Understanding それを美しいと感じると考え


I've found this sentence in one of my history books and I can't really make
heads or tails of it....what does it mean at all?

> 利休は、茶道の精神は、簡素な中に深く豊かなものをみつけ、 **それを** もっとも **美しいと感じる** と考え、その精神を和敬静寂という葉で表した

  1. What does Rikyu really think?
  2. What does それを refer to?
  3. What does 美しいと感じる mean?




I would break up the sentence in this way:

利休は、[[茶道の精神は、[簡素な中に深く豊かなものをみつけ、それをもっとも美しいと感じる]]と考え]、[その精神を和敬静寂という葉で表した]

Rikyū thought that the spirit of tea ceremony is to find something deeply rich
within something simple and feel that this is the most beautiful. He expressed
this spirit with the expression wa-kei-sei-jaku.

The それを refers to [深く豊かなもの], i.e. the deeply rich thing (that was found within
something simple, and thought to be the most beautiful).

美しいと感じる means pretty much what it says: to feel that something is beautiful.

