The old religions were very much against beauty because they were against life itself, because they were against love. Beauty provokes love. They were against the world, and the world is utterly beautiful. And because they were against the world, against life, against love, against beauty, they created very insensitive people. Obviously, there is no possibility to grow in sensitivity if beauty is not respected, appreciated, enjoyed. All your sensitivity will die. The old religions were not sensuous, and whenever a man is not sensuous he starts dying, he loses contact with the living forces of Existence.
I teach a sensuous religion. I teach a sensitive religion. To me, beauty is far more valuable than truth. Truth is only an aspect of beauty, a face of beauty. Beauty us God himself. I teach a very artistic religion. And aesthetics to me is like ethics was to the old religions: aesthetics is my ethics.
If you are in love with beauty you will not do anything wrong – that is enough safeguard – because to do anything wrong you will have to do something ugly. The man who loves beauty will not be able to assert a lie, because a lie is ugly. His sensitivity towards beauty will certainly prevent him from doing many things that he could have done if he were not sensitive enough.
The Tongue-Tip Taste of Tao, Chapter 22
