THE BURNING BOWL CEREMONY

Copyright Ian Ellis-Jones 2005 - All Rights Reserved.

1. THE BURNING BOWL CEREMONY
byIan Ellis-Jones
THE SYDNEY UNITARIAN CHURCH
SUNDAY, 11 DECEMBER 2005
I am free, I am unlimited.
There are no chains that bind me.
I am free, I am unlimited, Right now! Right now!
Introduction
The late American Protestant minister Dr Norman Vincent
Peale once wrote, “There is a spiritual giant within you, which
is always struggling to burst its way out of the prison you have
made for it.”
The Burning Bowl Ceremony, which is also known as the
Phoenix Ceremony, is one of a number of popular “rites of
renewal” performed in many New Thought churches,
especially in the United States of America. The ceremony is
often conducted as part of a Thanksgiving or New Year
service. The service can also be performed privately at
special symbolical times such as on New Year’s Eve or your
birthday or at any time when you feel the need and have the
willingness to let go of something in your life that is holding
you back, especially bad habits, negative thoughts and
emotions, and unhealthy relationships.

2. Life is, or at least ought to be, a process of “letting go and letting”. This is the
rhythm of the universe, the rhythm of life. Call it the divine rhythm, if you wish.
We need continually to let go of negative beliefs, destructive emotions,
unhealthy relationships, as well as any tendency to resist change. We need
to continually to let – to let the Spirit of Life take over in us, to fill us with new
life, to recreate us in mind and body.
You will be amazed how powerful this is at letting things go, individually and
collectively, in particular, letting go of the past and moving into the Now with a
new start. It’s simple, but it’s extremely transformative
, especially where
there is a need and a willingness to let go of negative
emotions such as anger, resentment and regret as well as
repetitive suffering over past experiences. These things are
very bad for us. Forgiveness and release are spiritually life-
affirming and liberating. The Burning Bowl Ceremony helps
us to let go of old hurts, grudges, regrets and suffering and
to
relinquish anything, in fact, that burdens our minds while at the same time to
identify those things in our lives that we wish to occur in your life, particularly
in the coming year.
In the Burning Bowl Ceremony we write down on paper whatever it is - it may
be a number of things - that we wwant to free of. Then you burn the piece of
paper in the Burning Bowl. The fire in the Burning Bowl is a symbol of
purification and transformation. Fire, itself, is a powerful element for and
means of transformation. The fire takes the paper and changes it from one
form into another. If you perform this ceremony at home, you can, if you want
to, bury the cold ashes as a final step.
The Burning Bowl Ceremony is all about change as well as taking personal
responsibility for your own life. The ceremony facilitates change, taking us
outside the walled paths we ordinarily travel along. It helps to build new
neural pathways in the brain, cutting across the old neural pathways that have
formed as a result of repetitive negative thought forms and bad mental habits.

3. It was Marcus Aurelius, the Roman emperor, who said, “Life is what our
thoughts make it.”
The Burning Bowl Ceremony is one of a number of “transformative rituals”,
the object being … yes, inner transformation. After all, was it not Saint Paul
who wrote, “… be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind” (Rom 12: 2)?

4. What we release
The paper burning portion of the ceremony, which powerfully symbolizes
letting go, is a way of releasing whatever no longer works for us as well as
whatever is holding us back.
We write down on paper things that we want to release in our lives. It may be
old habits that no longer serve us.
Maybe we have a physical or mental habit that we are tired of.
Maybe it’s some mistake or failure from the past.
Maybe it's a limiting thought of our own worth, or a fear of some kind.
Maybe we need to forgive someone or forgive ourselves for something that
happened in the past. New Thought minister and author Emmet Fox wrote, “It
is an unbreakable mental law that you have to forgive others if you want to
demonstrate over your difficulties and to make any real spiritual progress.”
Yes, we must forgive, not so much for the other person’s sake, but for our
own sake.
Maybe we need to let go of a limiting relationship, or a way of doing things.
Perhaps we would like to release a work situation.
Preparing for the ceremony
Here are some questions designed to help you clarify what you want changed
in your life. Remember it’s entirely up to you. You must do the work,
especially the mental work, and nothing will happen unless you truly want it to.
For example, in the “Big Book” of Alcoholics Anonymous, also entitled
Alcoholics Anonymous, it is written:
If you have decided that you want what we have [that is,
sobriety] and are willing to go to any length to get it - then you
are ready to take certain steps.

5. You begin by making a decision that you want what’s on offer … that you
really want to change. There is great power in so doing. Then you must take
the necessary action to effect the desired change. There is no “easier, softer
way”. In Matthew’s gospel we are told, "Ask and it will be given to you, seek
and you will find, knock and the door will be opened unto you" (Mt 7:7). It all
starts with us, and it all starts with making a decision that you want to change.
Then you must do what needs to be done. The power is in the doing. In the
words of Emerson, “Do the thing, and you shall have the power.”
Now what do you want to throw out of your life? What do you want cleansed?
What do you want to give up? Let’s open up a number of different suitcases.
Firstly, health. Are you currently facing a health challenge? Is it physical,
psychological, emotional or spiritual? What do you need to release or give
up? What do you want gone from your life? Remember, you can choose
your emotions; if you want to feel differently, you must make new thought
choices.
Secondly, relationships. Are you stuck in some co-dependent relationship
that is only harming you as well as the other person?
Thirdly, home. What do you desire different in you home? Less conflict and
friction? Less noise? Less clutter and junk?
Fourthly, finance. Do you have money worries? Few don’t, but let’s be
sensible here. Consumerism is not the answer to our worries. It is the source
of many of them … as well as being the primary cause of most of the world’s
present malaise.
Fifthly, work, school, college, university. What do you want to be different?
Sixthly, leisure time. What is preventing you from enjoying good leisure time
and contentment?
Remember, you have the power - indeed, the responsibility - to make better
choices if you want to live a happier life. Now, as the old year runs out, we

6. must move on, “forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth
… [we] press toward the mark …” (Phil 3: 13, 14).
What’s involved
You will each be given a small piece of paper as well as something with which
to write. You will then have a short time to write down those things you wish
to release from your life. The act of writing down what you want gone from
your life is a very important part of the letting go process. Once again, there
is great power in so doing.
After you’ve written down whatever you want to let go and release, then
spend a few moments in quite prayer or meditation by way of personal
commitment and surrender. If there is anything holding you back, become
aware of what it is, and let that go as well. Healing, at any level, requires
release … letting go … surrender. To get from A to B, we must first be
prepared to leave A and move on to B. It’s even more so at the mental or
psychological level.
Before you come forward with your piece of paper, repeat any prayer or
mental treatment, or get by yourself in quiet meditation for a moment or two.
When you are ready to let go, then feel free to come forward. Once again,
there is great power in so doing. Come forward one at a time … one by one
… and set alight your piece of paper - best folded or rolled up - using the
lighted chalice or one of the other smaller candles, and then quickly drop the
paper in the bowl. Watch the paper burn, as you commit your concern to the
transformative power of flame … ashes to ashes.
If there is someone you need to forgive, bless that person. Wish him or her
well in every phase of their life. Blessing stirs up the positive, creative forces
in your mind and helps to clear away any negative thoughts residing in your
subconscious. “Not rendering evil for evil, or railing for railing: but
contrariwise blessing; knowing that ye are thereunto called, that ye should
inherit a blessing” (1 Peter 3:9).

7. As you watch the paper burn, feel the sense of release. As you depart, say to
yourself words such as, “I am free, I am unlimited, there are no chains that
bind me,” or “I now move on, the past is gone forever,” or (in the case of
forgiveness) “I fully and freely forgive X (mentioning the name of the person); I
loose him and let him go; He is free now, and I am free too.”
If you do this properly - that is, you
really mean it - you will not find it
necessary to repeat the business in relation to the same matter or person.
Emmet Fox, in his wonderful book
The Sermon on the Mount, wrote, “you
have done it once and for all, and to do it a second time would be tacitly to
repudiate your own work”. If, later, the thought of the matter or person
returns, then simply acknowledge the thought but immediately dismiss it,
giving it no power over you. It will return less and less often, until you forget it
altogether.
I finish with these words from the Book of Deuteronomy:
Today, I call heaven and earth to witness against you: I am
offering you life or death, blessing or curse. Choose life, then so
that you … may live. (Dt 30:19)
-oo0oo-