Ritual

The theme for today is Ritual.

Perhaps thinking about this word
can help us understand mindful action a bit more.

"Ritual" is a funny word
because of the odd mixture of how it reaches for meaning
with a kind of a wink
and at the same time
a solemn eye.

It flirts at or whispers of important things
without being able to name them
and offers something that seems
to be beyond one's grasp.

"Ritual" comes from "rite", a religious observance or ceremony, custom, usage.
An attempt to define it (in the encyclopedic style)
looks something like this:

A ritual is a set of actions,
performed mainly for their symbolic value.
It may be prescribed by the traditions of a community,
including a religious community.
The term usually refers to actions which are stylized,
excluding actions which are arbitrarily chosen
by the performers.

A college commencement is a ritual,
as is a marriage ceremony.
Ritual has extended out
from formal to informal
and from social to personal
to include many things one does
in a fixed or stylized way
including personal actions
like one's "morning ritual" of coffee, orange juice, and soft boiled eggs
prepared each day just so -
it has a significance beyond just getting the body fed.

The academic definition of ritual comes from anthropology.
It takes an "outside" and distanced view
and looks at the forms of what happens
divorced from the actual lived experience
of what is like to do rituals
and what it means to the ones who do them.

Maybe ritual wasn't ever formal and given
in the way the definition makes it seem.
Maybe it was always something living.

I have a friend who used to have a lunch ritual
involving a diet Sprite, a cigarette, and sitting on the curb
which was to be observed each day during lunch break.

Ritual is really interesting
because it involves both Meaning and Action
and connects the inner world and the outer world into one event.
This is important
as a means of embodiment of a spiritual "everyday life"
because without it
meanings have no substance but only abstract form
and the world is merely physical.

Ritual has a certain kind of power.
But what kind?
Not the kind that does physical work
but it may be the kind that makes physical work worth doing.

What did the definition mean by saying
"excluding actions which are arbitrarily chosen by the performers" ?

I think it means,
a ritual has to in some way reach beyond
the "small selves" of individuals
connecting them in some way with something outside themselves
something greater.

If you go to the clinic and wait in an exam room for the doctor
and then the nurse takes your weight, pulse and blood pressure
in such a familiar way
even though it doesn't really need to be done
is that in some ways a ritual?

What else does ritual "do"?
To use a psychological word
it creates a state of "liminality"
which refers to standing at a threshold
in the space between two worlds of experience.

Thus ritual can take one to a doorway or gate,
the threshold of a physical or psychological response
in which one could shift into a different way of experiencing.

This is the "inside" view.

Rituals can be considered a skill
of psychological, spiritual, and social well-being.
One level of skill is be to participate in rituals
and to allow oneself to be affected by them.

Another is to establish or cultivate them
which is not like writing a recipe and then cooking it
but more like walking in a way
that creates a path that comes into being over time, by the walking.
It's mysterious  to determine just when it actually exists.

The anthropologist's definitions of ritual
are actually extremely flexible
and describe something that might happen almost anywhere
and for many different purposes.

Some people might be concerned
with such a broad definition of "ritual"
and think it should be reserved for formal or religious occasions.

Perhaps so. The religious "givens" may be important.
But there's still a whole world of personal spiritual and psychological experience
that needs some kind of word
to describe opportunities
for action that is meaningful in these ways.

So until such a word emerges,
let's allow the word "ritual" to guide
how we think about one's personal actions.

In the world of personal activity
one could say
a ritual is something one does
not to achieve a physical and functional result
like depositing money in one's checking account
or a habit like brushing one's teeth
but with good attention
and because it brings one well-being in some way
and is in some way enjoyable and uplifting
and if one does it often enough
it achieves some deeper experiential effects
that take time to develop.

If one doesn't like running on a treadmill for exercise
and does it just to be fit
it's probably not a ritual.

Often rituals are aligned with time or other natural events
and make them more "real" by giving them attention
that they wouldn't otherwise have.

My afternoon nap or evening meditation may be a "practice"
and may or may not be a ritual
depending on how I do them
and what that implies
about who I am, what life means.

Suppose for example
I have a job that involves a lot of thinking and planning
and my habit is to carry it around in my mind.
If I have a nice novel by the bedside
that I look forward to reading
every night for a half hour before sleep
and it relaxes me and clears my mind of the day's concerns
then it has a lot of the characteristics of a ritual.

What formal or personal rituals are part of your life,
or have been in your past?

Can you adopt, or create new ones?
What could your imagination present about this possibility?
In the "creation" of anything new, people discover
that though at first they feel a lack of support
they discover it in the doing,
that they never actually walk a new path alone.

Or perhaps there are some that don't have the power they used to have
and could be sacrificed to make room for something new.

Do you think that it's possible
to do some everyday life activities a bit differently
in a way that changes the experience and its significance
for yourself or to others?