Originally posted by earthling82:
hi all,
I can share another personal story.
I have the honor of visiting the Sri Lanka Dalada Miligawa Tooth Relic temple last year and even entered the holy chamber to view the relic. This is a very rare honor considering that thousands of tourist do not have this privilege. Some people can wait all life to no avail.
I was standing at the bullet-proof gate and with all my heart I wanted a testament to my faith by having an audience with the tooth relic. Minutes later my wish was fulfilled; my bhante came out and led me in to the envy of the crowds of tourist. I went into the secured vault and before long, before me was the golden stupa housing the relic.
In front of the stupa i made 3 vows. 2 of them, which are almost impossible tasks had been realised. In so doing, I had to promise Buddha certain specific things, which also comes at a cost of my own life.
Conclusion is when your heart and mind is real, that faith alone can shatter all obstructions and make the impossible happen.
Hi all,
Earthling82 brought up a good point and that is Faith.
In the 37 factors of enlightenment, the first of the 5 Strengths and 5 Roots are none other than Faith. Lord Buddha taught that Faith is a positive mental energy that allows a practitioner to sustain and persevere in both good and bad times.
However, I think earthling82's post has little relevance to this thread that was started by LinYu. LinYu posted the news report where 2 different people brought their concerns over the authencity of the tooth to the media. What earthling82 had said may be inspiring but has nothing to do with the news report.
LinYu is right. It is the spirit of Lord Buddha's Teachings that should be practice rather than venerating on statue or in this case, takes on another form, the tooth relic.
Personally I have 3 observations from this tooth saga:
1. For buddhists who have the right understanding and right view, in the very first place, they won't even be bothered by this tooth relic, even if it is real because they will understand that the true relic of Lord Buddha is His Teachings instead. To venerate Lord Buddha's relic would mean to live His Teachings day by day to the best of our abilities.
2. For 'ming jian xin yang' buddhists, if they were made to believe that donating money in the cause of building this Tooth Relic Temple will accumulate merits, then I think I am both happy and sad for them. Happy is because I honestly believe that these people donated the money
believing it to be a good cause, this genuine intention itself is meritous; however, SGD 45million and 270kg of gold could have really really put into better usage. Sad is that the trust these people have would be considered as abused if it turns out the relic to be a fake one. But of course, if not making people to believe that the tooth relic is real in the very first place, I doubt this lot of money and gold would have been collected.
3. I feel that for the answers that Ven Fazhao had given in the article was an embarassment. The manner Ven Fazhao had answered seem to be best represent that of someone with blind faith. For Buddhism to be a realistic and practical religion, can in no way escape the verification from Science (as many of you would have discussed Science in other threads).
I was fortunate to have spoken to this Mr Zhou, an editor of Vaidurya this afternoon. I mentioned about having DNA test on the tooth relic, he brought up a good point and that is that it is impossible to know the DNA of the Buddha so there will be no way to verify in the end. But I was thinking to myself, well at least we can test whether or not does it belong to a human in the first place. Lord Buddha, was a man, it would be rather absurd to say that after His Enlightenment, His features would have suddenly have a tremendous transformation right? (Buddha not extreme makeover wor).
As Sanath had rightly pointed out that the alleged tooth relic should be seen as a property to the whole buddhist community. To say that the tooth relic belongs to Ven Fazhao himself and it was a private matter between himself and Venerable Cakkapala, then I think he would be in no position to have solicit money from the public in the first place.
"As for the dental experts' assessment, he (Ven Fazhao) said: 'They can say all they want, I don't care what they say. If you believe it's real, then it's real.' " <--- For a buddhist monk who is the 1st Vice Chairman of the Singapore Buddhist Federation and abbots for 2 temples, this would have really make people doubt the standard and credibility of the understanding of the Buddha's Teachings in Singapore. Didn't Buddha always teach that it is our duty to verify things that are in doubt?
"Would he let an expert examine the tooth in Singapore? He replied: 'It's mine, why should I let you examine it? Why don't you go examine what's in Sri Lanka and China first?' " <--- I found someone mention that "in Venerable Fazhao’s publication “New Discoveries On The Threshold of Enlightenment”, it is stated at page 83 that “This tooth relic has been inspected and authenticated by experts from Japan". If this would be true, then why not show the documents from the Japanese experts and can close case? Wait a minute, didn't Ven Fazhao just mention he won't allow the relic to be tested, then why it had apparently been tested by Japanese experts? Contradicting?
My conclusion is that this saga would be a typical of what I will term monkism, people simply believe what a monk says rather than to find out the truth for themselves. Now if I say I have Buddha's and I
believe so, I think in no time I will get flammed simply because I am not a monk!
Of course some would quote the story about the son using dog's bone to say it's relic to his mother. Well that may seems to be a skillful mean but now let me ask you, if someone were to give you a rat poison and say it's panadol, will you take it?
Any buddhist who has regards that Buddhism to be the Truth surely won't be stooping into such low-class lie because Lord Buddha teach that the Truth shall prevail and this is what is happening now!
Compassion is how a buddhist would show his altruism towards others but never forget that Wisdom should be the fundamental quality that a buddhist should have not only to guide others but to protect oneself too.
I hope after this saga, buddhists, especially those with right understanding and right view would see it that it is also the laypeople's responsibility to uphold the purity of the flow of the Dhamma. Instead of getting disheartened, we should get inspired!
Apologies to all, getting a bit "brain-dead" due to work and studies. I shall end my post with two quotes:
"Ren Neng Hong Dao; Fei Dao Hong Ren" --- a taoist saying (which I like a lot, it literally means man can propogate the Path not the other way round)
"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing" -- Edmund Burke (January 12, 1729 – July 9, 1797) [/i]