About Incense and Incense Offering
Across all Buddhist traditions, incense is one of the most common and basic substances used as offerings to the Buddhas and enlightened beings. Within Tibetan Buddhism, incense is typically used as an offering to the Three Jewels — Buddha, Dharma and Sangha. It is also employed as part of Buddhist ritual to purify offering substances such as water, food and light.
In traditional Tibetan Medicine, incense is often used as a medicinal substance to treat certain ailments. Due to the healing qualities of its ingredients, Tibetan incense can soothe and calm a mind affected by depression, restlessness, anxiety and stress. Specific incense formulas can also be beneficial for common complaints such as migraines, cough, dizziness and insomnia.
On a spiritual level, the offering of incense reminds us to hold our vows purely and creates the causes for us to do so. In Buddhist thought, morality is considered to be one of the Six Perfections of a Bodhisattva practitioner. As such, it is one of the keys to reaching full enlightenment.
“Incense offerings should be done daily and consistently with great confidence in the supreme Dharma that liberates our mind from all sufferings and to the holy sage Buddha who has traversed over samsara.”
– Tsem Rinpoche
As we make incense offerings to the Buddhas, we generate the merits to become like them and hold our vows perfectly. This collection of merits is based on our Bodhisattva aspirations, and will lead us to the realisation of higher views which sees the faults of serving oneself as opposed to serving the needs of all sentient beings.
Therefore, offering incense of the best quality with the highest motivation may seem to be a simple spiritual act, but it leads to higher insight, integrity of practice, consistency of practice, generation of merits, and the ability to hold our vows which leads to the generation of higher attainments and insight within our mindstream.
About Amitayus
Amitayus, the Buddha of Infinite Life, is revered for his ability to grant longevity, healing, and purification of negative karma. He is one of the three long-life Buddhas, the other two being White Tara and Namgyalma.
Outwardly, his practice blesses us with an abundance of worldly necessities: good health, helpful friends, good family and good living conditions. Inwardly, we attain a greater understanding of Dharma, deepen our practice of morality, and develop more positive states of mind. And Secretly, we reduce the habituations of our self-cherishing, grasping mind. In this manner, Amitayus helps us to dispel the darkness of ignorance and to attain wisdom and compassion.
He is especially popular amongst Buddhist practitioners for the tremendous benefits his practice brings, the immediate result being feelings of peace and joy. It is also a very significant and auspicious practice for Dharma students to offer Amitayus to their Lamas, as a request for them to live long and to continue to spread Buddha's teachings.
