Zen Energy and Smoking Cones

Everyone has their personal belief system. Whether it's believing in Source, the One, God, Ala, Allah, Yahweh or other praised spiritual beings, some believe that Gods and Goddesses feel right to them and others feel there is no God of any sort.  Whatever the case may be, if it feels right to you, it's like Burger King; have it your way.  

Nobody can tell you it's not right, that it's wrong to believe in what you believe in. If that feeling of happiness and joy is there, created by your belief system, then by all means it is right for you. My belief is that of the presence of God and the angels. I believe in Spirit (God), guardian angels, spirit guides, archangels and all that feels good to me. The spirituality I practice involves making myself feel close, connected to Spirit in the ways that make me enter that realm of pure joy. I do meditate or pray as most call it. 

Meditation and prayer are alike in the end result. We speak to Spirit with a close, personal connection. You can feel that connection if you meditate or pray, making it a relaxing, spiritual experience that enhances your life, health, body, and mind. 

While I do pray or meditate, I speak with God and the angelic realm that is one large connection of Spirit to me. One of the ways of helping me feel that Zen experience is to "sage" my area or burn incense, sage, or even Palo Santo, a wood found in South America. The name, Palo Santo translates to "holy wood". When burning Palo Santo, it gives off the scent of burning an orange over a campfire. Strange combination, I know, but actually it smells of a citrusy wood. I often use it to place around the house where the citrus aroma comes through, without the campfire smell. This particular wood has been used to cleanse the energy around their sacred place for years by the Incans. 

Burning incense has, of course, also been a source of energy cleansing, in various cultures. The Catholic churches have used incense for years during their mass ceremonies. Now that energy cleansing and older styles of prayer or meditation is making a return in our culture, more focus has been put upon incense burners and the products that help us burn incense.  

Terry was online and found a special, very cool I might add, incense burner. This particular holder is giving us entertainment, along with being host to our favorite scents of incense. Why am I sharing this with you? Because I can, number one, and number two, if you're searching for a nice incense burner that is awesome, check these out! These are fairly new in design and while I'm certain you haven't been living under a rock somewhere and you have seen these before, I thought I would share a review of them of sorts. 

Placing the special cone on top of the burner is the first step. In this instance, it drops onto a platform within the leaves of the lotus flower on top of the statue. The cone incense has a hole in the center of it to allow the down draft to create the flow of the smoke. These cones can be purchased where you find the downflow incense burners.

Once lit, the smoke from the cone of incense will flow downward, being sucked down by the draft created due to the hole in the bottom, and the holes drilled into the burner. The air sucks the smoke around the Buddha or whatever particular focal you have on your burner, making the experience interesting and fun. 

Here the smoke is just beginning to circulate around the Buddha. 

As time goes on, the bottom portion of the holder begins to fill with the smoke too, creating the look of a waterfall. 

While the backdraft incense burners are nice and fun to watch, the cones tend to burn quickly. The draft from the burner will burn the cone as fast as a draft on a campfire or in a woodstove. If you blow on a campfire, the embers glow brighter and the wood burns rapidly. 

Purchase plenty of backdraft cones with your burner! You will go through them. We enjoy the burner, although each cone is burned in a matter of 15 to 20 minutes. Terry ordered the jasmine scented cones to go with the burner. While it's not our favorite scent, we have about 80 to burn through. He just ordered more in the Nag Champa scent, which is loved by both of us. 

The prices vary, as with most products. You can pick up a small backdraft burner anywhere from about $7 to a price tag in the hundreds. The average backdraft burner is around $30. When searching online, I have found the burners under the terms backdraft, backflow, and downdraft incense burners.

We have had a good time watching the smoke flow down into the bottom tray of the burner for a few nights now. The room smells wonderful when it's done, and we have shared an experience "oohing and Ah-ing over it." Yes, we know. It doesn't take much to impress us at our age, but we do love every moment of laughter, joy, and simple happiness it brings us.