Buddhist Aesthetics and Ethics: Beauty, Morality, and the Path to Enlightenment

Aesthetics is a branch of philosophy dealing with what is beauty. It studies the qualities of nature of the beautiful and makes judgments concerning beauty. The primary aesthetic concept at the heart of Buddhist culture is the aspiration of leading a holy life. In Buddhism, beauty is not for beauty's sake. It has been viewed as an incentive for those who aspire to the holy life. Buddhist concept of aesthetic is a beauty of things imperfect, impermanent, and incomplete. According to Buddhism, the cultivation of the right attitude to aesthetic is very important.  Ethics in Buddhism are traditionally based on what Buddhists view as the enlightened perspective of the Buddha, or other enlightened beings that followed him. Moral instructions are included in Buddhist scriptures or handed down through tradition. Most scholars of Buddhist ethics thus rely on the examination of Buddhist scriptures, and the use of anthropological evidence from traditional Buddhist societies, to justify claims about the nature of Buddhist ethics.