PERSONAL CEREMONY

By Gary Gabelhouse

I knew that I must take responsibility for my own spiritual path.  I would not wait for the thunderclap of epiphany, or the rapture of divine light.  Simply, I began to cast about my search....earnestly.  With good heart.  

I had no veiled plans to find a worldly leverage upon my path.  I was content with my journey, and was largely free of destinations.

I simply found my path.  I didn't over-analyze--considering all of this and that in choosing my path.  I found a path, or perhaps more accurately, I created a path through my own intent coupled with the spark of divine creativity that is found in all of us.  Only then could I walk and cast about my search earnestly.

Many religions pose that humankind was created by God, and that the creation of we humans was in the image of God and held or shared the divine light of God.  Humans are born pure, and as they traverse both time and space, become filled with all manners of the secular and the divine.  Then, after the last breath and through their passing, and regardless of their spiritual path, or lack thereof, they become pure again.

We are with our being, and give witness to our divinity when we are born.  As we grow older, and find ourselves cast within the divine dream, we oftentimes....forget.  We forget who We are.  What We are.  And when we pass on, we are reminded who We are....by example.  So then....

We are aware--often forget--then, always are reminded in death.  

This is, for me, the great circle--the great wheel of human life.

But how about if we find a way to....remember?  That is, for me, the essence of my path.  Remembering.  I find myself not so much learning things about myself and the Spirit, but rather, REMEMBERING things about myself and the Spirit. 

Ceremony helps us remember.  Through ceremony we are newly born every day.  Through ceremony we die every day.  Ceremony helps us become the wheel of life, and not merely passengers with a ticket on the wheel.

Spiritual freedom is being grounded in the....NOW.  Spiritual freedom is finding the divine in that which is around us, and within us.  Within my life, spiritual freedom can found through....ceremony.

My personal ceremonies are personal acts and outward manifestations that....

    ....put my consciousness in the NOW.

    ....allow me to better focus my consciousness inward/outward and dissolve my/the self.

    ....put me in the appropriate angle of flight to a NOW consciousness.

As we create our own reality in the every day, we can create our own ceremony.  Decades ago I kindled an interest in cultivating bonsai trees.  I was quite taken with the all-inclusive nature of bonsai.  Bonsai was, for me, an amazing mixture of art and horticulture--creativity and the cultivation of life.  After years of caring for those small trees, I began to find a unique peace and equanimity of spirit whenever I worked on them--pruning and trimming--shaping and....imagining.  Bonsai became, for me, a personal ceremony.  I would light incense, relax and slow my breath....my thought.  I would simply BE with the trees, and my trimming, shaping and imagining became a shugyo--a physical act that turned on itself and became sacred.  

Years later, my life-long teacher in the martial way sat with me in the greenhouse one cold, late-winter day as he and I luxuriated in the smell of soil and sap.  Unconsciously I began to touch the trees--caress them--and entered that familiar angle of spiritual flight.

"Your hands look good on the trees," said Shihan Roseberry, speaking barely above a whisper.

My teacher had seen the ceremony of touching a tree.  Touching a tree with sacred intent.  Touching a tree as....ceremony.  

And so, each of us can create our personal, sacred ceremonies.  As we create our reality, we can also create our own divine.  It is our intent, coupled with our divinely creative spirit that forms the ceremony.  Through the ceremony we remember who We are....

The nature of personal ceremony....

Our Godliness is confirmed each time our divine creativity is expressed through our human intent.

Each and every one of us have the divine ability to create entire worlds.  That which we create is formed by our intent.

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