"A torii is a traditional Japanese gate most commonly found at the entrance of ... a Shinto shrine, where it symbolically marks the transition from the mundane to the sacred".
I love this phrase: "the transition from the mundane to the sacred"; and I love the symbolism of the Torii gate. Since there are no Torii gates where I live, I've been asking myself: what do we need in our lives in order to transition from the ordinary to the sacred?
My experience has taught me that we don't really need much. We don't need a Torii gate, or a church, or books, or anything at all (although I don’t mean to denigrate these things, knowing that they are very meaningful and helpful to some). We don't necessarily have to go somewhere special; we don't have to wait for somebody or something to create sacred space for us.
Sacredness is available to all of us at every single moment of our ordinary lives; all we need in order to access it is a certain amount of willingness and awareness.
To me, sacredness is not found in the "where, who, or what" of our lives, but in the "how". We may have little or no control over what we're handed in life, but HOW we walk through life is indeed our choice.
Everything can be sacred, and everything can be profane, depending on our bearing and our frame of mind. Every step we take, every breath we draw, every thought and interaction we have, we can be walking through an invisible Torri gate.
When we walk in sincerity and simplicity; when we walk in the light of our heart and our compassion; when we walk in openness and authenticity - then, every step is a walk through the Torri gate, and into the sacred.
And some day, when we have become accustomed to this way of walking, we'll find that there is no ordinary and no sacred; no Torri gate; no division; only the walking.
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(Image source: Pixabay)
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