Watching the Incense
I like to burn a lot of incense in my office, home and temple. I always enjoy watching the smoke rise in elegant shapes from the incense burner, drifting off slowly into the air. It looks like some sort of slow motion dance, much like the taiji or qigong dance that I practice. Sometimes I can see animals or trees or shapely clouds in the smoke. I like to use something simple like sandalwood or aloes wood incense, nothing too sweet or cloying.
I also have some incense that I was given by the vice abbot at the Jade Springs monastery at Hua Shan, a sacred Daoism mountain, years ago. I don’t know what it’s called. I call it “Daoist incense.” I have only seen it at that one mountain. The last time I was there I bought a huge amount of it, enough for years, from a woman who sold from a little cart at the bottom of the mountain. She was so amazed when this “big nose” kept buying her entire store of the incense. She even ran inside and found a few more bundles of it. She laughed and laughed when I bought it all.
Incense or incense like plants have been used for thousands of years by various cultures abound the world to call in the spirits and communicate with helpful guides. Sometimes I recite an invocation for burning incense, taught by my teacher, Hua Ching Ni.
It starts off:
I cultivate myself and follow the Heavenly Way
With a lucid mind and subtle energy.
with this incense I connect my whole being
with that of all Divine Immortals.
(You can see the rest of this in Master Ni’s book, Workbook for Spiritual Development.)
Shanti and I have also been having fun with some really high quality essential oils from Young Living, especially one called Joy and one called Sacred Mountain. Diffusing these into the air in our home brings about a beautiful energy and lightens our spirits.
Whether it is ‘Daoist incense,” sage, sweetgrass, essential oils or myrrh or other aromatic oils from ancient times that are used, they become gateways into the spirit world and help us communicate with “all the Divine Immortals.”
Under heaven everyone knows that the existence of beauty
depends on the existence of ugliness.
Everyone knows the capacity of kindness
depends on the existence of the unkind.
Existence and nothingness are mutually born,
difficult and easy complete each other,
long and short shape each other,
tall and short rest upon each other,
sound and music harmonize each other,
before and after follow one another.
Because of this the sage
dwells in the world of non-action,
practices teaching without speaking.
The ten thousand beings rise and fall
and she does makes no claim on them.
She creates but does possess them.
She works but does not take credit for it.
Because she does not take credit for her accomplishments
they will last forever.
Daode Jing Chapter 2
I have been reading a wonderful book called The Four Agreements. I love this book! The teachings are very simple yet very profound, always a good combination! They are as follows:
1. Be Impeccable with your Word: Speak with integrity. Say only what you mean. Avoid using the Word to speak against yourself or to gossip about others. Use the power of your Word in the direction of truth and love.
2. Don’t Take Anything Personally
Nothing others do is because of you. What others say and do is a projection of their own reality, their own dream. When you are immune to the opinions and actions of others, you won’t be the victim of needless suffering.
3. Don’t Make Assumptions
Find the courage to ask questions and to express what you really want. Communicate with others as clearly as you can to avoid misunderstandings, sadness and drama. With just this one agreement, you can completely transform your life.
4. Always Do Your Best
Your best is going to change from moment to moment; it will be different when you are healthy as opposed to sick. Under any circumstance, simply do your best, and you will avoid self-judgment, self-abuse, and regret.
I think I will be working with number 2 for the rest of my life! I think that if we really work on applying these principles to our daily life our self-cultivation will be that much more powerful. In chapter 2 of the Daode Jing Laozi says:
Under heaven everyone knows that the existence of beauty
depends on the existence of ugliness.
Everyone knows the capacity of kindness
depends on the existence of the unkind.
Existence and nothingness are mutually born,
difficult and easy complete each other;
long and short shape each other;
tall and short rest upon each other;
sound and music harmonize each other;
before and after follow one another.
Because of this the sage
dwells in the world of non-action,
practices teaching without speaking.
The ten thousand beings rise and fall
and she does makes no claim on them.
She creates but does possess them.
She works but does not take credit for it.
Because she does not take credit for her accomplishments
they will last forever.
The combination of the Four Agreements with the teachings of Laozi and Zhuangzi will make our cultivation practices even more powerful!
Chu Chai Tzu said to this teacher Chang Wu Tzu, “I have heard from Confucious that the sage does not involve herself with things of the world. She does not seek gain or try to avoid loss. She seeks nothing and does not even cling to Tao. She speaks without using words, and when using words does not say anything. Thus she travels beyond this world of dust. Confucious thinks these are just empty and fanciful words, but to me they seem like the very way of the mysterious Tao. What do you think?”
Chang Wu Tzu answered, “Even the Yellow Emperor himself would have been confused by these words; how can Confucious hope to understand them? I will speak to you a little recklessly and I want you to listen the same way. The sage floats alongside the sun and moon and embraces the universe, joining it all together into one great whole. She rejects distinctions and ignores social rank. Ordinary men struggle and toil while the sage seems stupid and blockheaded. To her ten thousand years are but one. To her the ten thousand beings are all one, forming a whole.
“How do I not know that loving life is a foolish delusion? How do I know if fearing death is like a man, who upon leaving home, cannot remember the way back and becomes afraid?”
from The Inner Chapters of Chuang Tzu by Solala Towler
Dao that cannot be named –that is called the Treasure House of Heaven. Pour into it and it will never be filled, pour it out and it will never be emptied. In the world, no one knows why this is so. This is called Inner Illumination.
Zhuangzi (Chuang Tzu)
