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| Nansen-ji, Kyoto |
In college, more than fifty years ago, I was shocked to learn that the ancient Greeks gave Ethics a higher value than Aesthetics. In my private pantheon, beauty was paramount, and included or implied every other virtue. I believed instinctively in Keats's Ode on a Grecian Urn -- "Beauty is Truth, Truth Beauty, - that is all ye know on earth, and all ye need to know."
A few years later I became a student of Zen Buddhism, which seemed to treat the two as one -- beauty as a realization of truth. This year I fulfilled a lifelong dream, touring Japan and contemplating the beauty of Zen gardens. And it was there that I finally, sadly, laid Keats's romantic illusion to rest.
