Love, harmony and beauty are related. Love's highest attribute is harmony, which in turn is perfected in form as beauty. It is the interactivity between two opposite energies that sponsors these qualities on cosmic and personal levels.

Two equal forces co-exist in all things. Self-expression is the outward direction of separation that seeks exultation through exploring uniqueness; surrender is the inwardness of being that yearns to remember love, the sublime condition of merging with others.

These forces are more powerful than any other; they can be called experience and knowledge, and their mutuality of attraction is raw and passionate: desire itself. Great poise is needed to hold them in balance otherwise what occurs is either chaos or inertia.

In love, This and That are the perfect couple united in harmony, the one adapted to the other and both lost in each other. In separation, their profound yearning to reunite is shown by a constant urge to capture beauty, to pin the wings of a butterfly in flight.

Such futility is so poignant! Yet what else to do? Why not articulate life's terrible impermanence with such a gesture of ephemeral beauty? Kids build sandcastles, Tibetan monks make sculptures of butter. Beauty is fickle by nature.

In the very moment of creation, all forms are doomed to die, and what eventually remains is memory's impression. Then let us make our hearts as tender as a newborn, so they will be impressed deep and forever with the grace of beauty that only a loving heart can perceive.

Though we may pin butterflies to stem the tide of time, relentlessly the processes of aging claw away at the surface grace of form. Yet just because of this unwelcome imperative, we are forced to turn within and recognize the wiser beauty of love eternal.

Qualities lie dormant in a person until they are claimed, expressed and recognised by another; in some cases it is the recognition that comes first. So, one who can see the potential in another, who can understand and name it, demonstrates a degree of creative genius in co-creating these otherwise defunct potentialities.

Having new qualities recognised allows a person the opportunity to reach out more into the world of everyday experience and participate more fully with an expanded repertoire of personality and behaviours.

It takes a real, deep and sensitive affinity with another not only to recognise hidden potentials but also to welcome them, and by so doing sponsor them. This can give the other the necessary confidence that leads to success.

If we are to be true to ourselves, we must be true to others also, and this means having an optimistic supportive attitude to the ultimate potential that we perceive within all who come to us, and to orient ourselves to the highest within them.

It is this ability possessed by true teachers that identifies them as such. It is not the ability to show knowledge of form that makes one a teacher; it is the ability to recognise and so awaken another's potential. This skill and attitude demonstrates true inner knowledge.

One with this ability will need to be careful not to lose focus and simply demonstrate their own skill and insights. The prideful use of them is a subtle form of manipulation that is often used in order to dominate and control.

However, if the inspiration is true and clear, then it cannot be threatened by ego pursuits, since all expressions of pure spirit result in unsullied outcomes.

There is a dimensional difference, which indicates an accumulation of wisdom through experience, between trust that is well-founded and blind trust in ones sheer good luck. The love of risk and adventure can be nothing more than primitive stupidity.

Or it can be a very conscious self-challenge designed to train oneself in skills that are ever available as a resource on the road to success. We can ask ourselves whether such skills are apt and developing, or whether the love of risk comes out of some other, less wholesome, motivation.

Humanity’s genius is sometimes invested in nothing more telling than pleasure itself – for example for the feeling of self-love that comes out of overcoming danger by using ones personal skills. A whole new industry has arisen around this theme, which includes white water rafting, bungee jumping and sky diving.

Yet, however insignificant or indeed trivial it may seem, such a practice serves the race itself by creating fresh new challenges constantly. Like everything, the genius we have for coping with unexpected threats and finding ways to succeed also needs to be renewed, if entropy is to be avoided. Use it or lose it!

What once were survival skills, and perhaps nowadays are used only for leisure, serve the same function as ever – to develop powers through the commitment to achieve a goal. Without an external aim we tend to let our abilities and finer qualities atrophy, whereas a target will pull more out of us than we would otherwise be able to access alone.

The same theme is shown in normal day-to-day living, since there are constant demands that call upon us to come up with a useful response even when we have no previous history that teaches us what to do. We come to depend upon an inventive level of creative resourcefulness that we tend to take for granted, which is, in fact, quite remarkable.

All experience therefore receives its validation on some level, according to our ability and willingness to accept the associated risks. We recognise that life is, quite simply, a dangerous activity and, like it or not, we need to deal with that.

The facility of humanity’s intelligent resourcefulness is so often misspent by engaging in unbridled fancy and fascination with trivia. Our capacity to think things through, to consult inner experience and intuition and to find imaginative solutions, is so often wasted on new ways to make the same old mistakes.

That special ability we have to know how to respond imaginatively to challenges can be directed towards the greater questions so that we come to see how, exactly how, all things are interconnected by the process of mutual exchange – that all of the various aspects of life have their own contribution, and mutuality is the universal currency of survival and abundance.

On the human level, it is tact that awakens this comprehension, since through it we look for ways to show appreciation of the value that another person brings. It is much more than a simple courtesy or charming elegance, because it raises both giver and receiver.

The constant practise of this art will unfailingly generate the inner understanding that all things are inter-dependent, that in every case there is symbiosis between the individual and the world.

On a personal level one then develops the efficient means to serve oneself and others simultaneously and accordingly grow in ones influence to shape events. To serve the world, to serve a neighbour and to serve oneself are therefore equivalent and mutual activities.

We see a fallen leaf differently now – more tactfully. It is not a waste product of the tree’s summer need for the sun’s energy; it has become food for the earth and a source of joy and inspiration for those touched by natural beauty. Our sensitivity develops so that we always keep in mind the final purpose of a situation, a person, or thing and, by so doing, offer greater recognition.

Somehow this unswerving fidelity, to honour everything and everyone for their ultimate goals and meanings, creates a sense of being able to adapt spontaneously to all that comes along, trusting in our own sense of how best to serve the needs of this moment simply by being who we are without censorship or external reference.

Wishful thinking, unadorned by accurate reflection on the facts of the matter, and absent of the will to achieve, leads to stultification of the self and is to be avoided.

To raise this impulse to its highest level at which it is useful, one simply has to accept the positive evidence that beneath all the sham, the world at large has an underlying fundamental friendliness.

This engenders, even in the cautious soul, a sense that the world itself is a nurturing and encouraging place in which to act out ones ideas and fancies. It can be counted on; trust will be rewarded with success.

The pilgrimage, from darkness to light, requires us to press forward with unflagging courage, safe in the knowledge that the journey itself is its own reward – yet also aware that detachment from outcomes is actually what ensures a successful outcome.

When taken seriously on its own terms, life guarantees enduring rewards. Wishy-washy won’t work, and really we wouldn’t want it anyway. We get so much more from a life that is fair, in rewarding courage and clarity with a premium, since this measures and categorises individuals exactly according to our intuitively derived principles of justice.

With this cosmic law operating, we see that our moods and potentialities are fairly and accurately reflected by the scenes and scenarios of our circumstances. This is a deeply satisfying improvement on the alternative: something-for-nothing, and it is the ground upon which is built spiritual integrity.

Since all are subject to the same ruthlessly applied natural laws, what develops in the responsive soul – who sees all suffering as fair yet poignant – is the deepest level of compassionate wisdom and a feeling of spiritual fellowship with all beings.