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View submission: Do you believe in the relics?
I am unclear if you mean do I believe the relics are real or if the relics have some inherent power?
To the first question, whenever someone says that something is a relic of the Buddha I am instantly doubtful. This is because I know the total supposed relics of the Buddha from Sri Lanka and Thailand combined in terms of weight is slightly over twice that of an average funerary pyre. We are not including relics from Cambodia or Burma.
However do I believe relics contain holiness? I think the Four Sites do have holiness as the Buddha Himself said to visit it. I do believe a genuine relic of an Arhat or Buddha also contains some holiness.
However I believe this holiness is more due to the sraddha and moral activities of the owner of the body and also the practitioners. Therefore when the Buddha said to revere the Bodhi tree and its descendants as relics and cetiyas/stupas as relics I accept it.
I also believe in mental sariras, relics left behind by the Buddha in forms of mental recordings to aid people on the path to Enlightenment. The number of people who while deeply meditating but experience a hurdle who suddenly gets transported to a sermon where they see/hear the Buddha preaching is too many to discount.
The Buddha is usually not directly interacting with them ( except to give them a knowing glance ) but is preaching to a crowd. The tradition is that these are teachings left behind by the Buddha to aid people in need.
There's nothing here!