If you've ever been on a trip, asked for directions, and gotten bad directions, you wish the person had said, "I don't know." Directions for the journey into truth, beauty, and goodness are different. You can estimate as you hear them, since you are not a stranger in this land. You already begin with some familiarity. You can see whether the directions make sense of what you already know and you can discover for yourself whether they take you closer to your goal. Of course you are free to reject or modify any of the directions offered. If I tell you how to get to the bakery, your nose can confirm that you are getting closer. It's the same with this journey. We start with facts and then go on to meanings and values. The aroma should get stronger every step of the way.
Truth, beauty, and goodness touch our entire existence as beings who think and feel and act. Whenever the mind begins to realize anything, it engages truth. This can happen by taking time to really learn from a magazine article on science and technology or by stopping to ponder an insight coming from a mouth of a child or by getting a realization during a spiritual practice. Whenever we feelingly enjoy anything, we experience beauty, whether in a garden or a poem. Our actions enter the domain of goodness, touching our relationships and the groups we belong to. Truth, beauty, and goodness are the values that quietly govern these regions of our lives.
These are values to be lived. When we are at our best, our spirit of inquiry is awake, we are guided by down-to-earth wisdom, we are spiritually alive. Sensitive to natural and artistic beauty, we are vigorous but not rushed. Generally cheerful, we maintain a hearty sense of humor. Alert to the needs of those around us, we are morally active. Neither prideful nor obsessed with our own growth, we have superb respect for self and others. A spontaneous beauty of character begins to emerge, and love motivates our relationships. Even amid the staggering problems of today's world, we exhibit health, sanity, and happiness. We each taste this level of living at times, but how can we cultivate it more fully? For that, we need a philosophy of living.
To cultivate the better way of living there are two approaches. The first is the way of simplicity. Start living in truth, beauty, and goodness right now. Don't make a resolution for the coming year; don't wait to finish this chapter. The wisdom is already available to you, and your present intuition is enough to begin with. Be true to the best you know. Walk in beauty. Above all, let goodness prevail in everything you do.
There are times when the way of simplicity is the only honest teaching, and any other approach would be evasive. Don’t dodge the issue by asking, “How?” Don’t ask for a method, a list of easy steps that reduces the noble ascent to something that the mind can breeze through, promising wonders without effort. Dare to come into Presence right now. Let go of creeds and dogmas and books. Truth is here. Wake up. Beauty is at hand. Let yourself feel it. Goodness beckons. Follow in freedom.
The way of simplicity is the altar call, the Zen gesture, the revelatory proclamation, the decisive act of service, the enthusiastic hug. It intimidates the cautious, those who fear presumption, and those who doubt that which is genuine.
Simplicity unfolds. A path opens up. We can survey the path in the degree of thoroughness that fits our purpose. We can explore details, handle difficulties, spend years in further research and discussion and silence, receiving and giving. Did we really think we could climb the Mt. Everest of knowledge, wisdom, and truth without decades of devoted living? To pursue paths of thoroughness is the second approach to cultivating the quality of living we seek.
Our concepts of truth, beauty, and goodness develop through experience and effort, study and struggle. In a moment of illumination, insight arrives. A synthesis crystallizes. Then life takes a new turn, and we must add to yesterday’s triumphs and struggle to find the insight all over again, this time with a new twist. The changed context prompts a fresh interpretation and an expanded synthesis. In this process our concepts acquire clarity, depth, and power. They become useful tools for putting us in touch with the energy and movement of reality. In order to acquire that usefulness concepts must be more than static ideas. Concepts go beyond definitions and even beyond the intellect itself. The word “concept” comes from Latin, and it combines two words, “grasp” and “together.” We must grasp together the full spectrum of human experience, material, intellectual, and spiritual, in order to form worthy concepts. Thus concepts have a transcendent dimension. Facts of the immediate environment are critical, but we dare to envision a cosmic perspective. Earthly beauties delight, but we contemplate beauty on a universal scale. Human goodness merits respect, but it only reaches its height by linking with divine goodness.
Reality is neither chaotic nor rigid. Therefore our path, our sequence of chapters and series of steps, can be neither arbitrary nor dogmatic. The basic distinctions we use—truth, beauty, goodness; material, intellectual, spiritual—are not watertight boxes. Life blends what the intellect distinguishes. Nevertheless, we can map the territory and chart a course to touch a satisfying range of essentials. Shifting from one to many, singular to plural, truth is articulated into the truths of science, philosophy, and spiritual experience. Beauty into natural and artistic varieties. Goodness into morality and character. Each of these topics is further differentiated into principles and exercises that make key concepts easy of approach. So, yes, there are steps that anyone can grasp.
Though you can explore these topics in any order, there is a reason for the sequence of the coming chapters. They lead through an ascending and descending path, a journey inward and a journey outward. A truth seeker aspiring to cosmic flight must first prepare the spacecraft with scientific care before philosophic ignition and spiritual lift‑off. Once the truth venture is aloft, the time to enjoy beauty is optimal, and the mission of goodness gains its required orbit, a mission to be completed only upon return to earth.
Combining the two approaches
Can we combine the way of simplicity with the paths of thoroughness? We must. This is done by bringing a wholehearted grasp of simplicity to the paths of thoroughness. Such wholeheartedness opens up discovery and creativity. The way of simplicity and the paths of thoroughness complement each other. The long path to mature love takes patience and pondering, and it is designed to complement the short path—the immediate availability of love found in communion. The long path depends at all times on the short path, and the short path is enriched by each forward step on the long path.
In daily life, we normally rely on the simplicity of intuition, only occasionally having the time to do our best thinking in thoroughness, but study and reflection sharpen intuition. Great spontaneous responses are the fruit of great decisions, and great decisions come from our best thinking. The depth of genuine simplicity comes only from laboring in the fields of thoroughness. Simple concepts become meaningful through experience with complexities, while ventures into thoroughness are kept on track by commitments expressed in simple terms. Thus we move back and forth between simple affirmations of major concepts and more thorough paths of structured exploration, between intuitive, right-brain simplicity and methodical, left-brain complexity. This movement is the life of our very concepts of truth, beauty, and goodness.