The late Ken Robinson, in one of his TED talks, tells the story of a child who was drawing with wild strokes. The teacher asked – What are you drawing? And the child replied “God”. The teacher said, “But nobody knows what God looks like.” And the child said, “Well. They will in a minute.” Badum Tshhhh.
Last week we explored what people are talking about when the talk about gods. But for most people, this is a secondary aspect of religion – the primary aspect being the rituals. So what are rituals, and why are they so powerful?
In this episode we look at some rituals, religious, secular, useful, destructive, and start to imagine what rituals might help us to place the biosphere at the pinnacle of our aspirations.
Talking points:
- Listener Email – A moral revolution is possible
- Rituals. What are they?
- Ablutions, Jewish weddings, Christian signs of peace
- Conscious and unconscious rituals in daily life: focus and distraction
- Positioning the biosphere and political will
- Rituals of nurturing and kindness
- Waste is an affront to nature, not wasting feels good
- Gods – conscious and unconscious
- Addiction and deification
- Human power – like a bull in a china shop
- Possible futures
- Possible rituals – the 12 step recovery process as a route out of the addiction system
- When things change, we’ll be happier!
- Habits as the b-side of ritual – and their power
- Getting past the Doom Bar – learning to love stress
Links:
Peter Oborne – the Triumph of the Political Class (review/Guardian)
Water and religion ( incl Ablutions) – BBC podcast “How Water Shaped Us”
Dr Alia Crum on mindsets (podcast – 1:04:50 – The three best ways to leverage stress)
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