When many people go to temples to burn incense, they have struggled with which hand should be used to burn incense? Some people say you should use your right hand, others say you should use your left hand, and some people say you should use the left hand for men and the right hand for women. So which hand should you use to incense?
Let’s not listen to some untrue folk sayings. They tell you that when entering a temple, you should step with your right foot first or your left foot first, and you should use your left hand or your right hand when offering incense. These statements are all baseless.
Master believes that the most important thing is not to make any distinction when offering incense. If you are obsessed with which hand you want to use, you will be discriminating, which is not conducive to practice. Therefore, when we offer incense, we just need to let it happen. Any hand is fine. Use whichever hand you are used to. As long as your heart is respectful, that is enough.
Master said, when burning incense, don’t be attached to the image, don’t differentiate, and don’t be attached. Burning incense is for expression, as long as the effect of expression is achieved. Whether you burn expensive incense or cheap incense, whether you burn three sticks of incense or one stick, these are not very important. What is important is your intention when burning incense.
Burning incense is not a formality. The meaning of burning incense is to cultivate your own respect, purity, and compassion, not superficial phenomena. If you perform well but often do evil behind your back, burning incense is meaningless. On the contrary, if you often do good deeds and your heart is kind, even if you don't understand the rules of burning incense, or even if you never burn incense, you will get the benefits of coping.
How many sticks of incense should be burned when burning incense? Should we burn incense on the first and fifteenth day of the Lunar New Year? These are just like eating dumplings during the Winter Solstice. These are just beautiful meanings and have little actual impact.
For example: if you eat dumplings on the Winter Solstice, you may not get any benefits, and if you don’t eat dumplings on the Winter Solstice, there may not be any disadvantages. This is the same principle. The same goes for burning incense. If you burn three sticks of incense, or burn incense on the first and fifteenth day of the Lunar New Year, it actually just has a beautiful meaning, but the meaning does not equal the reality.
You burn incense on the first and fifteenth day of the Lunar New Year, which is the same as burning incense at other times. It just has an extra meaning. It’s like eating dumplings on the winter solstice and eating dumplings on ordinary days. The reason is similar. As mentioned earlier, we need to learn Non-attachment, non-discrimination, and non-attachment means that if you want to eat dumplings, you don’t have to wait for a special day. You can have a meal at any time. The same is true for burning incense. When you want to burn incense, you can burn it at any time. You don’t have to wait for a special day.
Again, cultivating the mind is the most important thing. If you are happy and joyful when eating dumplings, the dumplings you eat are meaningful. If you eat dumplings on the Winter Solstice, but there are some troubles that affect your mood at the time, and you are not happy or happy when eating, the dumplings you eat are meaningless.
So, everything depends on your motivation, your heart is the key.
If your intention is compassionate, burning one stick of incense is better than others burning countless incense. If your intention is unkind, no matter how much incense you burn, it will be useless. When burning incense, don’t be too attached to the appearance, but focus more on your heart.
Thanks for reading and sharing.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-