Don't burn incense at home every day. Why? The history of burning incense

Many people burn incense and worship Buddha at home, one stick in the morning and one in the evening. However, some people say that it is wrong to burn incense at home every day. Why is that? What is the historical origin of burning incense?

Why don't you burn incense at home every day?

1. From the Buddhist perspective , if you want to burn incense, you should burn the "true incense of precepts and concentration" rather than the "worldly incense". The so-called "worldly incense" refers to the various incense that people burn at home every day. If your heart is not sincere and the form is not right, or if you do not have a deep understanding of burning incense at all, it will be useless even if you burn incense eight hundred times a day. The "true incense of precepts and concentration" is the burning of incense that Buddhism really promotes. It means that through burning incense, you can continuously improve your wisdom and increase your concentration, abandon all kinds of worldly distractions and desires, learn to be strict with yourself, and thus find the purity deep in your heart.
2. From the perspective of physical health , it is not recommended to burn incense at home every day. The harm is too great. The quality of incense sold on the market varies greatly, and some inferior incense contains a variety of substances that are harmful to the human body. If you insist on burning incense every day, the air quality at home will definitely not be high, and the smoky smell will not be very pleasant. Especially if there is a pregnant woman at home, you should not burn incense, otherwise it will have a negative impact on the fetus and even cause the serious consequence of miscarriage. Even if the incense is made of all-natural wood, you cannot live in this atmosphere every day, otherwise it will make your head uncomfortable.

Rules and taboos for burning incense at home

When burning incense at home, odd numbers are preferred. Buddhists believe that odd numbers are auspicious. There are the following rules for burning incense at home: wear clean clothes, wash hands, use good incense, hold the incense in your left hand, light the incense all at once and make sure the fire is strong, kneel on both knees when burning incense, gather the incense over your head, silently recite what you are thinking in your heart, and choose a quiet place to worship Buddha and Bodhisattva at home. Taboos when burning incense: bad and unclean things, noisy places, etc.

The history of burning incense

The history of incense burning in China can be roughly divided into three periods:
1. Taking Emperor Wu of Han as the dividing line, the period before is the first period, which can be called the initial period. During this period, the following kinds of incense were burned: firewood, jade and silk, animal bodies, wormwood, millet, etc. The functions of burning incense are: first, to nourish the nature; second, to get rid of plague and insects; third, to be used for sacrifice. The act of burning incense was controlled by the state and carried out by priests.
2. The second period, from Emperor Wu of Han to the Wei and Jin Dynasties, can be called the introduction period. Emperor Wu of Han played a particularly important role in the development of incense in China. Firstly, Emperor Wu worshipped immortality and respected all gods, thus breaking the monopoly of "using incense to offer sacrifices to heaven"; secondly, incense gradually became practical during Emperor Wu's reign, such as storing favorite concubines in the Pepper Room and holding chicken tongue incense in their mouths when reporting to the emperor, thus breaking the monopoly of using incense to offer sacrifices and making incense part of daily life; thirdly, and most importantly, Emperor Wu expanded borders on a large scale, and it was during this period that a large number of "spices" produced in the Western Regions were introduced into China.
3. The third period is the popularization period. Incense became popular after the Sui and Tang Dynasties. There are two reasons for its popularity: first, "Western incense" was replaced by "Southern (Guangdong, Guangxi, Hainan) incense". The massive influx of southern incense lowered the price of incense, providing material preparation for its popularization; second, Buddhism and Taoism had developed greatly since the Six Dynasties, and had taken turns to become the supreme status of state religion. The number of believers increased, making the offering and burning of incense popular.