Dog Turd

If someone had an awakened sense of beauty then if they were walking down the sidewalk and suddenly came upon a dog turd lying in the middle of the sidewalk they would be able to see the beauty in that dog turd.

Is that too radical? How can there possibly be beauty in a dog turd lying in the middle of the sidewalk? Have you ever stopped to contemplate a dog turd lying in the middle of the sidewalk? When you see one do you immediately keep walking on, putting it out of your mind? Or have you ever stopped to search for the beauty in it?

Beauty in a dog turd? Why not? There is love, joy, and beauty in all life! (And therefore also in death.) Every single solitary part of reality is a divine creation. Every part of reality is in a different stage in its ongoing birth/death cycle. That turd was once food and its nature was changed by a dog and its gastrointestinal system. As it decays and ferments on the sidewalk it once again changes back into food that will be used by plants in order to grow. The plant is eventually eaten by an animal which is subsequently harvested to make food. One minute it is food, the next minute it's a turd, and then its food again. With time it will once again be a turd.

The essence is the same and the inherent beauty remains. It is only our perception that changes. We perceive it in its different cycles and we judge it according to what cycle it is in. Cycles of life are judged "good" and cycles of death are judged "bad." But they are cycles of the same thing! And that same thing has beauty. If it did not, it would not exist!

There is outrageous beauty in its very existence!

So the challenge is to find and see that beauty despite what cyclic stage it is in and what solidified judgments we have on those cyclic stages. A sense of "awakened beauty" allows us to see through those judgments of certain stages and see the beauty in all things!

In my opinion, an awakened sense of beauty is critically paramount in enabling us to evolve our consciousness beyond where it is now. It is the magic key that will unlock the door to the reality we know we having waiting for us. It is the secret of ascending out of the sticky gooey morass of judgments we are mired in.

Early this afternoon when Shawnee was taking me for a walk we happened to come across a dog turd lying in the middle of the sidewalk. I actually stopped to, ever so briefly, take notice of it. It was exquisitely formed (all in one piece). The colors were artistically swirled with black and brown and a wee bit of orange. (I wondered if the dog's owner had fed it carrots.) Its consistency looked fairly solid. Surprisingly, I could detect no odor although it looked rather fresh. Watching my step, I put it out of my mind and kept walking. Shawnee, of course, had to sniff the damn thing. Little did I know that it would become a metaphor for my subsequent rambling.

But there really is beauty in a dog turd lying in the middle of the sidewalk if we can get beyond our judgments about it. Once the rains come that turd will be washing away from the sidewalk into the neighboring dirt and it will help fertilize some flower or weed that is pushing up from the earth to grow and flower. I know that in my back yard the grass is currently a lot greener in the corner where Shawnee does her business. Can you imagine what this world would be like without any poop? The trees and grass and flowers wouldn't grow nor would anything else. Poop is a necessary and powerful part of the cycle of life on this planet. Without it we would have one seriously messed up constipated reality and growth would be severely stunted. Beauty would be stifled.

But why can't we see the beauty in that? Why can't we see the beauty in death as well as the beauty in life? After all, they are both dependent on one another. Beauty is ALWAYS there! It is only our perspectives that can prevent us from seeing it. And through a lifetime of conditioning, our perspectives are shaped and controlled by our judgments.

The more judgments we drop, the wider our perception of the photo becomes. There is beauty in all things and it is our choice whether we see it or not. There is joy in all things and it is our choice whether we feel it or not. There is love in all things and it is our choice whether or not we recognize it. If we can rise to the challenge of seeing beauty in all things then we can start understanding what life is all about. "Life is Beautiful," to quote a certain movie title. It all depends on how you look at it.