Rituals

“From a spiritual perspective, rituals are ways of expressing our gratitude for that which we are engaging in.”

Rituals go hand-in-hand with many spiritual practices and ceremonies. Ceremonies, in and of themselves, are imbued with ritual. So what is this ritual all about?

To explore rituals in our daily lives, allow me to share what my daily ritual is in regard the enjoyment of my morning coffee. To emphasize the intricate nature of the ritual, I itemize and bullet-point the process below:

• ·        First, fill up the kettle and place the kettle on the burner until it boils
• ·        While the water is heating up, take out the French press and coffee mug
• ·        Once the kettle has come to a boil, fill the French press and coffee mug with water to allow both the French press and coffee mug to heat up
• ·        Place the kettle back on the burner and allow it to come to a boil again
• ·        As the water is heating back up, take the coffee grinds out of the freezer
• ·        Open the bag and take a BIG inhale of the intoxicating aroma of the ground coffee beans
• ·        Empty the French press of water and scoop in the required amount of coffee grinds into the French press
• ·        Once the water has boiled again, poor just enough water into the French press to cover the ground coffee beans
• ·        Gently stir the water and coffee bean mixture
• ·        Allow the water and coffee beans to percolate for 60 seconds (the counting is even a ritual!)
• ·        Pour the rest of the desired amount of water into the French press
• ·        Gently stir the water and coffee grinds again
• ·        Allow the water and coffee to percolate for 3 minutes, 30 seconds
• ·        At the end of the percolation period, slowly and ceremoniously, depress the French press plunger and observe the plunger compacting the ground coffee beans to the bottom of the French press
• ·        Empty my coffee mug of the water that has been heating it and slowly pour my prepared coffee into the coffee mug
• ·        Wait patiently for every last drop of coffee to drain out of the French press into my coffee mug
• ·        Remove the plunger from the French press, empty the grounds, rinse out the French press, and place the French press aside to dry
• ·        Watch the steam rise from my coffee mug
• ·        Take a deep inhale of the intoxicating aroma
• ·        Gentle sip to taste…
• ·        Deep exhale and sigh of contentment…
• ·        Revel in my ecstasy…
• ·        Lose myself in bliss

I embellished the above ever so slightly, but not much!...all to make a point of ritual.

We use ritual to bring meaning and significance to our activities. We don’t actually need any aspect of the ritual, but we embrace the ritual so we can preserve the specialness or significance of the moment. Rituals are often associated with religious or spiritual ceremony, but we humans are pretty good at creating rituals out of pretty much anything—take the making of my morning cup of coffee as an elaborate example.

From a spiritual perspective, rituals are ways of expressing our gratitude for that which we are engaging in. Again, we don’t actually need any aspect of the ritual—and some spiritual practice invites us to actually lose the ritual aspect of our practice—but rituals are our way of respecting our traditions and practices. For many, without ritual our practice would be without meaning.

Think about what rituals you welcome into your daily life. Think about the rituals that form part of your spiritual practice. Consider what it would be like without these rituals. Could you give them up? What would your activities and practice be without your rituals?