Experience of Beauty

The experience of beauty is an act of the consciousness. Ordinary acts of human consciousness are characterized by an inherent dichotomy between the “me” and the “not me.” There's a table there, and I’m not the table. There's a computer there, and I’m not the computer. I’m not the couch, the lamp, or the rug. I’m not the window, the shade, the light, or the heat. I’m not the revolving door, the Industrial Revolution, the Revolutionary War. I’m not détente, entente, Immanuel Kant, or Garamond font. I am not the innumerable phenomena—things and concepts—external to me.

Aesthetic experience—the experience of beauty—is different. I see a painting. I absorb the images. I take them in. I lose myself in the images. It is a magical, transcendent experience, one in which I transcend that duality between me and the images. Or I go to a concert. The sounds wash over me. I absorb the sounds. I take them in. I lose myself in the sounds. I become the sounds. In this literally transcendent experience, I transcend the duality that exists between me and the sounds. I have become the sounds, not in physical reality of course, but in this act of my consciousness there is no subject and no object.

So why do we go to concerts? Because under certain circumstances we can have a transcendent, life-affirming experience: just by absorbing sound we can transcend the duality that exists between the self and the external world.