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Two Ancient Practices to Add to Your Bath Ritual
These preparations are important steps in many religious and spiritual cleansings.
Water immersion is used by many spiritual and religious traditions as a purifying ritual, and that could say something about why, for many people, a simple bath feels just as cleansing to the mind as it does to the body. For me, a bath is like a reset button, a pause in the day or evening; my nerves slow down, which creates a general feeling of ease and openness. I can see why this physical sensation allows practitioners to more easily connect to their higher God or higher selves.
In fact, it’s hard to find a major religion that doesn’t incorporate some kind of immersion ritual. Hindus bathe in the sacred waters of the River Ganges, Christians immerse themselves in water for baptism and initiation into the faith, and in certain circumstances, Muslims perform ghusl as a full-body water purification before formal prayers. In Judaism, there exists the mikveh, which is a spiritually cleansing bath, and Buddhists celebrate Vesak Day by gathering and symbolically “Bathing the Buddha.”
Preparation for Water Purifying Rituals
One easily overlooked aspect of these spiritual cleansings is that many involve a literal pre-cleansing before a symbolic cleansing. For mikveh, you prepare by removing any intervening substance from your body that could block the holy waters (i.e. remove nail polish, wash hair, trim nails, etc.). And this preparation is very similar for ghusl, which incorporates wudu, or the partial washing of just hands, arms, head, and feet, before a full immersion into water. In Buddhism, temples will prepare for “Bathing of the Buddha” by first cleaning statues of the Buddha.
Additionally, for Vesak Day, Buddhist many practitioners have historically prepared by cleaning and decorating their homes. This one caught my attention because it extends the ritual preparation beyond just the physical body. More than bringing order to one’s hair, skin, or nails, this Buddhist tradition brings order to one’s physical space.
If there’s two aspects I can pull from these ancient water immersion rituals into my own modern bath ritual, then both of them involve…
