May 2008

Namo tassa bhagavato arahato sammā-sambuddhassa.

Above is a picture of the holy relics of the Buddha. A small portion of it was installed in a large Buddha image in the sala last night. I think this is the first time that I post any image of Buddhist relics on this blog. I hesitate to write about their mystery and wonders. Maybe it’s because of my extreme introverted personality that cause me not wanting to catch attention. Maybe because of the risk of possibly causing disbelief in those who had not experienced these holy relics. One thing is sure, I have very high respect for them and do not want to make any mistake. Since I still feel reluctant to elaborate on them in this blog, I’ll just give you a couple of links. This one is a very short explanation, but from a tradition that’s close to mine. Here’s one that’s quite famous actually, from a different tradition’s understanding. Just to give you some ideas. You’ll have to research if you want to know more.

Visakha Pjua (Buddha Day), a full-moon day, is a day that commemorates three key events in the Buddha’s life: his birth, Awakening, and final Unbinding (parinibbana). We started with the main ceremony of special chants, Dhamma talk, and followed by everyone walking around the main shrine room three times, holding flowers, candle and incense. Some of us even saw a shooting star (including me ).

After the main event we gathered at the sala for the installation of the holy relics in the head of the large Buddha image.

After the installation, some of us gathered at the site of the future Holy Pagoda for silent meditation. Sorry, no pictures. We only had the moon and the stars for light source. Not good for picture taking. Also, I just wanted to meditate without interruptions.

It is our plan to build a Thai style Pagoda in the next few months. It will eventually house 108 different relics of various Awakened Ones, so that people can visit and pay respect, and feel inspired to look at one’s self and to purify one’s mind.