Artists and saints: Here's a great quote from the excellent catalogue Buddha Mind in Contemporary Art that seems to apply to the previous two posts, as well as to my Adbusters essay on art and spirituality. It's by Cuban-born Trappist monk-turned-artist Ernesto Pujol:

Spirituality lies outside of capitalism; there is no such thing as spiritual achievement. But spirituality and art are our highest human expressions. They bear the potential for connecting us with equally sensitive minds elsewhere, and even awakening a few sleepers. The best of art and spirituality can both improve and transcend this moment. Thus, for me, art is the enlightened, formal, cultural expression of an evolved mind that is fully awake, capturing and embodying the full awareness of a moment, while at the same time transcending it. Ideally, the right practice of art should produce as many saints as the practice of spirituality.