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RITUAL

I have a few rituals. Some more private than others. What i was interested in doing for this assignment was not to document an existing ritual, but rather initiate a new ritual, which for spiritual reasons should be a part of my daily routine.

I associate the term 'ritual' to religion or spirituality. It might be a limiting definition, but i think it's a very important one that we tend to forget and look down upon or completely ignore at times. Therefore i wanted to document the ritual of prostration. The kneeling process is repeated 7 times, 7 being a very important number in Buddhism, and is divided into 3 different gestures dedicated to the Buddha, the Dharma and the Sangha which represent the 3 Jewels.
Once kneeling down, following a Tibetan tradition, the points of contact with the ground need to be 5, the palms, the knees and the forehead.

FROM WIKIPEDIA

Prostration (Buddhism)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

In Buddhism, a prostration (Pali: panipāta, Skt.: namas-kara, Ch.: li-pai, Jp.: raihai) is used to show reverence to the Triple Gem (the Buddha, his teachings and the spiritual community) and other objects of veneration.

In Buddhism, prostrating has multiple and overlapping benefits for practitioners including:

* an experience of giving and/or veneration
* an act to purify defilements
* a preparatory act for meditation
* an act that accumulates merit (see also karma)

In contemporary Western Buddhism, some teachers use prostrations as a practice unto itself,[1] while other teachers relegate prostrations to customary "rituals" ancillary to meditation.[2]

VIDEO

Here's the video of 5 days of prostration.

http://itp.nyu.edu/~bp432/movies/meditationwev.mov

OTHER OPTIONS

Other options of rituals for me:

- the salt over the shoulder Italian ritual
- the ritual of channeling bad energies that i developed when i was little and still do