Mediaeval Sinhalese Art c7.138

c7.138

This attitude is logical in the case of one who believes that rapid spiritual progress can thus only be made, and who is in haste. But it is admitted that spiritual progress can be made in other ways, and perhaps not much less quickly, for example, by the performance of right action without attachment to the fruit. And for those who tread such paths art is a means and an aid to spiritual progress, but it is important that it should be so used, and not as an hindrance. And so like everything else, it has been made a part of religion. The ascetic path has never been for all men, and all occasions. The citizen or ‘householder’ is first, as without him the race would not continue and the purpose of the cosmos would fail. Art is of the first importance as the form of culture which most easily humanises his toil and spiritualizes his ideas. So long as man is related to the world of phenomenal appearance, whether real or not, art of some kind is the necessary means of spiritualizing that relation. This applies as much to the ornament of utilitarian objects and to architecture, as to the purely substantive and ideal art which definitely aims at the revelation of the divine. All art is a very essential part of culture, an integral and inseparable part of any noble ‘civilization.’ The ornament added lightly by the craftsman to an every-day utensil, is at once the humanization of his labour, and the witness that man does not live by bread alone.