Ritual helps me stop, pay attention, settle, and sink down. It brings me back to my breath, to now.
—Dawn Smart, Union, Washington
Ritual is not part of my practice. I found Buddhism in a round-about way through Mary Oliver’s poem “The Summer Day.” Being aware, opening my heart to everything, reading Pema Chödrön’s books have been my Buddhist education. I am free of ritual. I’ve taken the lighter path, and that works for me.
