Quotes About Rituals

THE MOST FAMILIAR wedding rituals can transform themselves into meaningful traditions when it's your wedding. The tossing of the bouquet, dancing with relatives you haven't seen in years, the achingly embarrassing toasts…I wanted it all, and I loved every minute of this Christmas wedding.

The biggest problem is the funerals that don't exist. People call the funeral home, they pick up the body, they mail the ashes to you, no grief, no happiness, no remembrance, no nothing. That happens more often than it doesn't in the United States.

Men hand out cigars. Women 'hand out' babies. And thus the world, for thousands of years, has gone round.

My day starts with the chanting of Gayatri Mantra and Om Namah Shivay. I chant them every time I bowl.

I went to church as a boy, and then I quite quickly stepped away from religion. But I remained fascinated by the need people have for religion.

Under Confucianism, the use of precisely measured court music, prescribed steps, actions, and phrases all added up to an extremely complex system of rituals, each used for a particular purpose at a particular time.

A local cult called Christianity.

There was no such thing as a prayer of supplication in the old religion, only ways of giving thanks.

Bacchus, the Saviour, son of the virgin Semele, after being put to death, also arose from the dead. During the commemoration of the ceremonies of this event the dead body of a young man was exhibited with great lamentations, in the same manner as the cases cited above, and at dawn on the 25th of March his resurrection from the dead was celebrated with great rejoicings. [224:3] After having brought solace to the misfortunes of mankind, he, after his resurrection, ascended into heaven. [224:4]

Am I sure that there is no mind behind our existence and no mystery anywhere in the universe? I think I am. What joy, what relief there would be, if we could declare so with complete conviction. If that were so I could wish to live for ever. How terrifying and glorious the role of man if, indeed, without guidance and without consolation he must create from his own rituals the meaning for his existence and write the rules whereby he lives.

religions are merely the garments of faith—and very ill cut they often are

The generosity of the poor, Sera marveled to herself. It puts us middle-class people to shame. They should hate our guts, really. Instead, they treat us like royalty. The thought of how she herself treated Bhima—not allowing her to sit on the furniture, having her eat with separate utensils—filled her with guilt. Yet she knew that if she tried to change any of these rituals, Feroz would have a fit.

External activities can't change us, says Jesus, because sin comes from within, from our hearts. Our rituals might change our behavior for a while, but they can't change our hearts. And so they can't bring true and lasting holiness. We need heart change.

I have taken part in ceremonies with North American and Mexican shamans, as well as Brazilian ceremonies.

The pillars of traditional healing were 1) connection to clan and the natural world; 2) regulating rhythm through dance, drumming, and song; 3) a set of beliefs, values, and stories that brought meaning to even senseless, random trauma; and 4) on occasion, natural hallucinogens or other plant-derived substances used to facilitate healing with the guidance of a healer or elder. It is not surprising that today's best practices in trauma treatment are basically versions of these four things

el asesinato es algo que, con todos sus detalles y ritos, se aprende de otros, se aprende de las leyendas, de los cuentos, de las memorias, de los periódicos, en suma, de la literatura.

They were so accustomed by now to the random coming and going of the lights that no one bothered anymore with the rituals of power outage

Little travelled or exposed to Europeans, who were forced to settle in a special suburb in Moscow, the nobleman mistrusted new or foreign ways. His life was regulated by the archaic rituals of the Church – its calendar arranged to count the years from the notional creation of the world (with the birth of Adam) in 5509 BC.*

It is not the rituals of worship that please the gods.

The Jitong chapter of the Book of Rites says, "There are three ways of caring for one's parents: when they are alive, look after them; when they are deceased, tend to the death rites; when the death rites have been completed, offer them sacrifice.

When one has nothing left make ceremonies out of the air and breathe upon them.

When you've nothing else construct ceremonies out of the air and breathe upon them.

Where you've nothing else, construct ceremonies out of the air, and breathe upon them.

Of such dreams and of the rituals of them there can also be no end. The thing that is sought is altogether other. However it may be construed within men's dreams or by their acts it will never make a fit. These dreams and these acts are driven by a terrible hunger. They seek to meet a need which they can never satisfy, and for that we must be grateful.