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Examining your relationship with everything in reality, from a rock all the way to a person. Understanding how you objectify it all, and realizing that it is ALL the Creator and you. The way you treat each object, creature and person is who you are in your relationship with the Creator. Then you try to develop a conscientious relationship with every aspect of reality. And where you struggle with that, you ask the Creator for help, and He responds in stunningly subtle and clever ways.
Where it says that the creature shattered and all the pieces fused with all the individual desires contained in each one. . . is that like the idea of a holographic universe, where each unit within that universe is also a representation of the whole?
Is that how Arvut works, that as each universe (person) improves their image of reality, that they are all impacted?
I think in this context you can think of the screen like a goalie.
The top half of the partzuf is able to see the Creator firing off all this goodness at it. And it’s like if it goes in to the goal it’s game over.
But if the top half can redirect those good things back out at the team mates we can keep playing the game. And the point is that we all want to play.
That’s how I think of it anyway.
I was just thinking I should mention that the way I came to this method of the Hindu rituals is that I had horrible anxiety and hyper vigilance. I noticed over time that the trigger seemed to be feeling like I wasn’t doing what I was supposed to be doing. (Probably a side effect of overly strict parenting by extended family.)
So I started all this simply so I could feel, in every moment, like I’m doing what I’m supposed to. And I could stop worrying about it.
Someone from a religious background probably feels the opposite anxiety, and might have to think of it differently.
I was raised in a Science of Mind church, which reads from the texts of every religion. They have Jesus, Buddha, Native American deities and Krishna on the same mural in the sanctuary. We celebrate Kwanza, Eid al-Adha, Naw Ruz… everything.
So, it might be easier for me to approach the concept that rituals are only tools for cleaving to your spirituality. My family is from that church also, and one who attends is an atheist who considers it to be similar to TED talks. And this is accommodated by the church, in that they try to word things to be non-specific and only to talk about the concepts. Even the traditional prayers have all reference to specific names and genders removed. And they try not to refer to God as a being unless we are celebrating a holiday taken specifically from one religion.
It actually works really well. Last I checked 6,000 people go to that church.
That being said. In my adult life I have found it much easier to have rituals. Because of my background I had no issues picking and choosing the ones that serve me. My goal is to imbue my mundane life and routine with reminders of the Creator. In my case this is most effective with principles of Ayurveda and Vastu (from Hinduism.) I only chose these because they pertain to everyday things, and they address everything. You can get so granular that there are specific ways to breathe, ways to eat, ways to sleep, ways to bathe, ways to pee… everything! And they also have a mantra for every occasion.
This means that everything in my life has a meaning attached to it that reminds me of the Creator, and by doing it in that specific way I can acknowledge the Creator. I can arrange my house by these rules. I can even sleep that way, by having a mantra in my head that I know so well that my brain continues it when I’m sleeping and I’m already thinking about the Creator before I’m aware that I’m awake in the morning.
Regardless of what the “mitzva” is… I think this is the point of rituals. Not everyone knows this is the point. And I think this is why the Kabbalists don’t outright dismiss them. They are only about the interior, and only about the intention… BUT, doing the action can help you be intentional. So, the answer to “do you have to do the rituals” is yes AND no.
