________________
WORSHIP
SCEPTICS LOSE OUT
Lavinia Plonka demonstrates that ancient rituals have deep significance and can provide invaluable spiritual comfort
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ACH MORNING MY HUSBAND PUTS A POT OF WATER ON THE stove. Carefully, he measures one handful of caffeinated and one handful of decaffeinated coffee beans into the grinder. As he grinds he counts to twelve. The water boils and he pours it into the coffee pot and the two mugs that are sitting on cloth potholders on the counter. He stirs the coffee, sets the timer. He pours another cup of hot water and places a teaspoon in it, then heats some milk. Exactly four minutes later, he pours the coffee using the heated teaspoon to put his honey in the cup. Similarly, every day in Japan in monasteries and in homes someone is preparing tea. The water is carefully boiled, the leaves measured out with exactitude. Every gesture is calculated. The tea is poured out to an exact point. The tray is placed on the table with care.
Each of the above is a ritual. Webster defines ritual as "a set form or system of rites - religious or otherwise". The difference lies in the intention. All my husband wants is a great, hot cup of coffee. The Japanese Tea Ceremony is designed to afford the practitioner an opportunity to practise mindfulness
a necessary step towards enlightenment in Zen Buddhism.
Whether we acknowledge it or not, each of us has rituals that give our life meaning. Perhaps it's lighting candles on the dinner table, or turning on the news when one gets home from work. "I can't start the day without my morning ritual of writing in my journal and then turning on the weather channel!" a friend once confessed to me. These rituals comfort and enliven us, and make us able to deal with the challenges of modern times.
However, when a ritual has no meaning, it becomes merely a habit or compulsion. Perhaps that is why many young people today have turned away from religious rituals. Performing pooja, going to church, honouring ancestors with prayer have become empty experiences. To many it could just look like habit. I recall being so alienated from the rituals of church when I was younger that I still feel a resistance to anything that smacks of submitting to some rite. I now understand that the experience of darshan, which literally translated from the Sanskrit means "seeing and being seen by God," had been lost for me. Even if I admired pilgrims walking with bowed heads and candles, or my fellow martial artists ceremoniously folding their uniforms according to proscribed tradition, I couldn't do it. It seemed just like following empty rules.
44 Jain Spirit March - May 2002
Jain Education International 2010_03
I have heard young people say things like, "My mother prayed every day for my brother and he still went and got into trouble," or "What's the point? My grandparents performed pooja their whole lives and they were still poor." But ritual is not magic. It is an opportunity to practise what can be called the highest aim for a human being. Socrates stated it 2600 years ago: "Know thyself." Not just the mind - but the mind, the body, the emotions and the spirit.
About twenty years ago I was deeply in search for spiritual meaning. I had lunch with a friend who enthusiastically told me that she had begun chanting. Enviously, I asked her what the experience was like. "Well, we focus our attention on what we wish for. And then we begin this Buddhist chant. It's really cool."
"Wow!" I exclaimed. "You really know what it is you wish for?"
"Sure," she replied. "I'm chanting for a role in the musical Cats. Bill's been chanting for a new car for the last couple of months and I think he's going to get it next week. for a new
"The act of worship Kathy's chanting
boyfriend...."
requires a trust in divine intelligence."
"Wait a minute, wait a minute. You're chanting for....stuff?"
Now it was her turn to look at me strangely. "Well, yeah. What else is there to chant for?"
The truth is, chanting and ritual can get you stuff. Focusing attention on a goal and then performing pooja can help to clear the mind, change the atmosphere, clarify intention. If you are struggling with aspects of karma that are obstructing your development, ritual can help you - whether it is an elaborate process that involves idol worship, singing hymns, making offerings or it is simply shutting yourself in a room and quietly meditating before an empty plate.
But that's not the real aim of ritual. For example, if I am performing a knowledge obstruction pooja, but all I think about are my material needs, I am missing the point. Performing a ritual is designed to help me understand something more about myself. It helps me to see the deeper spiritual meaning behind my karmic behaviour, not just make my problems go away. In a moment of understanding, there can be a revelation or an experience of darshan.
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