Smoke: Rising Above Turbulence and Finding Peace

The word incense comes from the Latin word "incendere," meaning to burn. The use of incense can be traced back 6,000 years and is used by many cultures around the world for religious and social ceremonies, ambiance, and mindfulness meditation.

Incense may consist of essential oils, plant materials, and resin from trees to invoke smoke and scent. Incense likes to smoke, and when we see smoke rise, it flows in a steady stream and then momentarily circles in turbulence, only to settle and flow again.

We can also notice this with our mind, as there are moments of flow, ease, and peace. Then, sometimes all of a sudden, little disturbances arrive. The drifting off to a past experience, thinking about the future, getting stuck in a mini whirlwind within our minds.

At this juncture, the elevated frequencies of experiencing the moment have temporarily lowered, and the conditioned mind and ego take over. We are thereby in a survival state of being, where we rely on our thoughts, environment, and time to dictate who we think we are.

This is a place where, transiently, our lives can be lived and stay stuck.

With mindfulness practice and meditative crafts, we notice these circles of turbulence and are able to rise above them. In our naturally elevated state of being, we are bigger than our thoughts, we are greater than our environment, and we are beyond time.

This is what the pathless path is all about: the ability to rise above our conditioned, repetitive monkey mind and experience our true creative inner nature of joy, awareness, and love.

Just as the smoke continues to rise, we allow the flow to consistently elevate above the moments of turbulence while finding peace, liberating our being to drift into the beautifully expansive inner unknown.

Just maybe a bit of frankincense tags along for the ride, yum.

Cheers!

Kether

Spunky Mind

"When thoughts arise,

then do all things arise.

When thoughts vanish,

then do all things vanish."

Huang Po