Rituals are Props

Spirituality is about connection. Connection with yourself, connection with nature, connection with people, and connection with the divine.

Religious rituals are props to help us to connect - therefore all the bowing downs, kneeling, standing up etc (Islamic prayer, yoga practice etc) are there to help us to connect. Reading scriptures in public or private is also a form of ritual but that may only connect the mind, not so much the body. The ultimate goal in all spiritual practices is to have union with the divine.

Therefore, performing rituals is not performing magic. Rituals are props, like props in Iyengar yoga, to aid us to do poses we can't do, until we are able to do them without the props. Once we have connected, we should discard those rituals.

Rituals are aids and means, not end, to our spiritual goals.

BLISS

I Rest My Case

So, if you have intimate first hand relationship with your partner and know your partner in a deep personal manner for years and then someone comes to you and say, "what you believe about your partner is wrong! I know your partner very well because I have read, studied and memorize all the letters your partner has ever written. You need to go back to this letters to read them again to get to know your partner again!"

But I already know my partner. I can ask him directly, why do I need to read his letters to know him???

"Because what you told me about your partner doesn't jive with what I read and understand in the letters he wrote"

...excuse me Miss, how do you know my partner wrote those letters?

"Oh, those letters say so"...

I rest my case!

BLISS