The use of incense appears to stretch back to the beginning of human history. Incense is mentioned frequently in the Pali Canon , scriptures that date to the life of the Buddha. Along with flowers, food , drink, and even garments, incense was a common offering made to a revered person, as a sign of respect.
While offering incense at an altar is arguably a universal Buddhist ritual , Buddhists don't always agree why. Most basically, incense is thought to purify the space, whether that space is a meditation hall or your own room. Incense can create a tranquil mood.
In some schools, incense may have a particular symbolic meaning. Three sticks burned together might signify the Three Treasures, for example -- the Buddha, the dharma , and the sangha. Whatever the symbolic meaning, making an incense offering before your daily chanting or meditation practice is a good way to focus your attention and create a pure space for your practice.
Westerners probably are most familiar with stick or cone incense. You'll find stick incense is much more commonly used in a Buddhist temple. There is also a kind of loose incense that is burned by dropping grains of incense onto hot charcoal. There are two kinds of stick incense: Coreless or "solid" incense and incense with a bamboo core. The coreless incense is more appropriate for Buddhism because it burns completely away.
But the bamboo core incense is commonly used also. There are many other kinds of incense. In some Asian temples, huge coils of burning incense are suspending from the ceilings. However, here we're just going to discuss stick and loose incense. Western "dharma supply" stores and catalogs usually offer Japanese, Tibetan and sometimes Indian incense. Fragrances and quality can vary wildly.
But in general, If you want a more subtle fragrance with less smoke, go with Japanese. If you want a more assertive incense, go with Tibetan. Let's say you've set up a home altar, and you want to offer incense to the Buddha. Usually, you would light the candle first, then light the incense from the candle. A standard practice is to bow to the Buddha image with your palms together, then leaving one hand in the palms-together position light one end of the incense.
So there you are with a flaming incense stick. In Asia, it's considered bad form to blow out the flame; it's like spitting on the incense, which is disrespectful. Sometimes people wave the incense sticks to put them out or fan the flames with their hands. If you are worried about flying sparks, hold the sticks straight up and then jerk them down, quickly. Exodus tells us the incense was to burn perpetually before the Lord. The air pollution in and around various temples has been documented to have harmful effects on health.
When incense smoke pollutants are inhaled, they cause respiratory system dysfunction. Incense smoke is a risk factor for elevated cord blood IgE levels and has been indicated to cause allergic contact dermatitis. Incense is used to freshen up the scent of indoor areas, for spiritual purposes, for health, and more.
Like anything else that emits smoke, incense smoke will be inhaled when using it. Incest in the Bible refers to sexual relations between certain close kinship relationships which are prohibited by the Hebrew Bible. These prohibitions are found predominantly in Leviticus —18 and —21, but also in Deuteronomy.
Myrrh was an ingredient of Ketoret: the consecrated incense used in the First and Second Temples at Jerusalem, as described in the Hebrew Bible and Talmud. The ingredients are detailed in Exodus , where Moses is tasked with making incense: Take fragrant spices — gum resin, onycha and galbanum — and pure frankincense, all in equal amounts.
The origin of three of the ingredients are well known essential oils or resins of botanical origin. In my own personal work, I use incense daily for as long as I can remember. When I was being taught by my non-physical elders, the mysteries of incense was one of my lessons. These are very important actions because the fire, smoke, color, and fragrance acts individually and collectively as a spiritual message and door opener. Everything about the incense, including the color of the smoke, color of the incense itself, the direction the smoke blows, and the odor that comes forth are all a spiritual language.
What they communicate is unknown to the unconscious human who sees only a burning stick or resin with a pleasant aroma, but to the knowledgeable, a message is being conveyed and he should know the result to expect. All things that we see and know here in this reality we call Earth are but a manifestation of Spirit.
However, the sleeping mind is limited and can not conceive what the invisible realm has or even how it functions, so when the invisible world materializes into this world, it materializes into a lower, denser form of itself.
If it looks like a Lion in the realm of spirit, it will materialize here as a cat, or sometimes lesser. This is not an exact example, but I use it for you to understand the lower nature of how humans perceive things when they arrive in physical form from a higher order.
The smoke that arises from the incense should be strong or thick, and as it rises it should spread in swirls. What this means as the smoke is swirling is that more and more energies manifesting from the invisible world is gaining access to your environment and whatever it is that you are lighting the incense for, i. Therefore a weaker smoke means a weak connection to the invisible world.
And yes, there is a reason for this, too. When incense is being burned for whatever reason, the spirit itself manifests as the smoke. If the person who is doing this particular ritual is a knowledgeable elder, the smoke will act as an oracle that this Elder can now read, as it will weave a story about what is occurring at the moment or communicate a message regarding the reason the incense was burned.
Now, for clarification, the Elder can see the smoke manifest in this reality as he looks at it, or the message from the smoke will be communicated to him telepathically or through the mind.
This is how powerful incense is. The smoke being the most important for lighting the incense, activates best when prayer is applied while the incense is burning. For this, I would like you all at any time you wish, to light some incense and pray as you burn it, and watch the difference in the smoke and how it moves as you pray.
If you do this experiment, come back with your observations in the comments! But before I go into this topic, you should know that burning incense is one of the most effective ways of spiritual communication, and it should always be used during any spiritual practices as it is a door opener. Frankincense and Myrrh are some of the most popular types of incense, especially among the Christianized world. However, it is rarely known among many that these two types of incense have two opposing symbols, and is therefore not to be burned together.
Myrrh, in its darker symbolism, is a wonderful banishing agent, but when used wrongly, it will attract the negative Forces rather than banishing them. When it comes to fragrance, all things sweet and smelling good attracts spirits, and, likewise, all things with offensive odors does the same — the difference is in the types of spirits they attract. Frankincense has a particular scent that is perhaps, otherworldly to say the least, and it takes some getting used to. But when you do, the fragrance is attractive and it is excellent in removing negative energies.
However, when incense of any type is being burned and persons around can not stand the odor, there are reasons for their disgust unbeknownst to them.
It may seem to be due to their own preference of smells, but it is not they who dislikes the fragrance, but their spirit instead.
Thus, a person of pure heart may be repelled by darker odors, and those of a malevolent nature may be immediately repelled by incense of Light.
But in any of your observations, always take heed to apply wisdom. As stated before, fragrance itself carries its own vibration and the scents that come forth are the sensible manifestations of the invisible energy. Everything perceptive about the incense, including the fragrance, are physical manifestations of what the physical eyes can not see.
Incense is more than just sage and Frankincense. Anything from the smoke of meat on the grill, the smoke from a cigar dark forces , the smoke from marijuana prophetic forces , burning fire wood nature forces , and so much more, are all forms of incense burning in the sense that they all attract a particular force, and yield a particular result.
Fire in burning incense is what opens the door, and it is also what closes the door, for it is the last to depart when the incense burning is complete. Whenever we do anything spiritual, lighting a candle, burning incense, prayers, etc. Apply wisdom before partaking in anything ritualistic, so that you avoid wondering why arguments keep happening, or illnesses, or stagnation, bad news, disappointments, or financial lacking, etc. Although life must be balanced, many errors are made of our own ignorance, and where they can be avoided, they should be.
We are all here for our spiritual growth through experiences, learn well and teach from what you have learned. PS : For people who light stick incense or any incense for intimacy or just for pleasant scents, or for any reasons other than spiritual reasons, know that all that is written here still applies to the action, regardless if your intentions are spiritual or purely for your own enjoyment. PPS : The ashes from incense are also very useful and powerful! But we will explore that another time….
This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed. I always burned incense, but I did not know all of this was taking place. Thank you for this education. Big help. I just liked the smell of the incense. Now I know how powerful it is. Yes there is much more to spiritual things than many people realize. Come to think of it, I have a friend of Indian origin whose home I used to visit quite frequently. A series of sneezes that would leave me drained of my energy.
I wonder why that used to happen. Since early this year, I stopped visiting their home and I feel at peace. Obara, I remember some years ago burning Palo Santo was all the rage. Can you tell me if it is a suitable replacement for Frankincense? Is that for the use of making black salt? I believe that is the name but correct me if I am wrong. I Burn Frankincense Resin on charcoal every Monday throughout my house- I start off at my altar then walk from upstair back rooms to downstairs front rooms and finish off with it at my front door outside or in my kitchen center of house I buy lbs of Frankincense and It lasts for a very long time.
I am new to your blog and I am grateful that I was led here today. I will pay particular attention to the smoke but most importantly, I will take heed to know and do the right things when carrying out any spiritual work. I … Read more ». Lucy, I did not see your comment before but I am very humbled by your words.
It is always very good to have information before embarking on anything practical when it comes to spirituality. Thank you again for your comment. Stay blessed and good luck on your spiritual journey.
I did the work inside my bedroom in the evening and I wore white clothes and made my bed with pure white bed sheet as instructed and I said some incarnation without leaving my bedroom. The smoke was very strong and it lasted till the morning. Benjamin thank you for your comment. Properly paragraphed and detailed. Thanks for sharing your experiences, I wish more people would do the same and we would have better engagement.
I thank you for your kind and thoughtful worlds. May the blessings of the Universe and all it entails and of all beings of light and of all Orishas, and Ifa, all Extra Terrestrials beings who bust our earth and who oversees us guide and protect us, of the ancestors and all non physicals who have the goodness within them for humans be with you always…..
Ase, Ase, Ase. All these prayers just for me. I really appreciate. It means a lot to me, especially knowing that you are the first spiritual elder, who is woman, that prayed for me.
My experiences can be use to write a powerful spiritual book or even start a blog. So much technicalities I was not aware of such as burning from the back of the house and moving towards the front.
Is that true? It depends on when the reason you are burning the house out. I will do a post on the time to do these things. Nice to see you here Mike. I must say that this is one of the most important posts you have ever written in my opinion. It is straight forward and uncomplicated which makes it look like an easy read but i know that this is power packed knowledge you just gave us.
So many people burn incense especially for fragrance and this includes me. The time i began to pay attention to my choice of smell was when I read your post concerning sage and I immediately discarded the pack of incense i had that contained sage. Though the human shell is weak, yours will always be strong and outlive the test of time.
You will have the best of this reality and trample on enemies. The divinities will always have your back and work with you. Ase Ase Ase Olodumare!!! Lovely commentary.
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