Ritual

There’s a hazy boundary between the words “ritual,” “habit,” and “custom.” I think the difference between a ritual act and a habitual one lies inawarenessin awareness and assent. An act becomes a ritual for you when you perform it with conscious awareness of its symbolic and emotional meaning, and with willing assent to those meanings. Unless you act with both awareness and assent, your act is merely a habit (if it is unique to you) or a custom (if you share it with others).

Sequences:

• Rational Ritual by Raemon

Related Pages:Secular Solstice, Petrov Day, Grieving, Marriage, Religion, Art, Music, Poetry, Meditation, Circling

It's a bit tricky to define. The book Secular Wholeness says:notes:

There’s a hazy boundary between the words “ritual,” “habit,” and “custom.” I think the difference between a ritual act and a habitual one lies inawareness and assent .assent. An act becomes a ritual for you when you perform it with conscious awareness of its symbolic and emotional meaning, and with willing assent to those meanings. Unless you act with both awareness and assent, your act is merely a habit (if it is unique to you) or a custom (if you share it with others).

AwarenessTwo key questions relating to ritual and intention are personal qualities thatrationality are:

• How can exist only in your own mind. They cannotwe capture the value of ritual, without incurring epistemic risk?
• Can rituals be coerced. Nobody can force you to pay attention to the symbolic meaning of an act. And in particular, nobody can force your assent to the meaning of a ritual. As I well know, because I can remember myself as an adolescent, being required to attend my parents’ church in which I no longer believed. My body was present at the rituals; my willing assent was most definitely and defiantly not.
  actively helpful for rationality?

Rituals are symbolic actions you undertake, in order to transform yourself in some way.actions. In the context of LessWrong, it's significant that many rituals have some impact on your cognition, which makes them appropriate to be careful with. Nonetheless, some LessWrongers have worked to explore the space of ritual through a rationalist lens.

It's a bit tricky to define. The book Secular Wholeness says:

There’s a hazy boundary between the words “ritual,” “habit,” and “custom.” I think the difference between a ritual act and a habitual one lies inawareness and assent . An act becomes a ritual for you when you perform it with conscious awareness of its symbolic and emotional meaning, and with willing assent to those meanings. Unless you act with both awareness and assent, your act is merely a habit (if it is unique to you) or a custom (if you share it with others).

Awareness and intention are personal qualities that can exist only in your own mind. They cannot be coerced. Nobody can force you to pay attention to the symbolic meaning of an act. And in particular, nobody can force your assent to the meaning of a ritual. As I well know, because I can remember myself as an adolescent, being required to attend my parents’ church in which I no longer believed. My body was present at the rituals; my willing assent was most definitely and defiantly not.

Rituals are symbolic actions you undertake, in order to transform yourself in some way. In the context of LessWrong, it's significant that many rituals have some impact on your cognition, which makes them appropriate to be careful with. Nonetheless, some LessWrongers have worked to explore the space of ritual through a rationalist lens.