The Ritual of Reality...

It is interesting to think about old debates about the importance of ‘rituals’ and about their usage today. In Ancient Chinese thinking there was a debate between two main competing ideologies of the day, Mohism and Confucianism. Confucianism was based primarily on rituals – that a ritualistic relationships and practices in everyday life were used/needed to stabilize and form society into a moralistic and virtuous place based on these customary norms and obedience to them. Mohism was against the great use of rituals in daily life and focused more on self-reflection and ‘authenticity’ rather than ‘obedience to ritual’. He believed that by ‘reflecting on one's own successes and failures, one attains true self-knowledge rather than mere conformity with ritual.’ With this, he seems to believe that spending our time following social norms – as we are ‘supposed’ to do – does not allow us too truly focus on our selves and the true lessons and moments of that self.

I agree with this concept. Today’s society is wholly ingrained within following these ‘social actions/distractions’ that have now become ingrained in our cultures. Firstly though I should say that when I mean rituals (i.e. ways of structuring society’s norms), I really mean two things: one is ‘things’ to keep our lives’ ‘patterns’ – to basically control us – and secondly, things to distract us from our daily existences. Realistically they are both symbiotic as our norms become coping mechanisms to distract us from the daily ‘crap’ we feel.

Today’s rituals as I see it are things like birthday’s, holidays such as father/mother’s day, valentine’s day, etc, social outings, drinking, smoking, escaping, etc. I mean things that take us away from the self-‘reality’ that we exist in everyday. Throughout the world’s history – regardless of the system – human beings have seemingly always been trying to find ways to increase happiness and ‘feel’ good. What is a birthday, but a ‘reason’ to celebrate? But what reason does/should one need? If ‘everyday’ is a celebration then why do you need an excuse? The problem with today is that most people are living a life that is not fulfilling to them. They are looking for escapes – distractions. Birthday’s are a celebration of another year of existence – like this milestone means something different today than yesterday, like your life is any different from the previous day based simply on the passing of this ‘day’. Yet we follow these rituals religiously. They are things to make us believe that what we see today is not actually today, but a moment away from today, away from the today that we are mostly not fulfilled with.

Rituals designed (fictitiously) to keep us ‘in-line’ or used as a distraction or subconscious controlling mechanisms that keep us from ‘reflecting on our own successes and failures,’ and ‘attaining true self-knowledge’. It is this ‘true self-knowledge’ that we should really all be striving for. For in obtaining this is the only way that we can become truly content – or even happy – with our inner selves. If we are happy with ourselves and what we do/are on a daily basis, then why would we need to live for the weekend, the next holiday, or to see another birthday? Happiness comes from within, and if we work to try to find it outside our selves via socially constructed rituals, we will never understand who we are or what our happiness can/will be. Break free of these petty rituals and find happiness in that day, that moment, and that existence.

Our reality becomes these rituals, and our happiness becomes wholly tied to these rituals rather than being tied to ourselves…