Sacred Art in A Buddhist Context: Liberation of the Six Senses
"Wherever religion is a living force, there it finds its natural expression in art;
in fact, it becomes art itself. Just as art in its highest attainments becomes religion.
Art is the measure for the living quality of a religion."
(Lama Angarika Govinda, Buddhist Reflections p. 241)
Sacred Art is uncontrived, daring and non-aggressive. Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche's book Dharma Art is an extensive treatment of the interaction between meditation, insight and art in relationship with these themes. These three qualities all are interrelated and generate each other, and all are inspired by and arise from the practice of meditation.
For instance, Sacred Art is uncontrived because it has nothing to prove: it is not an act of appropriating territory or winning converts. If it communicates it communicates out of exuberance and a sense of wonder. When art touches the sacred it is un-self-conscious; there is a sense of utter genuineness and directness to what it communicates, no matter if the subject seems simple or elaborate. Sacred art depends upon the unexpected because it is not merely a formula; it is is a stroll into new territory. It is daring because artists who pursue art as the expression of their path must constantly stretch themsevles, must constantly empty their cup in order to be refilled with new gifts. Non-aggression is the act of true surrender: surrendering expectations, surrendering the need to seduce, manipulate or separate from the audience. Non-aggression is the ability to relax so that others may do the same. This relaxation creates a climate that uplifts everyone; it is the container that allows people to feel together and joyous. Non-aggression is the ability to be aware of the endless strategies that try to bring happiness and just let them relax, let them be. As we begin to do this, we find unexpected gifts which reflect a kind of beauty that is beyond any fairy tale. Sacred Art is daring because it dares us to bring hidden things to light for the celebration of the endless ambiguous expressions of what we truly are: utterly free and beyond anything expressible.
Sacred Art has the capacity to bring six types of liberation: liberation through hearing, tasting, touching, smelling, seeing and thinking. In Tibetan, the word Thong-drol means liberation through seeing, where Thong means seeing and drol means liberation. Liberation through hearing is called Tho-drol, liberation. Liberation through smell and aromas are called Dri-drol. Liberation through touch is called Tag-drol. Myong-drol is liberation through taste. Then there is Dran-drol, liberation through remembering, which occurs when we think or reflect on the Buddhist art we encountered.
What this really means is that when we make contact through our six senses with substances blessed by Masters with wisdom power, we can connect with the powerful wishes and prayers of enlightened beings to stir a powerful remembrance within: a realization of what we truly are. This encounter is the "contributory cause" for awakening, because there is no "primary cause" of enlightenment: enlightenment is something discovered that was hidden, not something created by anyone. In this context "liberation" does not mean that upon seeing the art that the person will immediately receive wisdom or become fully enlightened. There may be a flash of recognition of our true nature, or some type of experience, but usually this encounter seems to open the way to a synergistic deepening of inquiry, a kind of grace and flow of insight that begins to flower in their experience over time.
In the tea alchemy ceremony there is an opportunity to create an unbreakable bond; this bond actually is not only with our own true nature, but with everyone else present. We become a kind of family or collective whose lives are intertwined until we awake to full enlightenement for the benefit of everyone. So this celebration actually is a party, a party that heralds the end of our wandering: we have finally "arrived;" we are finally exactly where we should be, and in such good company!