Welcome home! Please contact lincoln@icrontic.com if you have any difficulty logging in or using the site. New registrations must be manually approved which may take several days. Can't log in? Try clearing your browser's cookies.
Sacred tooth relic of Lord Buddha to head for Myanmar from Beijing
Not exactly about worshipping statues, but the following story came to my mind (I'm paraphrasing, forgot the source):
An American came to stay in Zen temple in Japan. One day the Master summons him to his room:
- Is it true that you go at night to the temple garden to pee? - Yes - The temple garden is a sacred place. Don't piss in the garden! - But Master, doesn't Zen teach that there is no difference between holy and mundane? - That's true. - Well then, surely it's ok for me to piss in the garden? The Master hit him - The temple garden is a sacred place. Don't piss in the garden!
This Buddhist relic tour came to my city. I was thinking about going, then I saw that they supposedly had some relics from Kasyapa Buddha (a Buddha that came before Shakyamuni) and I totally lost any feeling that there was any way to know if a relic was legit or not. It seems somewhat reasonable that relics from some past masters would have been kept but that a relic from I guess prehistoric times survived and was passed down strains credibility to me.
I've seen the Maitreya Relic Tour a year ago. Very nice and inspirational. But it's troubling for me to think that respected teachers (like Lama Zopa) and geshes would wilfully participate in a big-scale deception. So I'm not sure what to make of it.
@person There's also the question: who said there were Buddhas before Shakyamuni? Did the Buddha ever say that? Isn't that Mahayana mythology? I tend to get lost among all the supposed Buddhas, the proliferation of goddesses, bodhisattvas and male deities, and the demons. For a time it made sense. But from the perspective of the canon, it doesn't.
@Cinorjer “I don't do worship. But I don't begrudge other people the privilege. What do you think?”
No me neither. In real life I hardly ever bother people with my opinions and judgments. It just happens to me on this forum.
On this forum sometimes it feels as if people ask me what I think about subjects. And when I’m asked I don’t hold back. Why should I? We are adults here, more or less. And like in this thread: Asian tooth-worshippers are adults. I don’t have to hold back on them.
But like I said. On the forum I get more often into discussions than in real life. I should take it easy for a while.
"Monks, ninety-one aeons ago the Lord, the Arahant, the fully enlightened Buddha Vipassi arose in the world. Thirty-one aeons ago, the Lord Buddha Sikhi arose; in the same thirty-first aeon before this Lord Buddha Vessabhu arose. And in this present fortunate aeon the Lord Buddhas Kakusandha, Konagamana, and Kassapa arose in the world. And, monks, in this present fortunate aeon I too have now arisen in the world as a fully enlightened Buddha."
Yeah, I think there are many places like this in the Canon that we are not very aware of, often containing the seeds of something we would normally associate with Mahayana only. I only came across this while reading Bhikkhu Bodhi's introduction in his In the Buddha's Words sutta anthology.
It's interesting. S Dhammika, a Theravada scholar, wrote an essay in which he points out that there are teachings in the sutras that got ignored by Theravada, but developed into important doctrine in Mahayana. So that means that Mahayana and Theravada developed at the same time, each using different components of the sutras. This fascinates me, because it goes against the popular (mis-)conception of Mahayana as having developed later, from some sort of spin-off teachings. But their development to some degree, was simultaneous and parallel.
You never know what surprised you might find when you start rooting around the canon!
Comments
An American came to stay in Zen temple in Japan. One day the Master summons him to his room:
- Is it true that you go at night to the temple garden to pee?
- Yes
- The temple garden is a sacred place. Don't piss in the garden!
- But Master, doesn't Zen teach that there is no difference between holy and mundane?
- That's true.
- Well then, surely it's ok for me to piss in the garden?
The Master hit him
- The temple garden is a sacred place. Don't piss in the garden!
No me neither.
In real life I hardly ever bother people with my opinions and judgments.
It just happens to me on this forum.
On this forum sometimes it feels as if people ask me what I think about subjects.
And when I’m asked I don’t hold back. Why should I?
We are adults here, more or less.
And like in this thread: Asian tooth-worshippers are adults. I don’t have to hold back on them.
But like I said. On the forum I get more often into discussions than in real life.
I should take it easy for a while.
DN 14: Mahapadana Sutta: Greater Discourse on the Lineage
http://buddhasutra.com/files/mahapadana_sutta.htm
It goes into quite some detail about all those past Buddhas.
You never know what surprised you might find when you start rooting around the canon!