Taoists have 2 main methods of offerings incense at altar.
Taoists would use 3 joss-sticks (sticks of incense) as offering, and burn it at the incense urn ("
xiang lu" burner). All 3 sticks of incense must be positioned at the centre of the urn, and placed nicely and of equal height in the urn.
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There must be only a gap of one inch (yi chun) between the joss-sticks. The gap cannot be far apart from one another. Most Taoists practice this form of incense offering.
Another method is using pieces of sandalwood ("
tan xiang") and burn it in a incense urn. This method will usually be performed by priests and the owner/ chairman/ master of the altar. The 1st stick of incense wood will be offered in the center of the urn, the 2nd on the right, and the 3rd on the left. A small amount of sandalwood powder will be placed on the left of the incense urn, and sticks of incense will be on the right of the incense urn. There are hand guestures and spells to recite when offering incense using this method.
Other than knowing the methods of offering incense, another important issue is how to perform the bows and postrations ("
kou bai"). Bowing and postrations is a major aspect of our culture and tradition, and it have different ways to bow and have different meanings too. Till today, taoists will still bow and do the postrations as a form of respects, to elders, to our ancentors, and also to the deities we honor. It is a form of saluting in our tradition.
Taoists have a set of postrations known as the 3 bows and 9 postrations "
san li jiu kou li". It is break into 3 sections:
a. 1st bow, kneel down and 1st "
kou-tou", 2nd "
kou-tou", 3rd "
kou-tou".
b. 2nd bow, kneel down and 4th "
kou-tou", 5th "
kou-tou", 6th "
kou-tou".
c. 3rd bow, kneel down and 7th "
kou-tou", 8th "
kou-tou", 9th "
kou-tou".
Abit difficult to explain in English ... hmmm ... hope Wisely can further elaborate on this ...
Spell for offering incense (zhu xiang zhou)dao you xin xue, xin jia xiang chuan.
xiang re yu lu, xin chun di qian.
zhen ling xia fan, xian pei lin xuan.
di zi guan gao, jing da jiu tian.
ji ji ru lu ling !