What Asian Rituals Can Teach Us about Mental Well-Being
It’s not an exaggeration to say that Asia is famous for its deeply rooted and rich cultures and rituals. The long-standing traditions integrate into our everyday lives, even in modern times. It’s not far-fetched to say that there are a lot of things we can learn from those rituals. Taking the essence of the ancient wisdom from Asian rituals, we might just be able to learn a lot about mental well-being.
金継ぎ Kintsugi - Japanese art of repairing broken pottery with gold
Repaired pottery using kintsugi art by Eky Rima Nurya Ganda
Accidents are prone to happen at home. Broken pottery is not a rare sight in various households around the world. Usually, people would just throw the broken pieces away. However, the Japanese have another way to handle it. They stick back the broken pieces together with a Japanese lacquer called urushi. After the joints are painted and decorated with gold or silver powder, the pottery continues to be used. Seeing the repaired product, most people would agree that it would look more beautiful.
When hearing the word imperfection, not many people would associate it with beauty and elegance. However, it's a matter of perspective. Many people see their weaknesses and shortcomings as something ugly that needs to be hidden away. But Kintsugi teaches us differently. It teaches us to embrace our own imperfections. What we might think of as unsightly can be seen as something elegant by other people. In the end, no one is perfect and it is not shameful to have a weakness.
Kintsugi highlights the broken pieces with gold or silver powder rather than hiding them. Yet, it is for that very reason that the repaired pottery becomes even more beautiful and valuable. The same can be said for us humans. Everyone who has gone through a painful past and has gotten their heart broken into pieces will have to pick up the broken parts and piece them back together. It might get broken again after that. However, as long as we don’t give up repairing it, it will surely become magnificent again every time. In the end, a broken piece that’s put together has a lot more stories to tell–isn’t that more stunning?
茶禅一味 "Tea and Zen are one" - Chinese “Kung Fu Tea” Ceremony (功夫茶)
Do you know about the “Kung Fu Tea” Ceremony (功夫茶)? It doesn't have anything to do with the Chinese Martial Arts you might be thinking about. It is a ritual in tea brewing which encourages people to take the time to appreciate the tea. From preparing and heating the tea set, rinsing the tea leaves, and multiple infusions, it does indeed sound like a hassle just for a cup of tea. However, what the Kung Fu Tea Ceremony is trying to teach us about is being present in the moment, a notion that is drawn from Zen principles, a Buddhist philosophy. The teaching of Zen revolves around tranquillity and mindfulness, thus drawing the connection between the two. This is the origin of the popular Chinese phrase 茶禅一味 "Tea and Zen are one".
Sharing the same philosophy, the Chinese “Kung Fu Tea” Ceremony and Zen principles teach us about mindfulness, simplicity, and connection with nature. Although tedious and long, the act of preparing the tea encourages us to fully focus on the present rather than being busy with pointless thoughts.
Not only that, every step in the tea ceremony, although laborious, will always enhance the quality of the tea. There’s no such thing as a wasted act. Just like the Zen principles, it is teaching us to cultivate patience and mindfulness even in everyday life to improve the beauty of our mind.
Nyepi - A Day of Silence in Bali
Nyepi is a sacred day in Bali to celebrate the Saka New Year. This ritual is deeply rooted from the island’s HInduism and symbolizes the island’s effort to maintain balance and harmony and purify the evil spirits in the island. The days leading up to Nyepi are celebrated with a lot of rituals and noisy celebrations such as purification rituals on the beach and a spectacular cultural procession of giant effigies. However, what we want to highlight is the day of silence where activities cease to exist and the island comes to a lull.
On Nyepi, the day of silence, there are several things that are not allowed on Bali : any kind of lighting, any forms of activities or physical works other than the one dedicated for spiritual cleansing, movement or travel (people are required to stay at their own home for 24 hours), and last but not least, any form of entertainment. Businesses would not open on this day and most places would look dark and deserted. It’s because everyone is at home, avoiding contact with other people and focusing on self-reflection, meditation, and prayer.
When thinking about it, in this day and age, our minds are constantly overstimulated by the excessive amount of information and entertainment from the internet and social media. Thus, our brains are always in that state of “busy” all the time, thinking about things that might not truly matter, or even worse, are harmful to our minds. From the day of Nyepi, we can learn to return to our origin, when life had no internet, entertainment, social media, or any kind of distraction. For a day, spend time with yourself and reflect deeply. Practice mindfulness and appreciate the calm and silence that comes with it. Then, you might just be able to find unexpected peace in your mind.
Conclusion
The three rituals mentioned above come from different countries that have their own distinct practices. However, all of them give us precious lessons on how to help our mental health well-being : from embracing our own imperfections, practising mindfulness, and blocking outside distractions to self-reflection. Obviously, there are even more rituals in Asia that we can learn aside from those three. In the end, the key to better mental health is nothing new and we can draw from the practices that our ancestors knew all along in our daily lives.
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