Daily Meditation: Sunday, August 1, 2004

Incense - burn some Incense, symbolic significance

08/01/2004

Today the Christian and Jewish religions have banned animal sacrifices, and neither cows nor sheep are burned on their altars. However, fire is still present in their churches and temples where they continue to burn incense and to light candles and lamps. Incense is matter that is transformed by fire; and as it burns it releases a perfume. But the burning of incense is significant only if the believer understands that it symbolizes processes which he must activate in himself: the conquest of his own weaknesses and lethargy, the purification of his own matter and its transformation through divine fire, so that the most delicious perfumes emanate from his soul. Otherwise, what good is this incense? To give off pleasant scents for the nostrils of those present is fine, but it is not enough.