What is a Buddha Body Relic What is a Buddha Buddha True Body Relic?

The body relics of the Buddha refer to the bead-like gem-like products left behind by the cremation of Shakyamuni Buddha. Because it is produced by the Buddha, it is called "Buddha's body relics". Its shape is ever-changing, some are round, oval, some are lotus-shaped, and some are Buddha-like or bodhisattva-shaped; Its colors are white, black, green, red, and there are also various colors; Some of the relics are like pearls, some like agate, and some are like crystals; Some are transparent, some are bright, like diamonds.

There is no clear explanation in the scientific community as to how relics are formed. But what can be confirmed is that the relics are not gallstones. The tongue, heart, and other boneless soft tissues of the great virtue can also be cremated to form relics, and even the tongue of the Buddha parrot can also become a relic.

Whole body relics: It refers to the fact that after the death of the monk, although the body has been aged, it has not decayed and festered, and it is always lifelike in its original form.

It is a relic that was cremated in the body after the death of a monk of the Tao.

There are six temples (or pagodas) dedicated to the true body relics of Buddha Shakyamuni in our country: Lusun

1. A Buddha tooth relic, for the Buddha Tooth Pagoda of Lingguang Temple in the eight places of Xishan in Beijing, the relics were found in 1900, and there are only 2 in existence, one in China and one in Sri Lanka.

2. The Buddha refers to a relic, which is the underground palace under the base of the Famen Temple in Fufeng County, Shaanxi Province. The relics were discovered in 1987, and one piece survived, which is the only one in the world, and three shadow bones were enshrined at the same time, which were substitutes made in the Tang Dynasty.

3. There are four relics of the Buddha's body, namely the Leiyin Cave of Yunju Temple in Beijing (2 grains, discovered in 1981), the Iron Tower Underground Palace of Ganlu Temple in Zhenjiang City, Jiangsu Province (the largest number, 772 grains, discovered in 1960), and the relics hall of Asoka Temple in Ningbo City, Zhejiang Province (the relics pagoda dedicated to the Buddha's body relics in the hall is the only one among the 19 stupas in China that has survived after the Buddha's death. Discovered in 282), the Buddha conch hair relics of Leifeng Pagoda in Hangzhou City, Zhejiang Province (the world's first Shakya hair relics, published in March 2001).

There are many Chinese Buddhist scriptures that record the deeds of Shakyamuni, such as "The Past and Present Cause and Effect Sutra", "The Beginning of the Practice Sutra", "The Beginning of the Ruiying Sutra", "The Beginning of the Middle Book", "The Sutra of the Buddha", "The Sutra of Puyao", "The Collection of the Sutra of the Buddha", "The Praise of the Buddha", "The Five Divisions of the Law: The Ordination of the Gandha", "The Four Divisions of the Law: The Ordination of the Gandharva", as well as the "Shakya Spectrum" and "The Shakya Spectrum", etc.; The Pali classics of the Southern Transmission include "The Small Part" and so on. Gautama Buddha, the founder of Buddhism. The surname is Gautama, and the name is Siddhartha.

"Shakyamuni" (ākyamuni) is an honorific title given to him by Buddhists. Shakya, the name of the race, means "can"; Muni, also translated as "Wen", is an honorific title, meaning "benevolence", "Confucianism", "forbearance", and "silence". It is combined as "Nengren", "Nengru", "Nengforbearance", "Nenglonely", etc., which means the "sage" of the Shakya clan.

What are Buddhist relics?

The original meaning of the relic.

The relics are a transliteration of the Sanskrit word sarira, and are also translated as "sarira" or "sarira", which means corpse or body bone, or "spirit bone", also known as "strong son". Mr. Zhao Puchu, a well-known Buddhist figure, once pointed out: "A relic is a corpse, but this term is generally only used for the remains of a Buddha and virtuous monks."

According to the Buddhist tradition:

One is: the true body relics, the spiritual bones or non-rotten flesh of the people who are cremated by the great virtues.

The second is: the broken body relics are relics, a special substance found after the death of a virtuous person; It varies in size, has a round appearance, bright color and hard surface.

The third is: the Dharma body relics are all the great classics of Buddhism, which are the crystallization of wisdom left to future generations. The earliest relics should be the real body relics left by Shakyamuni Buddha.

The reason for the formation of relics.

Religion aside, there is also a great deal of controversy about the reasons for the formation of relics. This is because the formation of relics has been unstable so far, in other words, not all people can form relics. In general, the current general understanding is that relics are a kind of bone crystals, and its main chemical components are calcium, phosphorus, silicon and a small amount of aluminum, magnesium, potassium, sodium, iron and other elements.

The main minerals are the amalgamation of various minerals such as phosphate, aluminosilicate, silicate, etc. Current theories include:

Category 1: The precursors of relics exist in living people:

1. Vegetarian food is easy to form a large amount of phosphate, carbonate, etc., and finally it is deposited in the body in the form of crystals.

2. Pathological phenomenon: some people think that it is similar to gallstones and kidney stones. However, the above theories are generally easy to be refuted, because the above theories believe that the premise of relics exists in the living body in advance; Second, vegetarian food and stones are very common, but burning relics is not common.

At the same time, it is not possible to explain the size and quantity of the relics.

The second category: relics are produced during the burning process. This theory is one of the mainstream theories at present.

Life diamond refers to a cremation diamond cultivated with ashes or a hair diamond cultivated with hair, which is a kind of memorial diamond, also known as diamond burial. Cremation diamonds have the same chemical composition as natural diamonds, except that the carbon in them comes from the ashes sample, which is a diamond in the true sense of the word. And it not only has the meaning of "one forever", but also the expression of love that relatives are still "around" and "never separated".

Now that this technology has been provided for commercial operation, it can be seen that the existence of relics like relics can be achieved by rationally changing the conditions.

Relic, a Sanskrit word, is also translated as "Shiriro" or "Sri Ra", which means bone or remains.

According to legend, it was a bead-like object formed after the cremation of the body of Shakyamuni Buddha, and later it also referred to the bones of Buddha and monks. Relics can be divided into bone relics, hair relics and meat relics, and it is usually said that they all belong to bone relics. Buddhism believes that relics are refined by spiritual merits, and they are mostly made of hard beads and dazzling colors.

The Buddha's finger relics are the remains of Shakyamuni's real fingers.

This is also the only Buddha finger relics left in history, unearthed in 1987 in Shaanxi Famen Temple. This Buddha finger relic was left by Shakyamuni 2,500 years ago, and this relic has been kept as the supreme treasure of Buddhism, and was sent to the palace for worship in the Tang Dynasty.

In 874, after the Tang Dynasty enshrined the Buddha's finger relics, the relics were returned to the Famen Temple, and then the Famen Temple hid the relics under the underground palace, and in 1987, the Buddha's finger relics reappeared in the world.