I’m part of a study group on the work of the Bolivian spiritual philosopher Oscar Ichazo, who founded the mystical school Arica. This week we are studying the introduction to one of his new trainings, on the process of death.

Briefly, in it Ichazo is talking about the Light, or Luminosity that precedes birth, comes into this life with us (only to be largely veiled by our egos and attachments), and is revealed again in the process of death and afterwards. What was particularly interesting to me, though, was a reference he made to Beauty, or the apprehension of what is Beautiful, as being a force strong enough to cut through this veil during our lives, and reveal the Luminosity at the heart of all.

The reference he used was from Plato’s Symposium, where Socrates tells of his initiation into the Light, or Luminosity, by Diotima, the great prophetess & priestess of the Mysteries. She taught him to simply recognize & contemplate the harmony that is within all that can be called the Beautiful. When the internal Harmony of that Beauty is discovered, she says, it gives rise to a state of Love.  "This love", Oscar says, "having become the actual manifestation of the Beautiful, is in a position of purity, and from this position, it is possible to understand the Luminosity of the Good that is beyond existence and nonexistence …"