Life as Ritual

• https://psyche.co/guides/how-to-live-free-and-in-harmonious-ease-with-confucian-ritual

For a life of harmonious ease, find the rhythm in the everyday: make your world your temple and submit to its sacred ritual

How to set yourself free with ritual

1. Ritual is not about stale traditionalism. The teachings of Confucius’s Analects are about submission to life-as-ritual, not about enforcing the status quo or obeying fusty old rules.
2. Ritual is about reverence. Treat the world around you seriously, with respect for its rhythms and patterns.
3. Everything is ritual. We shouldn’t restrict the scope of ritual to activities such as weddings and funerals. The world is a sacred space with its own patterns, and we can ritually harmonise with it at all times.
4. Ritual is even better than good habits. Habits are inflexible, and that’s a liability. Confucian ritual is flexible, and performing it properly entails willingness to adjust yourself to different contexts.
5. Never stop studying. Except for a few geniuses, seeing the patterns of the world can be tough. Reading widely and asking questions when you’re confused is, itself, part of ritual.
6. You can’t fake it until you make it. Without cultivating sincerity and kindness, your rituals will be hollow. A fake ritual is not a ritual at all, no matter how much it looks like one.

See also

• What is a good life