回顧與前瞻馬來西亞佛教：第一屆馬來西亞佛教國際研討會論文集=Retrospective and Perspective of Malaysian Buddhism: Proceeding of the 1st International Conference on Malaysian Buddhism
Ven. Chok Mor dedicated his entire to Buddhism. He is well acknowledged as a talented monk who is skilled in poems, calligraphy and painting. As a monk well versed in arts, how does he view the relationship between Buddhism and arts? This paper divided his perspectives of Buddhist arts into three parts, namely, arts as a skillful means of (preaching) the Dhamma, there are common grounds for arts and Buddhism, and arts cannot displace religion. Firstly, Ven. Chok Mor treats arts as a skillful means of the Dhamma, a tool meant for preaching the Dhamma, hence his artistic works are mostly based on Buddhist themes. Secondly, he believes that there are common grounds between arts and Buddhism. Both have the same objective of pursuing truth, goodness and beauty; the therapeutic and soothing effect of arts can serve as an elementary skill to learn the Dhamma. Furthermore, the appreciation of arts and the meditative state of Zen are the same, both are capable of leading to a higher state of supramundane mental development. In particular poems and Zen may be fused beautifully: the inspiration of poems can catch the traces of Zen, and the liberation in Zen can bring the state of poems to a higher level. Lastly, Ven. Chok Mor emphasizes that arts cannot displace religion. He uses the argument that “the realization in arts is only momentary but the practice of religion (referring to Buddhism) is eternal” to counter the “replacing religion with arts” argument of Cai Yuan Bei. Based on the above, it may be said that Ven. Chok Mor is a Buddhist monk who understands and uses arts from a Buddhist standpoint.
