By Susan
Recently I’ve been wondering about the importance of ritual. I read an article about how important ritual is to a community and it mentioned a study by an anthropologist, Dimitris Xygalatas. And I started to wonder more about this topic. I know that in a community, in a society, there are rituals that are meant to join us together. There are marriage ceremonies, rituals to honor our ancestors, and new year celebrations. In my elementary school class, my students follow a ritual to share their pieces of writing. I just started reading a book written by that same anthropologist. He writes that ritual, “gives its members of the society confidence, it dispels anxieties, it disciplines their social organizations”. He also writes that, “scholars recognize the tremendous potential of ritual as a vehicle for personal fulfilment, empowerment and transformation, and also as a mechanism for cooperation and the maintenance of social order”. These are all big ideas. I wanted to think about how ritual applies to myself. Here in the zendo, we have ritual for how we come into our meditation space, how we begin our meditation. These rituals help me and perhaps all of you have a sense of community. I look forward to continuing reading the book and learning more about ritual.
The title and author of the book I referenced is Dimitris Xygalatas – Ritual: How Seemingly Senseless Acts Make Life Worth Living
Hakone Zendo 