Just as beauty is truth, and truth beauty, the spiritual life and the artistic life are inextricably linked.

A work of art not only expresses its creator's clearest insight and most refined emotion, it also acts as a means through which we may experience something of the beauth he has perceived. REligion, far from being a dry orthodoxy denying our deepest urges torward the Truth, can serve as a key to the process of exolution whereby we become that Truth. Properly approached, both religion and art lead to an expansion of consciousness, a state of heightened awareness and understanding in whic, ulimately, the limiting boundaries of "self" no longer hold.

In this collection of essays, Sangharakshita — a spiritual teacher and poet — offers a manifesto for a radical appraisal of art and religion.