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Rites and rituals

Spirit of Light

Be who ever you want
In your practice of religion/spiritual path, what is your view of rites and rituals?

Personally i do not perform rites or rituals, I do not bow to the buddha statue, not because i do not respect buddha, ofcourse but because the buddha is not within the statue :)
(I do bow toward the buddha statue if there is monks presents.) as respect
 

danieldemol

Well-Known Member
Premium Member
In your practice of religion/spiritual path, what is your view of rites and rituals?

Personally i do not perform rites or rituals, I do not bow to the buddha statue, not because i do not respect buddha, ofcourse but because the buddha is not within the statue :)
(I do bow toward the buddha statue if there is monks presents.) as respect
As a liberal I view them as man made. Which doesn’t mean that I have a problem with people’s usage of them, just that it comes with an understanding that they are personal/cultural preferences and not absolute necessity
 

Twilight Hue

Twilight, not bright nor dark, good nor bad.
Being monk Immaculate of Screaming Monkey Zen tends to leave one prostrating
now and then.
 

SalixIncendium

अग्निविलोवनन्दः
Staff member
Premium Member
In your practice of religion/spiritual path, what is your view of rites and rituals?

Personally i do not perform rites or rituals, I do not bow to the buddha statue, not because i do not respect buddha, ofcourse but because the buddha is not within the statue :)
(I do bow toward the buddha statue if there is monks presents.) as respect

Aside from daily meditation and burning of incense, no rites or rituals to speak of.
 

crossfire

LHP Mercuræn Feminist Heretic ☿
Premium Member
I use ritual along with meditation to access my unconscious mind and find and change any unskillful engrained habits there. Most of the stuff I dredge up resolves itself quickly on its own once I become consciously aware of it, so I don't need to do a lot of ritual. Ritual can be helpful as a means to release attachments/obsessions/addictions/engrained patterns.
 

Deeje

Avid Bible Student
Premium Member
In your practice of religion/spiritual path, what is your view of rites and rituals?

As a Christian, I try to follow closely what Christ taught. There were no rituals performed in first century Christianity. No litergy, repetitious prayers or meaningless practices done by rote.

There are things that we are commanded to do, and also commanded to avoid, but this has more to do with everyday life, such as avoiding immorality, spiritism and racism, sharing the Christian message with our neighbors, and being regular with our personal prayers and worship as a way to stay connected to God on a daily basis, not treating these things in a casual way.

Originally, Christianity was more educational, rather than ritualistic....so this makes the designation "Christian" something I am, rather than something I do.
 

dfnj

Well-Known Member
In your practice of religion/spiritual path, what is your view of rites and rituals?

Personally i do not perform rites or rituals, I do not bow to the buddha statue, not because i do not respect buddha, ofcourse but because the buddha is not within the statue :)
(I do bow toward the buddha statue if there is monks presents.) as respect

According to this book, society is all messed up precisely because we do not have ritual initiations into positions of responsibility in our society:

https://www.amazon.com/King-Warrior-Magician-Lover-Rediscovering-ebook/dp/B00EXOFDXI

Rites and rituals put people into a mindset of having a sacred space which allows people to make a connection and experience a transcendent reality beyond the one normal consciousness experiences.
 

Workman

UNIQUE
In your practice of religion/spiritual path, what is your view of rites and rituals?

Personally i do not perform rites or rituals, I do not bow to the buddha statue, not because i do not respect buddha, ofcourse but because the buddha is not within the statue :)
(I do bow toward the buddha statue if there is monks presents.) as respect
I do not have an idol except for my inner is what I tend to lean on..my ritual are my prayers to my within..my respect is there for not harming in others with theirs..I learn most of it when I admit my wrongs, I do a lot of walking before I sit and start to talk..I try and not know anything but understand in everything..I love puzzles because this world is full of em..One must understand silence first before he knows noises, if not! Noises is all one would know and silence will be to awkward for him to deal with. This is a part of my life.
 

Vinayaka

devotee
Premium Member
In your practice of religion/spiritual path, what is your view of rites and rituals?

Personally i do not perform rites or rituals, I do not bow to the buddha statue, not because i do not respect buddha, ofcourse but because the buddha is not within the statue :)
(I do bow toward the buddha statue if there is monks presents.) as respect

I do a daily puja, invoking the presence of Ganesha, guardian devas, Siva, and Murugan into our home, and into my heart. It sets up a psychic bubble around the home, and around my physical body. The rituals are from ancient Vedic texts, and the mindset (seeing it as reality, not symbolic) is from the Saiva Agamas.

For me, it is like a psychic shower, a cleansing, and a great way to start the day.
 

sayak83

Veteran Member
Staff member
Premium Member
In your practice of religion/spiritual path, what is your view of rites and rituals?

Personally i do not perform rites or rituals, I do not bow to the buddha statue, not because i do not respect buddha, ofcourse but because the buddha is not within the statue :)
(I do bow toward the buddha statue if there is monks presents.) as respect
I don't have any. But that is more because of my own preferences than any views on that matter.
 

Aupmanyav

Be your own guru
Rites and rituals put people into a mindset of having a sacred space which allows people to make a connection and experience a transcendent reality beyond the one normal consciousness experiences.
Transcendent reality for me is that there is only one, no other; and that too flits between existence and non-existence. I bow to those whom I love and respect.
 

Thief

Rogue Theologian
In your practice of religion/spiritual path, what is your view of rites and rituals?

Personally i do not perform rites or rituals, I do not bow to the buddha statue, not because i do not respect buddha, ofcourse but because the buddha is not within the statue :)
(I do bow toward the buddha statue if there is monks presents.) as respect
likewise....
the Temple has customs
and people without customs are frowned upon

I have no ritual or ceremony
no litany of prayers
no rug for your knee
no cap for your head

and though it is written.....do not salute.....
I allow myself that one thing
when passing a coworker I nod my head.....just as a substitute for good morning
 

sun rise

The world is on fire
Premium Member
In your practice of religion/spiritual path, what is your view of rites and rituals?

Rites and rituals are useless as they are. Practices which come from the heart might be repeated but they are meaningful because they come from the heart.
 

Glaurung

Denizen of Niflheim
The liturgy is an essential component of my faith. Which is why I have strongly leaned traditionalist in my practice for years. When you downplay ritual and present Catholicism as primarily a collection of doctrine divorced from any tradition and ceremony, you rob that doctrine of much of what makes it compelling in the first place. Pomp and ceremony communicates the divine and transcendent content of the faith. My view is that ritual is itself content. That the medium by which the faith is communicated is itself a statement about the faith.
 
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crossfire

LHP Mercuræn Feminist Heretic ☿
Premium Member
Rites and rituals are useless as they are. Practices which come from the heart might be repeated but they are meaningful because they come from the heart.
You can also approach ritual in the same manner as a koan: give the monkey-mind something to do to tire it out until it gets exhausted and still so the quiet mind of the heart can be heard. I prefer an actual koan in this case, but it may work for others.
 

pearl

Well-Known Member
The liturgy is an essential component of my faith. Which is why I have strongly leaned traditionalist in my practice for years. When you downplay ritual and present Catholicism as primarily a collection of doctrine divorced from any tradition and ceremony, you rob that doctrine of much of what makes it compelling in the first place. Pomp and ceremony communicates the divine and transcendent content of the faith. My view is that ritual is itself content. That the medium by which the faith is communicated is itself a statement about the faith.

There is a difference between tradition and Tradition. The former evolves as does doctrine. To fully appreciate the changes in ritual one needs to look at how the Liturgy has evolved from the beginning.

http://www.bytrentsacred.co.uk/index.php/klauser-history-of-the-mass/1-the-early-liturgy
 

Glaurung

Denizen of Niflheim
There is a difference between tradition and Tradition. The former evolves as does doctrine. To fully appreciate the changes in ritual one needs to look at how the Liturgy has evolved from the beginning.
I am not going to make this a discussion here. I am only going to reiterate my view once more. While valid, the Novus Ordo is a banal by design substitute of the historical Roman Rite. The attempt to render Catholicism "relevant" has basically frozen most of the Roman Rite within a 1970's zeitgeist that has long passed its use-by date.

If they would turn the altars back around ad orientem, restore the communion rails, get rid of the awful "folk" music and build churches that actually look like churches most of my complaints about the Novus Ordo would disappear. They should also study the Personal Ordinariate liturgy on how to create a reverent English translation. It's religious, or "sacral" (as we call it) English done right.
 
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arthra

Baha'i
In your practice of religion/spiritual path, what is your view of rites and rituals?

Our daily prayers involve ablutions and instructions for prostrating and such but these are performed in privacy at certain times of the day... other than that there is a minimum of "rites and rituals".

The Baha'i marriage involves reciting an oath that we will abide by the will of God in front of two witnesses. Burial involves people standing in silence and one person reciting the prayer for the dead. Some prayers are prescribed for pilgrimages.

There are no priests or altars in the Baha'i Faith and no monastic asceticism. No pulpits are in our Houses of Worship.
 

EtuMalku

Abn Iblis ابن إبليس
In your practice of religion/spiritual path, what is your view of rites and rituals?

Personally i do not perform rites or rituals, I do not bow to the buddha statue, not because i do not respect buddha, ofcourse but because the buddha is not within the statue :)
(I do bow toward the buddha statue if there is monks presents.) as respect
No mudras, prayer wheels, or pilgrimages?
 
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