maitreya buddha statue

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The Heart Shrine Maitreya Buddha Shrine, Kushinagar, India


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Maitreya Buddha Statue in Park at Kushinagar, India

What are Relics

In Buddhism, relics of the Buddha and various sages are venerated. After

the Buddhas Mahaparinirvana, his remains were divided into eight portions.Afterward, these relics were enshrined in Stupas wherever Buddhism wasspread, despite his instructions that relics were not to be collected or

venerated.

Some relics believed to be original cereal of Buddha still survive includingthe much revered Sacred Relic of the tooth of the Buddha in Sri Lanka.


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A stupa is a building created specifically for the relics. Many Buddhist

temples have stupas and historically, the placement of relics in a stupa often

Maitreya Buddha Statue

became the initial structure around which the whole temple would be based.Today, many stupas also hold the ashes or ringsel of prominent/respectedBuddhists who were cremated. In rare cases the whole body is conserved,for example in the case of Dudjom Rinpoche, after his death his physical


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body was moved a year later from France and placed in a stupa in one of his

main monasteries near Boudhanath, Nepal in 1988. Pilgrims may view hisbody through a glass window in the stupa.

The Buddha's relics are considered to show people that enlightenment is

possible, to remind them that the Buddha was a real person, and to alsopromote good virtue.

Introduction to the Heart Shrine Relic Tour

Maitreya Buddha statue

I had some faith in the power of holy objects, but it was mainly based onmy faith in Lama Zopa Rinpoche and his word that they have power. After

being on the Relic Tour, my scientific inquiring mind now understands thispower based on empirical evidence.


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I have seen thousands of people transformed by the presence of these

relics. I have felt them transform my own mind...They emit some sort oftransmission that can make a person open to their hearts and to the hearts

of others. I dont know how, but the relics seem to connect people to theenlightened experience, what we call Buddhas blessings.

I used to think that the Maitreya statue was a good project because it was a

good thing to have a big symbol for peace in the world, but now Iunderstand that the statue itself will make peace in the world because those

relics are going to be inside the heart of the statue and they will broadcastthat blessing round the world, like a radio broadcasts radio waves. Peace

power.

Venerable Paula Chichester, Relic Tour Manager in Africa 2009

A unique and precious collection of more than

1000 sacred Buddhist relics will be permanentlydisplayed in the Heart Shrine of the completed

Maitreya Buddha statue in Kushinagar, India.

Meanwhile, it is the wish of the Spiritual Director

of the Maitreya Project, Lama Zopa Rinpochethat the collection should travel throughout the

world to bring the blessings of the relics and themessage of loving-kindness to people

everywhere.

Most of the relics those found among thecremation ashes of Buddhist masters

resemble beautiful pearl-like crystals. Buddhists

believe these relics are produced as a result ofthe masters spiritual qualities of compassion and wisdom. Since we can all

develop these qualities, the relics are a reminder of our own essential natureof purity and our inner potential to manifest that.

The collection includes relics of the historical Buddha and the Buddhasclosest disciples as well as many other well-known Buddhist masters fromdifferent Buddhist traditions.

Visitors often report experiences of inspiration and healingwhen in the presence of the relics. While some are

inspired to pray for world peace and to develop their innerwisdom, others are overcome by emotion as the powerful


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effects of the relics open their hearts to compassion and loving-kindness.

People are deeply moved when they come in contact with the relics...there

are so many stories. This is definitely one method for bringing people toenlightenment. The relics have incredible benefit for the world...people

wants them very much...and there is greater and greater benefit now....

I didnt know the Relic Tour would be of such great benefit to the world;

create such devotion. Devotion is the source. From devotion you getblessings, from blessings you get realizations, the strength to engage in the

path.

The Relic Tour is one way to bring world peace, through people changingtheir mind. As His Holiness the Dalai Lama says, outer peace through inner

peace. So the relics take a very important role in world peace. That is thepurpose for the Buddha leaving relics.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Spiritual Director of Maitreya Project

Lighting Lamps of Loving-kindness Around

the World

The purpose of the Relic Tour is to inspire people of all spiritual traditions

and paths to come together to experience the blessings of the relics.

Since the Tour began in March 2001, what has evolved has been trulyincredible and very beautiful. The sheer human response to the relics has

been healing and created a resonance of hope rippling around the world.


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In each city they visit, the relics are inspiring communities to come together

and experience an inter-faith celebration focused on our shared humanqualities love, compassion and the importance of having a good heart. By

meditating on loving-kindness, peace naturally arises in our hearts and inour surrounding world.

For many years now, Lama Zopa Rinpoche has been collecting relics of theBuddha and other revered Buddhist masters from around the world, and the

Relic Tour collection is truly extraordinary.

Many living Buddhist masters from a number of traditions and countries,including Burma, Indonesia, France, Thailand, Tibet, Korea and Taiwan, have

offered sacred relics to the collection. His Holiness the Dalai Lama offeredeight relics ofShakyamuni Buddha from his personal collection.

"Vicki Walker, 45, has been studying the Dharma [teachings of the Buddha]for nine years. The names Shakyamuni, Ananda, and Shariputra are familiar

to her. But tonight, they mean something much more. She has tears in hereyes, and she can hardly speak. There is gentleness about her. Her two

sons, ages nine and twelve, are also bowed in prayer. They have just metthe relics of the Buddha the relics of Shakyamuni, Kasyapa and eighteen

other great Buddhist masters that are touring the world, and tonight arevisiting the town of Vail, Colorado, USA.

The relics are displayed in tiny stupas in the center of the room, amidst a

majestic exhibition of lights, candles, kataks and a graceful Maitreya Buddha

statue. Vicki has returned to her seat, absorbing the significance of theevent.

'I just pray for wisdom and loving-kindness,' says Vicki. 'I want it for myself,

for my family and others...'


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from Mandala magazine, December 2002.

The Relic Collection

All of his life, Lama Zopa Rinpoche has been collecting sacred relicsoffered by Buddhist masters around the world. His Holiness the Dalai Lama

has offered eight relics of Shakyamuni Buddha to the collection. Eventuallythe entire collection will be enshrined at the heart of the being built in India.

From time to time, visitors at Relic Tour events offer to the collection, relicswith which they themselves have been entrusted. Their intention is that

many others may benefit.

This incredible generosity and kindness means that the collection is

becoming larger and more varied, and now includes masters from manydifferent Buddhist traditions. This reflects the Relic Tour's non-sectarianapproach and universal message.

Thus, as the Tour travels around the globe, the Maitreya Project HeartShrine Relic Tour collection is constantly evolving and growing.

There follows below, more information about some of the relics presently inthe collection:

Kasyapa Buddha

Shakyamuni, the Historical Buddha Shakyamuni Buddha's Heart Disciples: Venerables Shariputra,

Maudgalyayana, Ananda, Kondanna, Rahula Nagarjuna

Bodhisattva Chophak Yeshe Tsogyel

Lama Atisha

Milarepa


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Geshe Chekawa

Lama Tsongkhapa

Gyalwa Ensapa

His Holiness the First Karmapa Pabongka Rinpoche

Lama Thubten Yeshe His Holiness the 15th Karmapa

Gwang-Chin Master

His Holiness Dudjom Rinpoche

Kalu Rinpoche

Geshe Yeshe Tobden

Jigme Phuntsok Rinpoche

His Holiness the Sixteenth Karmapa

Ribur Rinpoche

Kirti Tsenshab Rinpoche

Geshe Lama Konchog

Bokar Rinpoche

Terma Relics

Vajrasattva Sky Relic

Relics from 500 Arhats

Longchenpa Marpa the Translator

Jamyang Chokyi Ldro Rigdzin Trinley

Chokgyur Lingpa (Chling) Tertn

Master Seong-cheol Sunim


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The Relic Tour events are free and everyone is welcome to come and view

the relics regardless of their spiritual tradition.

If you wish to invite the relics to be displayed in your city, please contact us

for more details


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Available on Amazon.Com


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Buddha the epitome of awareness

Be a light unto yourself.

Buddha says, Be a light unto yourself. That is his greatest message or

insight. Nobody else in the entire history of human consciousness has beenso respectful towards others as Gautama the Buddha.

Be a light unto yourself.The word buddha will be repeated again and again by Bodhidharma so you

have to understand what it means. It is not a personal name of anybody.

Buddha simply means one who is awakened. Gautama Buddha is the mostfamous awakened one but that does not mean that he is the only awakened

one. There have been many buddhas before him and there have been manybuddhas after him and as long as every human being can become a buddha,

new buddhas will go on springing up in the future.

Gautama Buddha was the most cultured, most educated, the mostsophisticated person ever to become a mystic. There is no comparison in the

whole of history.

He could see where the innocent mystics had unknowingly given chances forcunning minds to take advantage. He decided not to use any positive termfor the ultimate goal, to destroy your ego and any possibility of your egotaking any advantage. He called the ultimate, nothingness, emptiness,

shunyata, or zero. Now, how can the ego make zero the goal? God can be

made the goal, but not zero.

Whenever new disciples used to come to Gautama the Buddha he would askthem, to just sit by his side silently for two years, then something will be

possible. Then I can say something to you and you will be able tounderstand.

Buddha says, Even if you meet me on the way, kill me immediately. By

saying this he is asking the disciples not to follow him instead, understandhim and just take the hints. Try to understand, imbibe the spirit. Feel his

presence and then go on your way. Live according to your own light,howsoever small it is does not matter. However if the light is yours and you

live according to it, it will go on growing.


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Gautama Buddha had to deny that God existed - not that he was againstGod, a man like Gautama Buddha cannot be against God. And if Gautama

Buddha is against God, then it is of no use for anybody to be in favor of God.His decision is decisive for the whole of humanity, he represents our very

soul. He is the epitome of consciousness. But he was not against God. Hewas against your ego, and he was constantly careful not to give your egoany support to remain. If God can become a support, then there is no God.

Mahavira and Buddha both insisted on nonviolence. The basic reason for notfighting is that once you stop fighting the ego cannot exist. Ego exists in

fight. It is a consequence of fight. The more you fight the more ego exists. Ifyou alone remained on the earth, nobody to fight with, would you have an

ego? You would not have an ego.

Buddha emphasized meditation. Meditation is a totally different technique.

There is no need to believe, no need to move to the other. You are alonethere. But you have to wake yourself

Gautama Buddha was born on a full-moon night. He became enlightened on

a full-moon night. He died on a full-moon night. This cannot be justcoincidence. His type has something to do with a synchronicity with the full-

moon night.The next time you enter a temple of Gautama Buddha just sit silently, watchthe statue. The statue has been made in such a way, in such proportions

that if you watch it you will fall silent. It is a statue of meditation; it is notconcerned with Gautama Buddha.

The story about Gautama Buddha is that when he reached the gates of

nirvana he stood there, his back towards the gates. The gates were opened,

and the guards wanted him to enter. They were ready to welcome him -because centuries pass and then once in a while those gates open. And they

were immensely happy that someone has again become a buddha.

But Buddha refused. The story is symbolic. He says, Unless every living

being passes by me into nirvana, I am going to stay here. I will be the lastto enter. I cannot go alone I have to take everybody with me.

They are struggling in pain and misery, and do you think I should enjoynirvana and its tremendous blissfulness? It is not possible. I will wait. Youcan wait; but waiting here I will try to help those struggling souls, stumblingand groping in darkness. Unless I am satisfied that everybody has passed in,

I will not come in and close the doors. Buddha is certainly one of the most


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insightful men. He does not stop at himself. Anybody would have stopped

there - it is a natural tendency to put oneself at the highest point and thenstop.

In India I have visited a few places. The place where Gautama Buddha

became enlightened is called Bodh Gaya. It is a small temple - some followermade the temple as a memorial, by the side of the tree under which Buddhabecame enlightened. That tree still remembers something, and I came toknow later on that the bodhi tree has a certain substance which no other

tree has, and that is the substance which makes a man a genius. Onlygeniuses have that substance in their mind, and in the world of trees only

the bodhi tree has that substance. Perhaps it is more perceptive, andreceptive. It has a certain genius.

A buddha asleep is such a beautiful phenomenon: he looks like a small child,

innocent, with no burden of the day. To look at a buddha while he is asleep

is very beautiful, so Ananda used to watch. Buddha would go to sleep, andAnanda would sit and look at him. He was such a silent pool of being.

Nothing was incomplete, everything, every moment was complete andperfect. There was no dream, or traces left. His mind was a crystal clear

mirror. The stream of consciousness was never muddled, it was crystal clear.

Gautama the Buddha is the greatest breakthrough that humanity has knownup to now. Time should not be divided by the name of Jesus Christ; it shouldbe divided by the name of Gautama Buddha. We should divide history beforeBuddha and after Buddha, not before Christ and after Christ, because Christ

is not a breakthrough; he is continuity. Jesus represents the past in itstremendous beauty and grandeur. He is the very essence of the whole

search of man before him. He is the fragrance of all the past endeavors ofman to know God, but he is not a breakthrough. In the real sense of the

word he is not a rebel.

Buddha is, but Jesus looks more rebellious than Buddha for the simple

reason that Jesus rebellion is visible and Buddhas rebellion is invisible.You will need great insight to understand what Buddha has contributed to

human consciousness, its evolution, and human growth. Man would not have

been the same if there had been no Buddha. Man would have been the sameif there had been no Christ, no Krishna; there would not have been muchdifference. Remove Buddha and something of tremendous importance is

lost; but his rebellion is very subtle.

Before Buddha, the religious search was fundamentally a concern with God:a God who is outside, a God who is somewhere above in the heavens. The


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religious search was also concerned with an object of desire, as much as the

worldly search was.

The worldly man sought money, power, prestige, and the otherworldly manwas seeking God, heaven, eternity, and truth. But one thing was common:

both were looking outside themselves, and both were extroverts. Rememberthis word, because this is going to help you understand Buddha. BeforeBuddha, the religious search was not concerned with the within but with thewithout. All search was extrovert, and when the religious search is extrovert

it is not really religious. Religion begins only with introversion, when youstart diving deeply within yourself.

EXCERPT:

WISDOM FROM SANDS OF ETERNITY

By

TAOSHOBUDDHA

maitreya buddha statue

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