Take Comfort in Rituals

I saw this sign at the Target yesterday and was struck by it. I was kind of amazed, I gues,s by how blatant and straightforward the message was. I think I've seen variations of this ad hundreds of times, yet not so blunt. All of these ads play on our love of ritual and our need for comforting. I felt grudging admiration for whoever created this and their decision to just cut to the chase, as well as sadness at what a poor excuse for a ritual they were offering. And despite that sadness, I totally could feel it working on me. Luckily for my blood glucose levels, it was like 9:30pm and the Starbucks in the Target was closed.

When I started this blog I said that I wanted to talk about my efforts to lead a life that was both more environmentally friendly and more compassionate. I haven't talked so far about the compassionate part. But I'm beginning to think it's the most important part.

Rituals are pretty important to me, particularly spiritual ones. During the weeks leading up to the start of this blog, I'd been doing a lot of reading in a little book by Thich Nhat Hanh called Present Moment Wonderful Moment. It's a book of gathas, which are "short verses we can recite during our daily activities to help us return to the present moment and dwell in mindfulness". Thich Nhat Hanh talks a lot about rituals as a way to support the practice of mindfulness and compassion. A lot of the gathas in this book refer to the interconnectedness of the universe and compassion for the suffering of other human beings. For example:

5. Turning On The Water

Water flows from high in the mountains.

Water runs deep in the Earth.

Miraculously, water comes to us,

and sustains all life.

A short homily follows:

"Even if we know the source of our water, we still take its appearance for granted. But it is thanks to water that life is possible. Our bodies are more than seventy percent water. Our food can be grown and raised because of water. Water is a good friend, a bodhisattva, which nourishes the many thousands of species on Earth. Its benefits are numberless.

Reciting this gatha before turning on the faucet or drinking a glass of water enables us to see the stream of fresh water in our own hearts so that we feel completely refreshed. To celebrate the gift of water is to cultivate awareness and help sustain our life and the lives of others."

Doesn't reading that give a whole new perspective to water conservation? I never was able to get into the habit of actually reciting the verses at the appropriate times of the day, but just reading a few things out of this little book each day had, I think, a bigger impact on me during those weeks than I knew.

I feel much more motivated to take care of the earth and make an effort when I spend time each day contemplating on how I am in some way connected with everything on it and in it, and feeling gratitude. I guess it makes sense; it's just a way of bringing the environment into my monkeysphere.

Lately I have not been reading my gathas. I also have had a lack of energy and been feeling less enthusiastic about my efforts. I am going to start back up again now that I've begun to suspect that those little verses started all of this in the first place.