No 26 of Living Life Series 1
With three incense sticks, our forefathers did pray, seeking the divine presence of the Heavenly Saints to bless them day by day.
Devotion calls to mind the offering of incense by our forefathers, but nowadays devotional hymns, chanting and group prayers are offered as instruments of devotion.
The wise one sees more to the incense than meets the eye. He goes the way of the incense, as you should also do. The fragrance of the incense rises to merge with the heavens above. Only the residues of burnt ash are left behind to be discarded and forgotten.
Brethren, let our minds go the way of the incense. Let us burn away our impure or evil thoughts and release the fragrance of pure thoughts to pervade the void left by the discarding of the impure thoughts.
Void the mind off pollutants of impure thoughts. The void that results is not seen but yet felt. The polluted sees this void as nothingness, for nothing is apparent to him. The pure neither perceives the void as something to see nor as nothing, but he perceives it as that which is real and felt.
Truth is purity, as you should know. Truth is to be experienced (by the wise) but not seen (by the ignorant).
Such is purity to be realised. Truth is never easy to explain or to see. You may launch Truth in a thousand words but what one perceives may not be what you wish to convey by your words. Truth can only be realised by one for himself. The lord saint Lord Bo Tien, like all saints, only provides the way.
Go the way of the incense. Void the mind off all evil thoughts of pride, ill will and wrong views; and experience the purity of the mind voided thus to release the sweetness of purity that is Truth itself.
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The Living Life Series is dedicated to Lord Bo Tien (武天菩萨). The doctrine is in His image. The image is the doctrine. He who sees, understands and effects the doctrine sees and knows Him. He who does not see, know and effect the doctrine sees not and knows not the saint even if the saint or His image is beside him. The far may be near and the near may be far. Let the doctrine and the saint be part of our life. The lord saint in your life can be any heavenly saint of any religion, sect or school. The doctrine of truth is behind all and this is the Inner Truth that leads all (regardless of their religious affiliation or even if none) to inner peace and heaven on earth here and now and not just in the after life. The ideal worship and devotion is to know and effect the doctrine of God and the saints. The best gospel is the gospel of life. We learn from our life and the lives of others. The true temple is the world we live in. The sky is the roof of the temple and religions and sects are the pillars of the temple. All under Heaven are in the temple. Needless to say that all the saints we know are in this temple. Ji Gong Posat too is no exception. The whole wide world and web is the temple and must be regarded as a sacred place --- a temple for living and learning. It is more important that everyone that counts plays a role in this universal temple if due focus is to be given to the Mission of Heaven. Men must not be distracted by the agenda of men and end up serving the mission of man. That would be a far cry from the Mission of Heaven. We worship God and saints, not man however good that man may be. There should be no hero worshiping or idolizing of man whether he is a charismatic pastor, priest, monk, medium or lay leader. We don't even idol worship the image of any saint but reflect on what the image stands for. - the doctrine in the image. Omitofo 阿弥陀佛!.
