This means we can create that uplift more easily than we might think. So does that mean the coronavirus outbreak, especially given the need for “social distancing”, a big event involving the whole world will make “everybody focus on the same thing and feel the same emotions,” which creates a sense of solidarity? But, at the same time, however, we lose face-to-face interaction with other people. The other question then is can phone conversations, and Zoom meetings make up for that loss?
I would say the answer is sort of a yes, but to a weaker degree, because there is something special about in-person ritual.
How Ancient Chinese Philosophers View Rituals
The term ritual has taken on connotations of mindless repetition. We tend to think of ritual as something that tells us what to do, not as something transformative. Which is unfortunate given the importance of rituals in everyday life. Rituals can be a healthy routine of activity that symbolize and facilitate important dimensions of experience.
Confucius led us to a radically new vision of exactly what ritual can do. For Confucius everything began with the question, “How are you living in your life on a daily basis?” The reason these daily moments are important is because, as we will see, they are the means which we can become a different and better person.
Chinese philosophers saw the world as consisting of an endless series of fragmented messy encounters. This worldview emerged for the notion that all aspects of human life are governed by emotions including the endless human interactions that take place. All living things have tendencies to respond to things in a certain way, like flower tends to lean toward the sun, butterflies seek out flowers. Human beings have dispositions too, we respond emotionally to other people. Constantly our emotions are being drawn out from us, our feelings sway back and forth depending on what we encounter. When we encounter something pleasurable, we feel pleasure, toxic relationship makes us feel despair, rivalry with a neighbor arouses our jealousy. We are pulled to and fro emotionally. And we find ourselves experiencing certain emotions more often than we do others. And our responses become patterned habits. Every one of us live in a fragmented world, are buffeted about endlessly by disparate events and reacting passively.
