-3 upvotes, 3 direct replies (showing 3)
View submission: Do you believe in the relics?
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Comment by krodha at 04/02/2025 at 08:37 UTC
6 upvotes, 0 direct replies
Memorials and monuments can inspire one about certain individuals and their accomplishments but they do not in and of themselves make anyone achieve the same. Those who believe in relics efficacy in endowing one with merits and blessings, should just get their kids to go dig up Einstein or Newton's grave to worship their remains in order to become a genius in physics.
Shakespeare if literature is your cup of tea. Will prob be downvoted because people like to believe in just getting blessed for free and not do the hard work of learning and practising the Dharma. If blessings and efficacies of the relics are true, then the Buddhas of all time really wasted their time. They should just attain enlightenment, self-cremate, use their psychic power to multiply their relics and embed every sentient beings with their relic, and cover every inch of samsara with relics. But they did no such thing. Instead, they spend their life giving teachings and tending to those who would listen and practise. And those who listen to and practised the Dharma, attained enlightenment. And don't take anyone's word for it. Here's what the Buddha had to say about his body with reference to Ananda's question.
The idea of relics is interesting, on one hand, buddhas do not have a body, and likewise do not die, therefore buddhas do not have relics. However, the principle of relics is that they are left by the buddha purposefully as an upāya, a skillful means, to inspire practitioners who may venerate them in order to generate merit (puṇya).
For example, regarding the nature of the buddha, and the nature of relics, the *Suvarṇaprabhāsottama* says:
> *The Bhagavat is not fabricated, and the Tathāgata is not produced. He has a body like a vajra. He manifests an illusory body (nirmāṇakāya). The great Ṛṣi does not have relics (śarīras), not even of the size of a mustard seed. How could there be relics from a body without bones or blood? Relics are left through skillful methods in order to bring benefit to beings. The perfect Buddha is the dharmakāya. The Tathāgata is the dharmadhātu. That is what the Bhagavat’s body is like. That is what teaching the Dharma is like.*
> *The Buddha does not pass away. The Dharma does not disappear. Passing into nirvāṇa is manifested in order to bring beings to maturity. The Bhagavat is inconceivable; the Tathāgata’s body is eternal. He demonstrates a variety of displays in order to bring benefit to beings.*
and,
> *When, in other times, it is said, ‘They pass into nirvāṇa and leave relics in the world,’ view that as the manifestation of a skillful method (upāya). Consider that it is through the power of the compassion and good roots of the tathāgatas that beings are able to make offerings to relics and revere them.*
> *Someone who makes an offering to the relics and reveres them will, in a future time, become free of the eight unfavorable states, will meet the tathāgatas, will have a kalyāṇamitra, will not abandon the enlightenment mind, will increase their merit immeasurably, will quickly transcend saṃsāra, and will not be overcome by the bondage of saṃsāra. That is sublime conduct and therefore you should earnestly accomplish it without distraction.*
Thus it is not that the relics have power, but rather the power of reverence exhibited by those who wish to venerate relics acts as a cause for advantageous dependent origination to meet the dharma continually in future lives.
Comment by mtvulturepeak at 04/02/2025 at 08:12 UTC
4 upvotes, 0 direct replies
This was specifically about how to deal with his dead body, not about how to treat relics. You are taking it out of context.
Comment by Buddhism-ModTeam at 04/02/2025 at 11:47 UTC
1 upvotes, 0 direct replies
Your post / comment was removed for violating the rule against hateful, derogatory, and toxic speech.