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to moral sentiment, and Buddha, the development of the individual self, to individual subjectivity expressed through aesthetics. Different spiritual paths which correspond to the value spheres have been identified as moving toward the same omega point [19]. Wilber [9, 14] describes a sequence of spiritual or post-mental stages—*sychic, subtle, causal* 

We have discussed the development of the individual self, or "I" as that development has unfolded within its complementary social matrix, emphasizing the aesthetic aspect of the cultural experience. Two of the main configuring dynamics of that development has been the sequence of internal differentiations, as well as the differentiation of the value spheres of the True, the Good, and the Beautiful, institutionalized in social and cultural structures as Science, Religion, and Art. These three value spheres engage three different facets of reality, and use differing languages—the language of "it" for science's examination of the external, objective world, the language of "we" for the shared values of the realms of morality and religion, and the language of "I" as the subject experiencing the realm of beauty. The art of the sensory-motor realm takes as its content or referent the world or sensation itself, and sees with the "eye of the flesh." The art of the mental realm takes as its referent the content of the psyche as mentally perceived. Examples at this level include surrealism, conceptual art, abstract art and abstract expressionism. Marcel Duchamp summed this up: "I wanted to get away from the physical aspect of painting. I was much more interested in creating *ideas* in painting. I wanted to put painting once more at the service of the mind" [14, p. 192]. The art of the subtle level takes as its referents visions and illuminations of archetypal forms, "soul art." Frantisek Kupka stated, "Yes, painting means clothing the processes of the human soul in plastic forms" [14, p. 192]. Tibetan *thangkas* paintings, used to support contemplation, are other examples at this level. Wilber [14] points out that these are not symbolic, metaphoric or allegorical representations, but direct images of one's

Wilber [14, p. 193] refers to the causal and non-dual levels as partaking of the "eye of spirit." At this level, there is no particular level of the referent, which means that this "formless" art might make use of any and all levels, from the sensory-motor imagery of a Zen landscape to

What characterizes this art is not its content, but the utter the absence of the self-contraction in the artist who paints it, an absence of that in the greatest of this art, can at least temporarily

was Schopenhauer's profound insight about the power of great art: it's being transcendence

As has been discussed above, each successive unfolding transcends and includes the previous level, achieving greater and great adequacy and completeness of appreciation of reality in all its depth and beauty. The beginning of this discussion involved considering how we perceive what is beautiful; the backdrop to this is the implicit assumption that we distinguish beauty as sometimes present, and sometimes not. In as much as art is both a reflection of a state of mind but also a way of evoking certain states, these latter stages move toward psychological, emotional and spiritual states in which integration is more and more achieved.

*and nondual*.

14 Perception of Beauty

subtle level potentials.

[14, p. 193].

the subtle/causal level of the Tibetan *thangkas*.

evoke a similar freedom in the viewer, which

Stephen H. Richmond1,2,3\*

\*Address all correspondence to: stephen@richmondmd.net

1 Stanford University Medical Center, Stanford, USA

2 Institute of Contemporary Analysis, Los Angeles, USA

3 San Francisco Center for Psychoanalysis, San Francisco, USA
