Why Tradition?

What place do Traditions have in our world, and why do we cling to these remnants of the past? Traditions serve as a link to our past, and this does go a long way towards explaining our attachment to them. A typical human being easily gets attached to almost anything - be it a blanket, a toy, a gadget, an individual, or even a ritual. We tend to hold on tightly to things we care for and mourn their departure. This is one of the biggest reasons why many people lament when a species goes extinct. Millions of species have died out forever over the course of the existence of life on Earth, however if we see a species die out that we have become familiar with, we really feel that loss on a personal level. This same principle can apply to death. In some way, when someone we know and love dies, we mourn for ourselves, for what we have lost, for the irrevocable change in our state that results.

Traditions are rituals, actions, beliefs that have persisted, and the slow loss of these from our world is something that should be mourned. However, many times, we do not perceive that these pieces of our past are in danger of being lost...

Why should we care? Traditions give us a sense of identity... yes, but so do many other things. I can identify myself as a user of an iPhone or an Android for example... but these "identifiers" serve only to further materialistic purposes. Oftentimes in our world today identity is tied to the material, to the possessions we have (or can potentially have). I dislike this greatly. For me identity is integrally tied to Tradition. Our Traditions give spiritual insight into ourselves. They provide an esoteric window through which we can view our present world. This is the true beauty of Tradition - not the preservation of the past (although this is a great role of Tradition), I would venture that the greatest relevance of Tradition in any time or place is the balance Tradition provides between the worldly and the spiritual.

The voice of Tradition is the past in the present, guiding the future.