The sign and the symbol i.e. the projection of God (our Self) has to go somewhere…
Can modern enlightened people be taught to use the Eucharist as mirror?
“I bow to the Buddha in me.”
“I look at Jesus and He looks at me.”
A good resource: Ego and Archetype by Edward Edinger
I recall reading that John Paul II was an advocate of Eucharistic Adoration, and included it in his daily practice. I think this is the ultimate self-awareness exercise. The Rosary is a useful tool for laying the ground work of the theological imagination, and it develops good habits of daily recollection and disciplined focusing of the mind for 15 to 20 minutes.
Adoration, on the other hand, is a good percolation and infusion space for the psychic seeds planted by the Rosary, and homilies, and parables in Scripture. The experience of the Divine Love needs a place to go, and Adoration is that place in the Catholic Tradition. That awe and reverence and devotional energy needs to go somewhere. The body needs to express what it knows and feels.
Why do Koreans want to be Christians and why do Canadians want to be Buddhist? Or Indigenous? I think that the exotic (rituals, mantras, symbols) appeals to meaning-starved WEIRD people as long as the ‘Self’ remains unintegrated, and the shadow is in the driver’s seat. Our own traditions seem hokey and ridiculous and banal and uninteresting as long as we find parts of ourselves to be hokey, ridiculous, banal and uninteresting.
This is why wise teachers insist western Buddhists do their the Metta Sutta chanting in their mother tongue rather than Pali, and the Catholic Latin Mass is okay as long as people know what they are saying and aren’t permitted to derive a sense of superiority or ego gratification or exclusiveness from partaking in exotic rituals. As long as people understand what is being said and done, the traditional Catholic liturgy is a real treasure of the Church that feeds participants in a way that newer Masses don’t. At least, that is how this convert sees things.
The Karaniya Metta Sutta: The Buddha’s Words on Loving-Kindness aka ‘Charity’. Is charity as patronizing handout to ‘the poor’ gone? Is charity as empathy and compassion a new normal?
What if ordained Ministers taught the mystical significance of the Sacraments, starting with the Sacrament of Reconciliation. The minister is actually a mirror to the Self (like the Eucharist) rather than judge, jury and executioner.
Then again, perhaps what comes next are religious sisters who are trained in social work, psychotherapy, mental health, nutrition, sciences and who go out and bring God to the public who can’t afford therapists or elite Catholic priest-confessors; sisters who just get on with modelling the Gospel through their lives, through vows of simplicity, charity, service and growth in holiness, happiness and wholeness.
The Sisters of Creation…
The Sisters of Renewal…
The Sisters of Christ Consciousness…
The Sisters of Compassion…
The Sisters of Communion…