Published Saturday, 08 February 2020
Neither mother, father
nor any member of a family
can give you the blessings generated
by your own well-directed heart.Dhammapada v.43
Beginning and ending each day by engaging with meaningful rituals can be a skilful way of keeping ourselves on track. We don’t bow to the Buddha or offer incense because we believe that the form of the Buddha has the power to protect us. Rather we make such efforts because we trust that in our hearts there is the potential to awaken beyond all relative needs and projections. Considering the emotional level of our lives, some will seek out a therapist in an effort to find that which they felt was missing; in so doing old wounds might be healed and a sense of joy in living return. In that case the form of the therapist served their emotional needs. Forms such as bowing and making offerings to a shrine can serve our spiritual needs so that our hearts might discover what it means to be rightly-directed.