What happens when we contemplate our true nature?

Dust settles.
Wind blows.
Incense burns.
Time passes.
Everything changes.

But something remains, unchanging.

Sit, light your incense.

Listen.

In Zen, there is a saying, “listen, until you can hear the sound of the incense burning.”

Then you’re really listening.

Consider the nature of incense for a moment.

In order to give itself to the world, to emit it’s perfume, to fulfil it’s purpose, it must burn.

It must burn, until nothing remains.

This is you.

In the quest for our True Nature, we must burn, until nothing remains.

“Be like an incense stick, there isn’t anything beautiful about an incense stick, until it is burnt. Only then can it fulfil it’s true purpose.”
— Mooji

We burn through sitting zazen, walking meditation, kõan practice, or through constant self-inquiry. The result of a total burning away of the one we thought ourselves to be, leaving only our perfume, our True Nature, the Self.

Realising samādhi, whilst burning like incense, we release our True perfume. It’s unavoidable, just as when incense burns, it cannot help but release it’s perfume, so, as we discover our True nature, we cannot help but release the perfume of Truth.

words : Bhagavati
image : David Gabriel Fischer