Quotes About Ritual

Consumerism is the reason Christmas has morphed into a hollow shopping ritual that leaves too many families with debt hangovers and an empty feeling inside.

The institution of religion is important.

Beer is such an integral part of the Indian culture.

In a way, I feel it might be ill-mannered to try and top myself. The music I play is a ritual. Something that matters to people in a special way. I wouldn't want to interfere with that.

The rhythm of the weekend, with its birth, its planned gaieties, and its announced end, followed the rhythm of life and was a substitute for it.

One sort of believes in recycling. But one believes in it as a kind of palliative to the gods.

Shabbat dishwasher that has been an absolute

Well-known, alas, is the case of the poor German who was very fond of three and who made each aspect of his life a thing of triads. He went home one evening and drank three cups of tea with three lumps of sugar in each cup, cut his jugular with a razor three times and scrawled with a dying hand on a picture of his wife good-bye, good-bye, good-bye.

In Giappone poi, che in qualche modo, anclhe nella maniera meno diretta, rappresenta lo stato, quindi l'imperatore , è investito in maniera maggiore o minore d'un carattere nettamente numinoso. Dinnanzi a lui ci si inchina profondamente, passandogli vicino si guarda per terra, magari tirando su col fiato con quel caratteristico sibilo che indica imbarazzo e reverenza, definito da Pierre Loti "un sifflement de vipère" .

Storytelling and ritual enactment are amongst the oldest arts, predating the communication of narrative in written form; thus while a specific adaptation project might yet be taxed with trampling on hallowed, pre-laid, literary ground, theatre itself has authoritative claims as a space historically defined by narrative (re)telling.

The bowl of the pipe is placed over the smoke, in such a way that this smoke passes through the pipe, coming out the end of the stem which is held towards the heaven. In this manner, Wakan-Tanka is the first to smoke, and by this act the pipe is purified.

Custom is our nature. What are our natural principles but principles of custom?

The truth is the Super Bowl long ago became more than just a football game. It's part of our culture like turkey at Thanksgiving and lights at Christmas, and like those holidays beyond their meaning, a factor in our economy.

Why is it that with birthday cakes you can blow on them and spit on them and everyone rushes to get a piece?

Ang Bui also told me that Thais cremate their dead instead of burying them. They believe that a man's spirit cannot be released and reborn unless the body is cremated. What do you think of that? I think it is more reasonable to respect other people's beliefs than to argue on behalf of one's own, which in any event can have no good result.

People have a habit of doing everyday things even under the oddest conditions.

I had already learned—without knowing I'd learned it—that every single thing in the world was full of mystery and awesome power. And it was only by right ways of doing things—ritual ways—that kept any of us safe. Making stories about them was not so that we could understand them but so that we could live with them.

Somerset Maugham once wrote that in each shave lies a philosophy. I couldn't agree more. No matter how mundane some action might appear, keep at it long enough and it becomes contemplative, even meditative act.

Then I got undressed and, crawling under the covers, sat up in bed and sipped my drink. I felt like I was going to fade out any second, but I had to allow myself this luxury. A ritual interlude I like so much between the time I get into bed and the time I fall asleep. Having a drink in bed while listening to music and reading a book. As precious to me as a beautiful sunset or good clean air.

mascara-ing her eyelashes with her mouth wide open (necessity of open mouth during mascara application great unexplained mystery of nature). "Don't

Ya know what I do almost every day? I wash. Personal hygiene is part of the package with me.

I simply think that water is the image of time, and every New Year's Eve, in somewhat pagan fashion, I try to find myself near water, preferably near a sea or an ocean, to watch the emergence of a new helping, a new cupful of time from it.

Key to longevity... drinking embalming fluid every year.

I have spent every New Year's Eve since 1992 in Lourdes. I spend the hour of my birth every year in the grotto. It's a place with meaning for me.