The World is Beautiful

Is the world beautiful? Sometimes we appreciate the beauty of the world with a sense of awe. To find it, we don’t have to travel further. We only wake up a little earlier in the dawn and meditate on how the surroundings gradually get brighter. The sun always rises. She never fails her job. Every morning we can see the beautiful sunrise. Even on a cloudy or rainy morning, we notice her routine as the light gets everywhere to give us the exact shape of everything. 

Meditate on everything around you early in the morning. We never fail to appreciate the beauty of the world. 

Even at night, darkness is not the lack of light. It is awareness of light. Like the morning meditation, midnight is also the best moment to meditate on the beauty of the world and the universe. Countless stars above overwhelm us if we think of them from a spacetime perspective. How far are these stars away from us? The lights we see in them are those shined millions and billions of years ago. Do we see their past? Or, as the lights reach our eyes, do we still see their presence? And the light from our sun is already for the future appreciation millions and billions of years? 

Midnight darkness reminds us of such a sense of awe. I always recall these lines from Psalm 19: 

The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork. Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night sheweth knowledge. There is no speech nor language, where their voice is not heard.

Psalm 19:1-3

We can see and appreciate the beauty of the world and the universe. Why are they so beautiful? We don’t know. Who created them? We don’t know, either. We can only say God knows. 

God knows. 

That is the sentence we always go back for anything we don’t knoｗ yet, beautiful and overwhelming. The sense of awe is the ultimate sense we should always keep in mind, heart, and soul. Without it, we can never see true beauty. Without it, we can never have true faith. Without it, we can never genuinely say God knows. 

Quite often, however, we fail to see these types of beauty. We feel saying the world is beautiful sounds so naive and ignorant. We answer back as follows: 

Isn’t the world such a miserable place? People are rude and cruel. They don’t trust one another. They hate and kill one another. Everyone is so selfish. Don’t worry about them. They are busy for themselves as we are all busy for ourselves in this place of the survival of the fittest. Finally, we say: 

The world can be beautiful only when I am happy, successful, and prosperous. The universe can be beautiful only when I feel recognized, loved, and appreciated. Otherwise, the world is ugly. The universe is fake. 

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. So is the beauty of the world and the universe? 

God forbid. This kind of beauty is temporary, delusive, elusive, illusory, and selfish. The true beauty of the world and the universe can never be “beautiful” (that means “ugly” as well) in such a superficial way. Stop such pursuit of happiness, success, and beauty. You would be forever in the desert chasing after the mirages.

Meditate day and night. We don’t have to travel further. We don’t have to possess a lot. We don’t have to become someone admirable. Meditate day and night. With a sense of awe, we experience a moment of complete selflessness! Because of the true beauty we appreciate, we forget ourselves. No more pursuit of anything. Nobody is doing such a task. We are nobody. God is. God knows.

But his delight is in the law of the Lord; and in his law doth he meditate day and night.

Psalm 1:2

Image by Quang Le