There are so many facets to it. I remember when I first started down this path, the new Zafu, the new Zabuton, the bowing, etc. I was in love with it. Then the newness wore off, and then I would sometimes reject the ritual. But now I'm trying to incorporate more bowing and more ritual, but at a more even keeled pace. I'm doing this because I know from past experience if I go in whole hog, and do not pace myself, I'm more likely to just end up stopping this. So the honeymoon period of zen is good because it takes a lot of fuel to get the jet off the ground, but once it's in flight, then not so much. That is a dangerous time too; now I'm sitting when it's not so "glamorous", but it's deeper, sort of like the deepness in a long relationship vs. a fling. And this is where trust comes in a lot.
To truly sit, to sit without expectation, requires complete trust in Jundo, in the Sangha, in the Buddha, and in ourselves. As the only Buddhist in my family, I need to trust myself a lot to just keep going no matter what. Is this a hobby, a flash in the pan (well I guess in a way according to the Diamond Sutra. lol), or is this a practice to be practiced fully through that does not end? I mean only I can answer that, and I have to trust myself to follow through or lean on the Sangha when I have to or to provide encouragement. I have to trust fully and completely that I will not give up.
So the other day, I was bowing to my lamps that light my room when I do zazen, to my zafu and to my Buddha (not in that order), and my wife was in the room, and she asked why I bowed to objects. In the past, I didn't trust my practice as much, and I would try to change the subject or just say it's hard to explain, but now I'm more questioning towards why I practice what I practice -- after all trust is a 2-way street. So I answered that I bow not to the objects, but to what those objects represent, what they allow me to do, the hours of time that went into making those things, and even if those things were created by robots in a factory, all the hours and engineering that went into developing those processes, and the food that went into nourishing the engineers so they could learn those things... I mean the interconnectedness goes on infinitely. So the point isn't that I went all "TNH" on her
The point is that I'm beginning to trust why I do things in this practice, and that is a newer facet for me and, again, it's really powerful because it supports the practice.