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That which flows from the creative harmony
does not aspire to be beautiful and pretty
and yet its honesty causes it to be greatly admired.
That which is created to be pretty and fashionable and
depends on appearance alone may at first attract
attention but, lacking depth, is as quickly forgotten.
Those who stand about arguing over this or that
superfluous detail are blind to the essence of things, they
busily acquire knowledge and information so that, when
speaking, they sound authoritative.
If one has a grasp of the essence of things, one realizes
that the art of knowing supersedes the acquisition of knowledge. [1]
The mastercraftsman does not hoard.
Giving himself over to the creative harmony
his actions become a benediction to his community [2]
holding nothing, he possesses all in abundance. [3]
Thus harmony brings benefit without harm
The mastercraftsman, competing with no one,
excel at his work.
footnotes
[1] You perceive that the principle resistance they (the Pre-Raphaelites) have to make is to that spurious beauty, whose attractiveness had tempted men to forget, or to despise, the more noble quality of sincerity: and in order to at once put them beyond the power of temptation from this beauty, they are, as a boby, characterized by a total absence of sensibility to the ordinary and popular forms of artistic gracefulness; while, to all that still lower kind of prettiness, which regulates the disposition of our scenes upon the stage, and which appears in our lower art, as in our annuals, our commonplace portraits, and statuary, the Pre-Raphaelites are not only dead, but they regard it with a contempt and aversion approaching to disgust.
John Ruskin; from The Lamp of Beauty; Writings on Art, page 65
[2] The day will come when man will live a fuller life, a more complete life of high ideals and great principles, when feeling in man will be as much awakened as reason. When that day comes the knowledge will be spiritual knowledge, not book learning... One can feel everywhere, in colleges, in societies, in clubs, in any of the professions, that every person is seeking directly or indirectly for some knowledge; man feels that there is a knowledge which is more real. Every person seems to be disappointed with his experience of life. He may be most successful in the world, it does not matter. He may be a rich man, he may have a high position, but he is disappointed, he is longing for something which will satisfy him. What is it? It is not outside. It is within himself. He will find it on the day when he awakens to the reality of life. Once a soul is awakened to the reality of life, all other things matter little. What matters is that he understands clearly that what satisfies is within.
Revolutions and harmony, war and peace, are all parts of a whole being. But contentment and perfect resignation open up a harmonious feeling and bring the divine will into harmony with our own. Our blessing now becomes a divine blessing, our words divine words, our atmosphere a divine atmosphere, although we seem to be limited beings; for our will becomes absorbed into the whole, and so our will becomes the will of God.
Hazrat Inayat Khan, The Will; Human and Divine
[3] Nothing is better for a man than to be without anything, having no asceticism, no theory, no practice. When he is without everything, he is with everything.