The role of art in spirituality Sacred art is derived from celestial inspiration Objective or subjective arts The interiorizing experience of art The link between beauty and esoterism Esoteric art How arts can lead to spiritual assimilation Is modern art necessarily bad? Art and the spiritual nature of the artist

slide 4 of 9 This is taken from a transcript of a 1995 interview with the eminent Perennialist thinker and writer Frithjof Schuon (1907-1998). Question : Could one say that the Hindu notion of darshan* has an application in experiencing art and beauty? Frithjof Schuon: Of course, the Hindu notion of darshan applies to any esthetic or artistic experience; but in this case it also involves mental and auditive perceptions, not only vision. * darshan: in Hinduism, the term has several meanings (click here for a fuller definition), but here is referring to the perception of higher realities through an intermediate cause such as a holy person or a work of sacred art.