Art Reboot

72 sinicised Buddhism evolved as broadly compatible systems, greatly reducing the potential for that conflict we expect in the West. Confucius, although canonised to some extent, was never seen as a god in a western sense, having merely set out to estab- lish a set of ritualistic, functional rules for maintaining harmony throughout society, from self to family to state, albeit under the umbrella of the ill-defined concept of ‘heaven’. A trans-intel- lectual culture tends to focus on harmony as an ideal, even if it is not achieved at every level of praxis. China traditionally recognised the highest way of knowing as undefined by rules, including rules of exclusion. They allowed that anyone could unite with the source (Dao). All sects of Bud- dhism, even those with hundreds of minor gods and equivalents of saints, set out knowingly to lead individuals not to the gods but beyond them. Daoism accepts at its core, even if not at the popular level of mystified cooks praying to a kitchen god for help with the dumplings, that deities are lower-level functionaries of a transcendent philosophy. No external God governed ancient Hinduism in India. In these mainstream eastern systems, anyone could unite with, actually become , the highest order of being. Compare and contrast with Judaism, Christianity and Islam, in which the idea of becoming God is blasphemy. As the importance of art has become better recognised in the West, we have given ever-increasing respect to artists, collectors, connoisseurs and other functionaries. In the last two centuries, museums have become the new cathedrals, built on a spectacular, devotional scale, magnetically drawing the faithful to gaze in hushed awe at icons of creativity and consciousness. We may no