Daily Meditation: Tuesday, December 12, 2017

Beauty - its relationship to kindness

12/12/2017

Sometimes, while in the mountains, we see on the edge of a precipice a tree whose trunk and branches are oddly twisted. This tree has had to withstand high winds, bad weather, even lightning, but it resisted and its struggle against the elements is reflected in its trunk and branches. In the same way, in life we meet people whose faces are tortured and asymmetrical, but what gifts, what talents! This proves that they too have had to endure very difficult conditions. And to overcome them, they have often developed their mind and will to the detriment of certain qualities of the heart, and these efforts, these tensions, are visible on their faces. Beauty in human beings speaks more of the qualities of their heart than of their intellectual faculties or their will. Beauty, true beauty, has a much greater affinity with kindness than with intelligence. This is why very beautiful people are often predestined to be victims. And this is why it is important that they are surrounded by people who can help them to defend themselves against the desires their beauty arouses in others.