As sociologists like Durkheim, Goffman, and Collins will tell you, Rituals are important. They are not just something that occurs in Churches and temples, They exist everywhere, from the positioning rituals of adolescents, to the high school graduation ceremony, to the launching of a ship, to family sit downs and chat. Rituals set boundaries, encourage group solidarity, generate shared symbolism and Emotional Energy, help create group and societal Morality. They also, among several other functions, help create, transform, reinforce, and recreate our sense of self. In other words they have individual, social, and even economic and political functions. 

The LP itself is built founded upon the Jain principle of Ahimsa, the commitment to non-violence and harm reduction and harm elimination.  The following affirmation confirms your commitment to this principle in all areas of your life. This doesn't mean you have to be perfect out of the gate. Perfection is hard in the current global environment characterized, as it is, by anger, hatred, frustration, suffering, consumerism, and endless attempts to divide for the purpose of conquer and control. However this doesn't mean you cannot strive towards this goal. Entrance requires only that you commit, not that you are perfect.  

The following is a draft "Entrance Rite." If you are serious about the LP, affirm (to yourself) your commitment to harm reduction and non violence. If you plan on participating in these forums, consider repeating this affirmation before participation, at least until you're in the habit of it. 

If you can think of a better design, or ways to improve this affirmation, feel free to suggest. 

If this sort of formality is not your thing, a simple "I affirm to reduce and eliminate harm" is a sufficient reminder.  If you are an academic or student of higher education, a useful exercise for you is to examine the rites and rituals of academia before casting judgment in this direction. They are important, even to you. 

LP Entrance Rite

Standing with intention, I enter the Lightning Path through the door of Ahimsa.

I commit myself to the reduction of harm in all its forms — physical, emotional, psychological, institutional, and spiritual — toward all beings without exception: to human beings, to animals, and even to insects and the seemingly insignificant, and to the ecosystems that sustain us all.

I will not strike. I will not kill. I will not diminish.

Where harm cannot be avoided, I will reduce it.

Where I have caused harm, I will acknowledge it and make amends.

In my home, my work, and my social life, I will tolerate no violence toward any being.

Let my thoughts be right, my actions be right, and my environments be right.

Let my intrinsic conscience govern my conduct, that my bodily self may come into alignment with my highest self.

In this commitment, I open the way to healing, to alignment, and to connection — and I take up my aligned responsibility to uplift all of creation.

So I affirm. So I begin