in the Arts. Imagination is a faculty that can be developed and refined, and can be connected with the traditional Buddhist faculties of faith and wisdom: ways of experiencing that go far beyond concepts or feelings.
Appreciation and practice of the Arts is seen within our community as an important means of engaging the emotions in the spiritual life and of making a bridge between traditional Buddhism and Western culture. The Buddhist perspective creates a standpoint from which to develop a consistent critique of western art. At the same time, some of the greatest western artists, poets, and writers have had intuitions of the higher states to which Buddhist practice leads.
There are many working artists, musicians, and writers practising within the Triratna Buddhist Community. Some produce traditional Buddhist images, which are gradually becoming more western in appearance and ‘feel’; others are working within the western traditions. In recent years this has resulted in the production of a number of plays and musical works, retreats devoted to the arts, and two Buddhist arts centres in the UK. Urthona magazine is devoted to exploring the arts from a Buddhist perspective, and in India the Asvagosha Project successfully took the Dharma