Ritual 2

Well, after writing about the post about rituals the night before, while I was offering the incense this morning, I fell into a common error. I call it using your brain to offer. You see, I was thinking too much abt the offering, thinking too much abt the perfect offering according to what i wrote. Using thinking to generate the offering mind. In fact, it should not be this way.

While doing my evening chanting just now, I observed again and found that there is a method that I use. The feeling of offering is generated just before the offering and it is not the thought or idea of offering. It is a feeling which arises not from the head but from the heart. If you have any experience of meditation on feelings, you will get what i mean. So you generate a feeling, have a feeling, let it flow and flood through you, and then do the offering or chanting or dedication of merits. That is how it could be done. However, once you are familiar with the process, the generation of feeling part can be completed in a shorter period of time. Some also use the first few lines or moments in the chant to generate the feeling. The important thing here is the feeling of offering, of giving. The chant or ritual/action may be meaningless to you intellectually, but because of the feelings invested, it is meaningful. That is how it should be. At least as far as i know or my level of practice is concerned. So a ritual is actually a very personal thing and very feeling based thing and not an intellectual, mind thing. So the best is not to try to understand it from that way. Try to feel the ritual, not understand it intellectually. That is why rituals is an integral part of esoteric Buddhism. My master explains that esoteric means inside, deep, feelings, not surface and intellectual. Esoteric touches the heart of things, and comes from the heart.

Sorry if it is confusing. I know that in the first post, I keep talking about the mind. But this is the problem with a chinese translation into english. The word 心 in chinese is used which is usually translates into mind. However, it actually encompasses heart and mind. So when I speak of mind, it is not intellectual mind. It is heart mind, body mind but not intellectual thinking mind. Intellectual mind is not useful most of the time when pursuing religion.