The Cluttered Garden

A spiritual path is thought to be a process of simplifying; a weeding out of all the unnecessary clutter leaving room for truth.  It is supposed to lead us to an open state where we can unbiasedly experience life.  The Buddha said that the accumulation of knowledge may blind us from truth.  The pursuit of knowledge becomes a hazard when we cling too tightly to all of the facts that we are learning.  In our search for more answers, we lose sight of the simplistic wisdom that we already carry within us.

I am currently learning ancient practices that include lists of rituals meant to connect us with enlightenend wisdom.  But maybe in memorizing the fine details of each ritual, the true teaching is lost.

When I sit through the chanting practices, I do feel a strong surge of energy in the room.  There is something powerful about coming together under a sacred roof and concentrating our energy towards a larger purpose.  I however also feel a lot of resistance and skepticism.  Not one of the western practitioners actually understands the Tibetan words that they are chanting.  Their pronunciation and rhythm are inaccurate and inconsistent.  The one Tibetan present does not chant because in his culture a ritual is not done or heard by just anyone.  An individual has to go through several levels of guidance before he is considered ready to hear one of these chants.  So he sits silently and keeps his pure practice to himself.  When I try to chant, I feel like a fraud using the rituals of another as stepping stones on a spiritual journey that should be my own.

I can’t help but feel like these practices are cluttering the simplicity that one should be cultivating in spirituality.  It feels as though I am clinging to ancient practices that someone else in a distant culture used on their spiritual journey rather than using what is around me here and now to build a more accessible and relevant path.  Everything that I have experienced with meditation until now has taught me to use the facts of life as my practice tools.  This allowed me to use every life experience as part of my spiritual journey.  I did not have to memorize chants and rituals to access the wisdom that is already a part of me. 

My question still stands.  Are ritualistic practices helping or hindering the realization of truth?