Beauty: The Invisible Embrace: Rediscovering the True Sources of Compassion, Serenity, and Hope

O'Donohue Ph.D., John

ISBN 10: 1591791375 ISBN 13: 9781591791379

Publisher: Sounds True, 2004

Synopsis

The human soul is hungry for beauty; we seek it everywhere in landscape, music, art, clothes, furniture, gardening, companionship, love, religion, and in ourselves. When we experience the Beautiful, there is a wonderful sense of homecoming; we feel fully alive. Our lives become illuminated, and behind the shudder of appearances we come to glimpse the sure form of things.

On Beauty: The Invisible Embrace, Irish poet and philosopher John O'Donohue invites us to remember and to awaken the Beautiful; it is always secretly there, awaiting but our attention and reverence in order to come alive.

Beauty is the true priestess of individuation. But our times are dominated by anxiety and by what is vulgar, coarse, and artificial. Were Beauty to awaken in the fields of politics, religion, planning, discourse, and seeing, our world would heal, and fresh wells of hope would refresh us. Kathleen Raine, the English poet says: "Strangest of all is the ease with which the vision is lost, consciousness contracts, we forget over and over again, until recollection is stirred by some icon of that beauty. Then we remember and wonder why we ever forgot."

About this title

Book Description:

"When we awaken to the call of beauty, we become aware of new ways of being in the world," teaches John O'Donohue. The beautiful unites your feelings, your thoughts, and your dreams--it brings together all the different dimensions of your life. On Beauty: The Invisible Embrace, O'Donohue inducts listeners into this eternal world that lies beyond form and function. "The human soul is always hungry for beauty. It can be sought everywhere: in landscape, furniture, clothes, love, religion ... and in ourselves," he explains. Perhaps now, more than ever before, is the time to awaken and invoke beauty. There is a great coarseness in our time; it can be seen in our language, in the way we hold life, and in the way that we behave toward each other. Beauty: The Invisible Embrace offers listeners the opportunity to truly experience the beautiful, which--according to this Irish author, poet, and scholar--is to experience unity with the Divine. Drawing from his own Celtic wisdom and the writings of Keats, Rilke, Thomas Aquinas, and others, John O'Donohue guides listeners through five hours of poetry, vision, and imagination to attune to "that which shows us the surprise at the heart of everything."

About the Author:

John O'Donohue
JOHN O'DONOHUE was a poet, philosopher, scholar, and native Gaelic speaker from County Clare, Ireland. He was awarded a PhD in philosophical theology from the University of Tübingen, with postdoctoral study of Meister Eckhart. John's bestselling books Anam Cara, Beauty, Eternal Echoes, and the beloved To Bless the Space Between Us, among many others, guide readers through the landscape of the Irish imagination.

About this edition

• Publisher: Sounds True
• Publication date: 2004
• ISBN 10: 1591791375
• ISBN 13: 9781591791379
• Binding: Audio CD