Ritual of Love

Some young spiritual seekers asked a significant question: "does religious ritual heal the soul?". It depends on how deep people disclose the meaning behind rituals. If the understanding is deep, the daily practice is also deep, rituals help souls on the journey of healing.

In Japan there is a beautiful ritual called the art of tea. The first step in the art of tea is to empty the cup. It simply means, empty the cup of mind from the past and the future first, then one can pour the tea of the present. 

Any spiritual seekers whose meditation is deep enough understand, before being touched by meditation, the mind is dictated by guilty past and threatening future. The past filled the cup of mind with bad memories and guilty feelings, the future filled the cup of mind with fear and anxiety. Especially the fear of death.

As a result, the cup of mind can never be filled by the gift of the present. As widely known in the world of meditation, the past has passed, the future is not yet to come. The only present is the present. That's why in English the now is called the present (the gift).

The state of mind which perfectly rest at the present then becomes a womb for the birth of knowledge of the true self. Once the last knowledge was born, then every step of life is illuminated by the light of insight. This light makes all darkness of ignorance totally disappear.

In Bali, there is a very sacred cycle of time called Galungan and Kuningan. One day before Galungan, there is a ritual of butchering the pigs. The symbol behind this is simple, it is a symbol of killing the inner ignorance.

Pigs can be butchered using a knife, but the inner ignorance can only be killed by deep concentration (Samadhi). At the level of perfection, concentration means to accept, flow and smile to every blessing of this moment. Mainly because everything is the smile of the same perfection.

Any one who can perfectly hug the blessing of present moment, they can open the gate of peace. After passing eleven days of concentration from Galungan to Kuningan, in the day of Kuningan, Balinese hang coconut leaf in front of the house. The shape of coconut leaf is like full moon. It is a full circle. The starting point is the same as the ending point. In Eastern philosophy, it is called mandala (perfection).

One day a foreigner asked a simple question: "what kind of rituals that you inherit from Balinese elder?". Suddenly and spontaneously the inner teacher answered like this: "the ritual of love". As an evident, the Balinese do not only give offerings to the upper beings like gods and goddess, the Balinese also give food (segehan) to the lower beings. It is an expression of unconditional love.

Back to the beginning question about the healing power of rituals, rituals do help the soul on the journey of healing. However, rituals only heal the soul when people disclose the deep meaning behind. At the deepest level, rituals are the expression of unconditional love.

Author: Gede Prama
Photo Courtesy: Twitter @thisthatperhaps

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