Can I burn incense and worship Buddha at night? How to burn incense and worship Buddha at home?

When we burn incense and worship Buddha, we must have correct knowledge and correct views, which means that we should be wholeheartedly devoted to Buddha and have no other distracting thoughts in our minds. Otherwise, it will be easy to be influenced by bad thoughts and lead us astray. We should also pay attention to the time of burning incense and worshiping Buddha.

Can I burn incense and worship Buddha at night?

You can burn incense and worship Buddha at night. Burning incense shows our respect and it does not matter about time or place. There is no rule about when you can burn incense and when you cannot.

1. Incense is the messenger. “When the incense burns, the Dharma Realm is permeated.” Once our piety is in place, we are in harmony with the Buddha. Incense has another function. Sandalwood can enhance our right knowledge and right views.

2. The purpose of burning incense is to allow us to see the Buddha every day. Because many of our thoughts are incorrect. For example, when we see steamed buns in the morning, we will have a certain idea about the steamed buns. At night we have to think about sleep, family, and television. These thoughts are the ones that cause us to reincarnate, so we must eliminate them. What to use to pick? Use Buddha statues. As soon as we burn incense and see the Buddha, the evil thoughts in our hearts will be immediately removed. Therefore, incense should be burned at all times and often.

How to burn incense and worship Buddha at home

1. First, light the incense with your own fire. This is the first and most important step in burning incense. Hold the incense stick between your middle finger and index finger, stare at the end of the incense, hold the incense high to your chest, with the incense head facing the Buddha statue. Gather the incense between your eyebrows, then put it down. Repeat this three times before inserting the incense into the incense burner. When checking, pay attention to the first incense stick being in the middle, the second incense stick being on the right, and the third incense stick being on the left.

2. The rules for burning incense vary from place to place. What we just talked about was ordinary thin incense. If the incense is in the form of small pieces or branches, the method will be different. First, hold the two ends of the incense with the thumbs and index fingers of both hands, and keep the middle finger, ring finger and little finger open and straight, and then raise them high to the eyebrows. Put it into the incense burner. In fact, to put it bluntly, the rules for burning incense are fixed, but people are flexible. Although rules are important, sincerity is more important. This is what Buddhism often says: sincerity is the key to success.

3. Burning incense is a very solemn and sacred thing, so some slanderous actions should not be performed, and the hands used to burn incense should be washed clean. Those who burn incense must be sincere in their hearts regardless of whether they are worshiping Buddha or performing traditional etiquette. The most taboo thing about burning incense is to kowtow violently. But it's okay if you are sincere. Generally, sincere people are very particular about etiquette. Do not disturb others and do not be disturbed by others when burning incense. This is very rude. There are also rules for the number of incense sticks to burn. You should know that three sticks are for praying for yourself, six sticks are for praying for two generations, and nine sticks are for praying for three generations. And thirteen is an extreme; thirteen incense sticks are high incense that represents complete merit.