Directions of the Past, the Present, and the Future!"

Sometimes in Buddhist sermons the destruction of Karma by
virtuous effort is likened to the burning of incense by a pure
flame,--sometimes, again, the life of man is compared to the
smoke of incense. In his "Hundred Writings "(Hyaku-tsu-kiri-
kami), the Shinshu priest Myoden says, quoting from the Buddhist
work Kujikkajo, or "Ninety Articles ":--

"In the burning of incense we see that so long as any incense
remains, so long does the burning continue, and the smoke mount
skyward. Now the breath of this body of ours,--this impermanent
combination of Earth, Water, Air, and Fire,--is like that smoke.
And the changing of the incense into cold ashes when the flame
expires is an emblem of the changing of our bodies into ashes
when our funeral pyres have burnt themselves out."

He also tells us about that Incense-Paradise of which every
believer ought to be reminded by the perfume of earthly incense:
--"In the Thirty- Second Vow for the Attainment of the Paradise
of Wondrous Incense," he says, "it is written: 'That Paradise is
formed of hundreds of thousands of different kinds of incense,
and of substances incalculably precious;--the beauty of it
incomparably exceeds anything in the heavens or in the sphere of
man;--the fragrance of it perfumes all the worlds of the Ten
Directions of Space; and all who perceive that odor practise
Buddha-deeds.' In ancient times there were men of superior wisdom
and virtue who, by reason of their vow, obtained perception of
the odor; but we, who are born with inferior wisdom and virtue in
these later days, cannot obtain such perception. Nevertheless it