When we worship Buddha, we often invite incense to burn incense, but do you know why we need incense? Incense is also called Xinxiang. Incense is a signal that you have confidence. The real meaning of incense is to abstain from the real incense! It's the real practice to keep the precepts, get the tranquility and open the wisdom! The real meaning of burning incense to worship Buddha lies in expressing respect, gratitude and memory for Buddha. To dye into a pure, dedicated life, awareness of life.
The meaning of burning incense has four aspects:
1. To show piety and respect for the three treasures, so as to demonstrate and guide all living beings.
2. It means to burn oneself, popularize incense, and remind Buddhist disciples of selfless dedication.
3. It means that it ignites the Buddhist's true incense, which contains the meaning of vowing 'to practice discipline, determination and wisdom, and to put out greed, hatred and ignorance'. The Buddha does not like the world's great incense, but likes the Buddha's disciples' discipline, determination, truth and incense.
Generally speaking, the three branches of incense represent the three principles of precepts, calmness and wisdom, and they also represent the three treasures of Buddha, Dharma and monk's permanent residence. This is the most complete and civilized incense offering. The most important thing is sincerity. It's called 'burn three civilized incense, respect - sincere heart'.
What is the significance of Buddhist offerings (incense, lamp, candle, flower, fruit, water, etc.)?
Incense -- the real meaning is the Buddha's often said incense, five points of Dharma body incense (that is, incense, incense, wisdom incense, liberation incense, liberation knowledge see incense). When people see the smoke and smell the fragrance, they should think of self-discipline, self-discipline and wisdom.
Light represents light, and all light represents wisdom. Therefore, when we see all light, we should think about the way to wisdom.
Candle means to burn yourself and illuminate others like a candle. This is what Buddhism gives people. In order to seek wisdom, we need to be able to sacrifice ourselves to serve the society with our wisdom, physical strength and skills, and help all living beings without asking for compensation. That is to say, people should advocate the dedication of "from spring silkworms to dying silkworms, and from wax torches to grey tears".
Flower represents cause and virtue. Flowers are for people to see, remind people to pay attention to morality at ordinary times. After the flowers bloom, they will bear fruit. When the flowers bloom well, the fruit will bear well. Therefore, only through constant cultivation of good causes can we get good results in the future.
Fruit - indicates achievement. Fruit is not for Buddhas and Bodhisattvas to eat. When we see fruit, we can think of 'what kind of fruit we hope to get, what kind of cause we should cultivate'. From the Buddhist point of view, the representative virtue of fruit is the fruit of complete wisdom.
Water represents mood. The water is pure, which means the heart should be clean. Water can't lift waves. It's flat. It's equal. So when we see this glass of water, we think that our hearts should be as clean and equal as water. This is the most important thing in the offering. You can not even burn incense, light candles, and have no flowers and fruits, but you can't afford a glass of clear water. When you see water, you need to think of yourself in all circumstances, such as in the human environment and material environment. You need to know how to cultivate the pure heart and the equal heart. The pure heart and the equal heart are the Buddha heart and the true heart.