21/09/2026
Somewhere along the way, connecting with Spirit got confused with restriction. Some cultures teach that you're inherently a sinner, so you must abstain from anything that grants freedom to be unruly, or indulgence to feel pleasure. The more you deny yourself, the closer you may get to something sacred, if you happen to buy into the belief that one day you may be pure enough to touch God.
Ta**ra has never bought into this notion. It never asked anyone to give up pleasure to reach the divine, to touch God, it asked people to actually feel it. Fully. Without guilt and shame getting in the way first. In fact, the feelings of guilt and shame and suppressing them, become the very obstacles to feeling divinity.
Scent does something thought can't. A smell reaches you before you've decided how to interpret it. For a second, there's no thinking self standing between you and the moment, there's just the moment. Ta**ra has a word for that brief dissolving, vishranti, restful awareness.
That's the practice, most days. Not a big ceremony. Just letting one thing hold your full attention for once, instead of splitting it eleven ways like usual.
You don't need incense and mantras to feel sacred. Sometimes it's just a flower, and actually being there with it.
**raWisdom