All music is an effort to bring this silence somehow into manifestation. The seers of the ancient East have been very emphatic about the point that all the great arts—music, poetry, dance, painting, sculpture—all are born out of meditation. These arts are an effort to in some way bring the unknowable into the world of the known for those who are not ready for the pilgrimage—they are gifts for those who are not ready to go on the pilgrimage. Perhaps a song may trigger a desire to go in search of the source, perhaps a statue.
Osho. Maturity: The Responsibility of Being Oneself (Osho Insights for a New Way of Living) . St. Martin's Press. Kindle Edition.
Comments:
The Protestant revolution did away with the arts in Catholicism. The iconography, music, architecture, paintings, statues were declared idolotrous. Protestantism brought an austerity to religious practices and worship.
To this day, when I compare my experience of my former Catholicism with my now Unitarian Universalism I miss the expression of the religous experience in the arts. The passion, the inspiration, the joy is not present in UU worship the same way it is in the liturgical rituals of the sacramental churches.
Osho ays that the arts are an effort to bring the unknowable to people's awareness. The arts are the hook that attracts and engages people in the religious experience and practice. Without the inspiration of the beauty of the arts the religious experience is intellectualized and falls flat. Intellectuallization does not open the heart the same way the arts do.
What's your favorite piece of religious art?
Editor's note:
You are encouraged to get a copy of Osho's book, Maturity, and read along with us and comment. Feel free to comment even if you have'nt read the book.
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