The Dance of Shiva: Fourteen Essays by Ananda K Coomaraswamy

Author:Ananda K Coomaraswamy [Coomaraswamy, Ananda K]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Rupa Publications
Published: 2013-02-28T18:30:00+00:00

For beauty they have sought in every age

He who perceives it is from himself set free—

aus sich entrückt. We are assured by the experience of aesthetic contemplation that Paradise is a reality.

In other words the magical effects of a song in working mere miracles are far surpassed by its effects upon our inner being. The singer is still a magician, and the song is a ritual, a sacred ceremony, an ordeal which is designed to set at rest that wheel of the imagination and the senses which alone hinder us from contact with reality. But to achieve this ordeal the hearer must cooperate with the musician by the surrender of the will, and by drawing in his restless thought to a single point of concentration: this is not the time or place for curiosity or admiration. Our attitude towards an unknown art should be far from the sentimental or romantic, for it can bring us nothing that we have not already with us in our own hearts: the peace of the Abyss which underlies all art is one and the same, whether we find it in Europe or in Asia.

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