The Lesson of the Candle
Life is full of rituals. Nearly everything we do is a ritual of some kind. From pushing off the covers when we awaken to pulling them back on when we go to sleep, nearly everything we do is a ritual that is routine and has meaning to our life.
Some rituals, like those we perform when we expel our bodily waste, are so mundane that, while we perform them daily we give them very little thought. Yet, in the performance of these rituals we are dealing with a natural function ordained for us by our Creator. There are rituals we perform when we prepare food or clean up after eating. Still, the performance of these rituals is part of the way we interact with the Divine gift of life. How well we perform these rituals can have a great impact on our health, our longevity, and our quality of life. For a long time I have observed how life is played out during meditation practice.
My little meditation practice involves lighting five candles on my little shrine table. It progresses through a short melody I play with my bamboo flute, prayers of thanks and supplications, and a short chant requesting a greater opportunity to know and love our Divine Parent. At the end of the chant, I attempt to quiet the mind and become aware of my “now.” (breath, aches and pains, how I’m sitting, birds, smells, tastes, candles, etc) I attempt to remove all discernment from this awareness. At the end of the meditation I spend a little time cognitively considering any thoughts that come up and then I blow out the candles, one at a time.
It was while blowing out the candles that it suddenly dawned on me how much our lives are like those little flames. Some outside force brings the warmth and light to the candle of life inside us, we flicker and provide a light to the meditation table of the world for a while, and then the light goes out. Some times the fuel burns up and the flame fades away. Sometimes the breath of God snuffs out the flame before the fuel is spent. Whatever extinguishes the flame there is that brief period when smoke rises from the wick like the soul leaving the body and becomes part of the atmosphere. In time only the fragrance of the candle is left to remind us of the light that illuminated the shrine. We never remember the flicker of the flame, we only remember the glow, the warmth, the beauty. It seems to me that this is not only how I should remember the candle but also how I should remember the people passed on or even passed out of my life on another path.
I hope you will think of the simplest rituals in your life and take a few seconds to consider the possible larger lessons that might be learned about human nature and the Divine interaction that we are blessed with.
