I love this story! It really baffles the mind about the nature of reality. There are many planes of existence that sometimes merge with the one we call “real.” Princess Haiku knows all about these.

Thanks for dropping in and sharing this beauty!

I have a collection of stories about her in a folder somewhere. One of my favorite stories was written by a man who describes becoming lost while hiking on a mountainside in Tibet. It started to snow as twilight fell and he began to freeze. Suddenly, a woman appeared with a lantern and showed him the way to a cave. There was a warm fire in the cave and a warm rug for him to wrap up in. When he awoke in the morning he was in a bare, stone cave and no one else was there. This is a true story btw.

You have a lovely blog and thank you for coming to visit mine now and then.

Best Wishes

What you say is true. Many people would rather be locked into a ritual that has no meaning for them because they are afraid of not doing it. How will they find meaning in life, what can they hold on to, if the precepts they were given don’t make sense anymore and they have nothing to replace them with? This is the time for transformation to a new paradigm, one that only the brave-hearted undertake.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts.

Love and blessings!

Thanks for returning to add to the discussion.

This is a good point, even an empty ritual can lead to deeper awareness by virtue of the empowerment invested in it by those who practice it. I think that what you are saying is similar to what the Hindus believe. By repeating a mantra that has been given to you by an enlightened master, it will bear fruit because it has been enlivened by the master who attained enlightenment through its repetition.

The ritual of breaking bread and drinking wine is one of the most misunderstood. I too was raised Catholic and was always in awe of the moment of the offering. Years later I came to some understanding of the deeper meaning of this beautiful ritual. That it is about transformation, going beyond the mundane and becoming one with the divine.

Your thoughts continue to provoke a deeper contemplation.

Love and blessings!

I think it is impossible to argue about religion when all people have different ways of seeing the world. For some, their world-view is either black or white. For others they see the deeper meaning behind religion and its myths which point to the source. I like what you say, “The one who is aware of this, neither rejects any religion nor can be bound by it.”

Thanks for bringing your wisdom to the discussion.

Namaste!

This is a great topic to share, because as you spoke about, society gets wrapped up in ritual while loosing the meaning behind it. Perhaps this is because people take a message that is meant to empower them along their path, and turn it into an external power that they are expecting to save them.

One could step back and look at any ritual that they, or others perform. What do you see as the true meaning behind that ritual? How do you think it turned into the mindlessly performed pattern it is today? Ritual can be a powerful tool along your journey, but it is always wise to be aware of what you are practicing, and why.

Another example of a spell or ritual is when Jesus of Nazarath takes the bread and the wine and summons the Christ Consciousness to enter him. I was raised catholic as a child, and from what I can see looking back at this ritual, most people, if they take this ritual to heart, and believe in it, will invoke a different Christ energy taught in the churches that I visited. In this case, they may be taking in energy of a man that is a martyr or sufferer on the cross or someone who takes in the sins of others. This energy is powerful too, but it is not Christ Consciousness. Therefore, we must be careful what energy we ingest from moment to moment. When we get excited while creating or conducting a ritual, the outcomes are always amplified.

The one who is aware of this, neither rejects any religion nor can be bound by it.

I agree, these thoughts do pose some questions that may put into perspective much of the suffering and pain that we inflict on others because of the beliefs that we base our reality on.

We will know peace in the world when we come closer to the “elixir of Imperishable Being” and know that we are all one and the same though we go by many names.

Deep peace to you!

You never fail to open up my understanding to a new dimension!

Yes ritual is a powerful means to transcend the density of the physical to other possibilities. Knowing the meaning behind the ritual brings even more potency to the practice. I like your suggestions for the cat ritual and perhaps it was meaningful to the students even though the story was meant to illustrate our lack of awareness in performing rituals.

I have used symbols successfully like you mention, imagining yourself to be a mountain goat. The power of the mind to take on the characteristics that we meditate on are remarkable. These are the teachings that are missing from our education of young people, that we become like what we put our faith and energy into.

Thanks for sharing a broader perspective with your wise words!