318-319

Sufficient is my CHIANG
My frontier, and my bridge.

Many works of these composers are rituals, some of which are designed to have an effect on society as a whole. In some societies, the shamans are believed to have the power to keep the universe in order by performing their rituals in trance. They show the human need to reestablish a shared psychic reality. In Western culture, artists, through their highly developed aesthetic sensibilities create a shared psychic reality with their audiences and communities.

320-322

In Heaven there is no boundary (violence).
Metal unyielding, inside pliable;
Blood unstable; weakness in the fields.

In our materialistic society, the role of the contemporary composer/performer is vital to its psychic health. Artists' activities often seem absurd to the conscious mind but inevitably produce their effects on the unconscious whether the subjects seem receptive or not. The new shared awareness thus created has a great healing effect on the whole community.

323-324

The boundary (violence) has a declining urge;
It weakens.

The concepts and practices of the sacrificial ritual which was at the heart of the Vedic religion, were also linked to the fundamental understanding of the existence of a cosmic law. The central physical feature of religion was not a temple or an image, but an alter on which the sacred fire was lighted and around which the ritual took place. The sacrifices were mainly things that man himself enjoyed, such as food or intoxicating soma, a kind of drink whose nature is not known. These offerings came to be surrounded by rites of extraordinary complexity, the correct performance of which was dependent upon specialized knowledge of the priests. The belief grew up that the sacrifice was necessary for the maintenance of the cosmic order, and without regular sacrifices all cosmic processes would cease, and chaos would come again. From this the conclusion was drawn that what was important was not the gods to whom the sacrifice was made, nor the materials of the sacrifice, but the sacrificer, who knows the secret formulae that held the cosmos together. The word that was used for the sacrificer was brahman, which only by extension of its early meaning came to be used for a whole class of people. Originally brahman seems to have meant the spoken words of the ritual, but eventually it stood for the power behind the ritual, the principle that lies at the ground of all being, and hence the end of man's spiritual quest.

The Hindu Tradition1

1 Embree, Anlie. The Hindu Tradition; Modern Library; 1966.

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