To be involved with the arts is to be involved with all beings – because all beings are endowed with sense fields which perceive the arts. It is not simply the arts as they are commonly understood: it is the nature of artistic perception which is entranced by the totality of phenomena. The arts are self-manifested – and any artist who understands this sees art in everything and everyone. An artist sees all beings as artists.This understanding of art as bodhicitta is central to the essential Vajrayana of the mahasiddhas.
p176-177, Emailing the Lamas from Afar, Ngakpa Chögyam and Khandro Déchen, Aro Books, 2009, ISBN 978-0-9653948-5-7