphHarris 2 of 14

Is the art made to satisfy some unknown inner urge or to express objectively the way each person sees that World at its best? Or simply to brighten whatever corner he or she has and to make it livable? These people could not understand the language of their counterparts of other countries, but they could understand completely the language of designs on the vases which pleased their eyes everytime they used them. What does it mean that each of these nationalities of people develop its dance, unique but similar, to express their exhilaration and their hope for some happiness? Some of these similarities may be the cultural influence from one country to another, but the fundamental need of human beings to ornament their vases and their tools is surely not. From the flowers of Chis on their light green vases to the cherry blossoms on Japanese parchment to the designs on holy manuscripts in Tibet to the veils in India to the rugs in the near east woven to the songs of the leader, to the designs of the Navajo rings in the New World—everywhere we find human beings making ornaments on their clothes and armor and on everything that is meaningful to them. #RandolphHarris 3 of 14

The ancient Greeks could not use a vase for oil or wine without painting in black on the terra-cotta red of the vase the stories of Sirens chasing some youth or chariot races with lovely horses or the stories of the gods in Homer, all intricate and fascinating that it gives a person hours of delight tracing these tales in the Metropolitan Museum or in London or the Louvre or anywhere these vases are gathered. Even the death-dealing swords and other armaments show the owners’ love of design. The shields, the spears to protect one’s self and to terminate one’s opponents, are covered with designs which tell the ancient Homeric tales over and over again. And in the majority of cases this beauty has nothing in the World to do with function or utility. Indeed, an unadorned sword or spear would pierce the heart of the enemy more easily. The ancient Persian saying seems to be true for all of us, “If I have one penny, with half of it I buy some bread, and with the other half I buy a violet.” Perhaps even more puzzling is the fact that the primitive art—which our less affluent in central Europe and their ceremonies richly demonstrated—has such a pronounced influence on contemporary artists in New York City and London and Paris. Primitive art, the carved wood and painted totems from Africa to Alaska, from China to Australia, from New York to India, is the language a multitude of modern artists speak. #RandolphHarris 4 of 14

It seems that whenever art in our capital cities becomes dried up, exhausted in principle, reduced to copying previous matters, the artists are driven back to find again the primitive sources of beauty, to drink  again the inspiration from the original forms of circle and cube and language which Gauguin and Van Gogh and their colleagues found. They find again what friends in the art World call honest forms; they drink again and deeply of the Pierian Springs. We realize now that our common human language is not Esperanto or computers or something having to do wit vocal cords and speech. It is, rather, our sense of proportion, our balance, harmony and other aspects of simple and fundamental form. Our universal language, in other words, is beauty. Beneath our loquacious chatter, there is a silent language of our whole being which years for art and the beauty form which art comes. For we find ourselves an integral part of this Universe is our breathing, our heart beat, our amazing balance in such a minor thing as taking one step on the path: the Earth comes up to meet us, and infinitesimally small distances, and our foot goes out to meet the Earth. From this fantastic balance of the human organism comes the art of walking and ultimately to making such forms as the ballet dancers which Degas shows us in his rich paintings. #RandolphHarris 5 of 14

Two things incline the heart to wonder, the starry sky above and the moral law within, and I wish to add a third. That is the amazing sense of balance that enables us to walk and run and to dance in the ways the peasants and other humans celebrate and express their ecstasy in all parts of the World. Art is the instrument by which beauty is actualized. Art is the eternal endeavor to realize beauty. Sometimes it is successful, sometimes a failure; but the poignancy of beauty will never let us go. As I write I fantasize that God had added an eleventh commandment, which Moses kept secret because he thought it would conflict with the second commandment which prohibited graven images since the Hebrews were living among idolatrous tribes. This shalt make thyself and thy World beautiful, for this is why I sent my gardeners, Adam and Eve, to cultivate the flowers in Eden. And this is why I have made the twilights and the springtime so radiant with splendor. An I fantasize that this is why Joan of Arc cried out from the stake when she was being burnt, “How long! O Lord, how long will it take for thy people to come see thy presence in this beautiful Earth?” #RandolphHarris 6 of 14

That which really is, as opposed to that which appears to be, behind all the countless objects of this varied Universe, is one alone, beginningless, endless, the source of all, the parent of the “I” -consciousness. This truth provides the final hope for mortals. Somewhere along one’s way one will discover it, act upon it, and be redeemed. This will be one’s last conversion, one’s final salvation, one best quest. Then only will the horrors one has contributed to the race’s history begin to fade out. All else is utopian chimera based upon wishful thoughts and fanciful imaginations. When mortals acquire proper values, whether by reflecting over their experience or by listening to their prophets, they will recognize this truth—that noting really matters except the search for the Overself. If this calls for the giving up of Earthly obstacles, then they are worth giving up for it. When one has become ripened by experience and reflection, one will accept this truth with the spontaneity of a biological reaction. If some are to be aroused to its importance they must first be given something of its meaning. Having a human body one must think with one’s heart on life’s end. This enterprise of the quest is the most serious in which a mortal can engage. We must treat it as such. However, let this not cause anyone to lose the sense of humour. #RandolphHarris 7 of 14

In pursuing this integral quest, they have the satisfaction of knowing that they are pursuing the only quest which can bring them to a truth which is all-embracing and all-explaining. The fact that so few have ventured on this quest offers no indication of what will happen in the future. If humankind could take any other way to its own self-fulfillment, this situation might remain. However, there is no other way. For one there must exist something more than merely being a member of the herd; there must be a higher direction leading to truth to satisfy the mind, to a nobler character to satisfy the conscience, to refined beautiful and gentler moods inspired by the arts, music, literature, and reverence. For one, there must be a Quest. This is the only way whereby mortals can impregnably demonstrate to oneself the illustrious dignity of one’s true being. This is the only way one can obtain the power of living in and by oneself, that is, of living the only real freedom possible on this Earth. If the consciousness is to be enlarged, if the mind’s dark places are to be lit up, if a blessed inspiration of living, work, or virtue is to be discovered, then this self-quest must be started. The Ideal in these critical days no longer a mere wish: it has become the necessary. #RandolphHarris 8 of 14

It is not enough to know with the intellect that God is everywhere and everywhen. It is also necessary to establish a practical working connection with God, if we are to obtain the actual benefit of this knowledge. Moreover this, and this alone, will give absolute assurance. One needs to recover one’s conscious relationship to the Overself: the subconscious one is never lost. The vision of the World and the understanding of life which one receives from the lips of books of others will never be so true nor so real as that which one makes one’s own. If one hears a thousand lectures or reads a thousand books but hath not found this Overself, what shall it profit a mortal? The student must advance to the next step and seek to realize within one’s own experience that which is portrayed to one by one’s intellect. And that is possible only by one’s entry upon the Quest. With ever day that passes, a mortal makes one’s silent declaration of faith in the way one spends it. It is a poor declaration that modern mortals makes when one brushes aside all through or prayer and meditation as something one has no time for. To become so lost in this World of appearances, as so many have become lost, is to shut the door on the World of reality. This is why the lost art of contemplation is a necessity and must be regained if we are to open that door and let truth in. #RandolphHarris 9 of 14

In general all the tastes of mortals from the guiltiest to the most innocent, from the most usual to the most peculiar, are related to a combination of circumstances or to a set of people or surroundings which they imagine can give them access to the beauty of the World. The advantage of this of that group of circumstances is due to temperament, to the memories of a past life, to causes which are usually impossible to recognize. There is only one case, which moreover is frequent, when the attraction of the pleasure of the senses is not possessed in the contact it offers with beauty; it is when, on the contrary, it provides an escape from it. The soul seeks nothing so much as contact with the beauty of the World, or at a still higher level, with God; but at the same time it flies from it. When the soul files from anything it is always trying to get away, ether from the horror of ugliness, or contact with what is truly pure. This is because all mediocrity flies from the light; and in all souls, except those which are near perfection, there is a great part which is mediocre. This part is seized with panic every time that a little pure beauty or pure goodness appears; it hides behind the flesh, it uses it as a veil. As a bellicose nation really need to cover its aggression with some pretext or other of it is to succeed in its enterprises, the quality of the pretext being actually quite indifferent, so the mediocre part of the soul needs a slight pretext for flying from the light. #RandolphHarris 10 of 14

The attraction of pleasure and the fear of pain supply this pretext. There again it is the absolute that dominates the soul, but as an object of repulsion and no longer as an attraction. Very often also in the search for carnal pleasure the two movements are combined; the movement of running toward pure beauty and the movement of flying far from it are indistinguishably tangled. However it may be, in every kind of human occupation there is always some regard for the beauty of the World seen in more or less distorted or soiled images. As a consequence there is not any department of human life which is purely natural. The supernatural is secretly present throughout. Under a thousand different forms, grace and mortal sin are everywhere. Between God and these incomplete, unconscious, often criminal searchings for beauty, the only link is the beauty of the World. Christianity will not be incarnated so long as there is not joined to it the Stoic’s idea of filial piety for the city of the World, for the country of here below which is the Universe. When, as the result of some misapprehension, very difficult to understand today, Christianity cut itself off from Stoicism, it condemned itself to an abstract and separate existence. Even the very the highest achievements of the search for beauty, in art or science for instance, are not truly beautiful. #RandolphHarris 11 of 14

The only true beauty, the only beauty that is the real presence of God, is the beauty of the Universe. Nothing less than the Universe is beautiful. In our mortal lives, we must have respect for all humans, and realize that parents are people, too! One of the problems inherent in talking about the importance of acceptance in family relationships is that parents are likely to demand of themselves that they be accepting 100 percent of the time, whether they feel like it or not, and that they are likely to define acceptance as meaning that the parents should never become angry, never be stern, never express a contrary opinion, and in general should become a nonentity in relation with one’s children. When this happens, the parent has become a second-class citizen in the home, one who encourages one’s children in the free expression of feeling but denies oneself the same right, for the fact is that we do not always feel accepting of our children. Sometimes the little darlings seem more like monsters. For parents to try to appear accepting wen they feel angry is to be phony and in reality to be unaccepting, for it betrays a lack of trust in the child to deal with us as we really are. It is quite possible for us to be very open with our children about our opinions and our feelings without demanding that they agree with us and without attempting to control their behavior. #RandolphHarris 12 of 14

One mother became very concerned about the clothes her daughter was wearing to high school. To her mind the girl was coming up with goofy combinations. In discussing the matter with a friend, she said, “Those getups she wears really bug me, but I do not say anything about them because I think it is important for her to be able to make her own decisions about these things. I know if I had to dressed like that when I was in high school, my mother would have said, ‘Get those clothes off and put these items from Draper James on right away!’ And I just do not feel like I want to boss my daughter around that way, but the clothes are so beautiful.” Apparently it had never occurred to her that she could express her feelings and opinion about her daughter’s clothing without robbing the girl of her right to make her own decisions, so she was adopting an attitude of studied indifference that might have given the girl the false impression that her mother had no interest or concern about her appearance. It is far better to be sufficiently self-accepting of our feelings as parents to be genuine with our children that it is to work at being accepting at the cost of suppressing our feelings. If we do not deal with it directly, our anger, hurt, or fear will be expressed indirectly in some way. #RandolphHarris 13 of 14

What comes with years and which is ascribed to mature people is the wisdom of practical living. This is merely information, knowledge from experience in practical affairs; it is not the wisdom which comes from the deeper being, the deeper self. That will arise only when one looks for it, aspires to it. The profound meaning of life is not put before our eyes. We have to search for it with much patience and perseverance. We must put a spiritual purpose in our lives and families. The first duty of mortals, which takes precedence over all other duties, is to become conscious of one’s Overself. This is the highest duty and every other duty must bow before it. When, and if, the two collide, even domestic happiness must not stand in the way of spiritual salvation. The training which makes this possible may be largely unpracticable in one’s particular circumstances but it is never entirely so. The difficulty of performing this duty is not enough excuse to relive one of it. The Universe is beautiful as a beautiful work of art would be if there could be one that deserved this name. Thus it contains nothing constituting an end or a good in itself. It has in it no finality beyond universal beauty itself. The essential truth to be know concerning this Universe is that it is absolutely devoid of finality. Nothing in the way of finality can be ascribed to it except through a lie or mistake. #RandolphHarris 14 of 14