True perception takes place when a gaze encounters - or sees through - another gaze.

"True perception takes place when a gaze encounters - or sees through - another gaze. Thus the Creator needs his creatures to be capable of seeing in order to be able to perceive them . . . In love as in beauty, any true gaze is a mutual gaze. Mutual gazes alone can produce the spark that illuminates . . . And the work of beauty, always arising from a 'between,' is a third thing that, springing from the interaction of the two, allows the two to surpass themselves. If there is transcendence, it lies in this surpassing."

Francois Cheng
"The Way of Beauty"

Photos: (Top) Rosy Paintbrush; (Middle) Marsh-Marigolds; (Bottom) Colorado Columbines; All three photos were taken in the Snowy Range, WY, on July 10, 2015

If we regard Nature, Nature regards us as well.

"In Chinese painting, Nature is no longer an inert, passive entity. If we regard it, it regards us as well: if we speak to it, it speaks to us as well. Evoking Jingting Mountain, the poet Li Bai affirms: 'We regard one another tirelessly,' which echoes the painter Shitao who, with regard to Mount Huang, says, 'our tete-a-tete is endless.' "

Francois Cheng,
"The Way of Beauty"

Photo: A snowy Arthur's Rock gazes at the western Sky; Lory State Park, CO; December 5, 2013

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This universe, which was capable of engendering beings capable of vision, must possess vision itself.

"This universe, which was capable of engendering beings capable of vision, must possess vision itself . . . Even a culture as reputedly unreligious as the Chinese feels that this universe, which was capable of engendering living beings provided with eyes, must itself be moved by the need and the capacity to see."

Francois Cheng,
"The Way of Beauty"

Photo: Arthur's Rock gazes at the western sky; Lory State Park, CO; December 5, 2013

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Beauty is the Very Radiance of the Good

"There is a connection between beauty and goodness . . . To designate beauty that is offered to our view, Chinese uses "hao-kan," which means "good to see."  Brought up with this language, the Chinese have an instinctive tendency to associate beauty and goodness . . . It is no exaggeration to say that goodness and beauty form the two faces of one organic, efficient entity.  So what is the difference between them?  Let us attempt a formula: 'Goodness is the guarantee of the quality of beauty; Beauty illuminates goodness and makes it desirable.' . . . Beauty, rising toward the state of joy and freedom, allows goodness itself to surpass the simple notion of duty.  Beauty is the nobility of the good, the pleasure of the good, the delight of the good, the very radiance of the good."

Francois Cheng,
"The Way of Beauty"

Photo: The La Sal Mountains loom above a ruddy sandstone cliff and a layer of fog; near Moab, UT; December 2, 2013

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At the same time as the human becomes the landscape's interior, so the landscape becomes the interior of man.

"At the same time as the human becomes the landscape's interior, so the landscape becomes the interior of man."

Francois Cheng,
"The Way of Beauty"

Photo: Sandstone cliffs and the La Sal Mountains; near Canyonlands National Park, UT; December 2, 2013

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Hiddenness is a part of beauty's charm.

"The Chinese know that living beauty is never static, never entirely revealed once and for all.  As an entity animated by the Breath, it obeys the law of 'yin-xian,' 'hidden-revealed.'  In the image of a mountain hidden by the mist, or the face of a woman behind a fan, its charm resides in the unveiling . . . The image of the mountain hidden in mist makes me think of the expression 'mist and cloud of Mount Lu,' which means, in Chinese, true beauty - which is, as it must be, mysterious and unfathomable."

Francois Cheng, 
"The Way of Beauty"

Photo: The La Sal Mountains emerge out of the fog near Canyonlands National Park, UT; December 2, 2013

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