Ritual burning of incense goes together with chanting the name of God, lighting of altar candles and kneeling in prayer, as examples of methods to create an atmosphere of sacredness.

Although this is done within a community context, nevertheless such an activity has an individual, self-seeking dimension – since it is thus that the practitioner reaches out and initiates his personal claim on the world.

One must dedicate oneself fully to this task if it is to be effective; achievement of one’s purposes is entirely dependent upon the degree of worthiness for such an elevated process.

If the involvement is not total, if one is unable to overcome laziness or apathy, if one’s passion is dull, then the ritual is empty and so no deep remembrance will occur of the soul’s perfect and innocent condition.

This whole story is about remembering how to awaken the support of the subtle forces that are beyond scientific measurement – often described as God’s work. 

Spiritual activity is so often practiced as a group interaction. This is explained by the intuitive knowledge that nothing may actually be fully owned by an individual. All is shared, in both material and subtle realities.

Evidence of success, that one has somehow found a state of grace where self-demonstration and self-abnegation are both transcended, is found in the individual’s ability to practice the condition of rapture.