What is the secret behind the Buddhist tradition of paying homage to Buddha and offering incense?

2025-09-28 161

Offering incense is a sincere offering to Buddha and Bodhisattva, which also symbolizes the cessation of one's own troubles and the coolness and freedom of liberation! Therefore, offering incense must be done with one's own actual economic ability. Use pure and effective incense, and never use chemical spices (due to improper circumstances). Good incense can help people hold onto their roots, calm their body and mind, and enhance their concentration... This is particularly important for practitioners! Due to its six sharp senses and unobstructed Qi meridians, using chemical fragrances can be toxic when entering the body, disrupt the state of mind, and easily cause distress. The rising fire energy not only disturbs the mind but also damages the body and mind, leading to increased discord! Therefore, true practitioners must not neglect to observe!


The wonderful fragrance, which is blessed with holy objects, pure sources, and complete blessings, is the ultimate aid for meditation. It can cultivate various roots and increase the perception and acceptance of meditation, making the meditator's body calm, breath calm, and mind clear, and achieving the effects of regulating the body, breath, and mind without diligence. Burning a furnace produces a wonderful fragrance, with bright incense like bare consciousness, a profound and broad artistic conception like the realm of Qi and Fa, and a rich and mellow aroma like the pleasure of the Dharma. Surrounded by the realm and mind, the roots are pure and untainted, and one should ring incense for them. It makes people feel at ease naturally, and mindfulness gradually enters various meditations to cultivate their fragrance. The wisdom of Prajnaparamita is revealed through meditation, and it is a fragrance of wisdom. By following the wisdom of Prajnaparamita, one can break free from afflictions, liberate oneself from the constraints of reincarnation, and release oneself from the fragrance. Ultimately, all obstacles of knowledge are broken, all attachments are liberated, awareness is fully revealed, and knowledge and fragrance are liberated. This is the fragrance that proves the five parts of the Dharma body.


In Buddhism, there is a record in the Shurangama Sutra that states: 'By offering incense with the presence of the element, one can obtain proof of the fragrance of the heart without the element.'; Xiangyan Tongzi, standing up from his seat, bowed to the Buddha's feet, while Bai Buddha spoke, 'I have heard the Buddha teach me to observe the various phenomena of the world.' I bid farewell to Buddha at times, feasted in the Huiqing Zhai, and saw the monks burning the fragrance of deep water, and the fragrance quietly entered my nose. I observe this qi, which is neither original nor empty, neither smoke nor fire. There is nothing to go by, and there is nothing to follow in its arrival. It is sold by intention and invented without leakage. The Buddha's seal gives me a fragrant and strict name. The dust suddenly fades away, and the fragrance becomes dense and round. I got Arhat from Xiangyan. Buddha asks for perfection, as I have proven, fragrance and strictness are paramount. " It can be seen that Buddhism has completely transformed and elevated the realm of incense burning from secular use to the realm of wisdom.