The Teaching of Ajahn Suchart.
5th September, 2022
Question: Nowadays there are many exhibitions about relics of some practitioners who are not monks or arahants. How do I differentiate them?
Than Ajahn: You don’t need to because you don’t know how to do it, so you don’t need to differentiate them. Let them exhibit whatever they want. It does not make much difference to your life. It doesn’t enhance your practice or move you closer to enlightenment. Just know that those are relics as per what they said. Whether it’s true or not, you’ll never know, so there is no need to pay too much attention to them. You should pay more attention to the teachings of the Buddha which can be more beneficial to you than paying attention to the relics of different people.
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Question: Is it true that only arahants’ remains will become relics after they passed away?
Than Ajahn: That’s according to the common wisdom. Everybody accepts this truth that once a person became an arahant, part of the remains would turn into relics. But it doesn’t mean that every arahant will have his remains turned into relics because it depends on how long he lived after he became an arahant. If a person died right after he became an arahant, then his pure mind hadn’t had time to purify his body. So, if a person died right after he became an arahant, then his remains might not turn into relics. But if an arahant lives for many years after he attained arahanthood, like the Buddha who lived for 45 years after he got his enlightenment, then after he died, some of his remains would become relics right away. So, it depends on how much time his purified mind purified the bones to make them to become relics.
But, there is no guarantee to assume that once a person died, if his remains didn’t turn into relics, he wasn’t an arahant. You can’t assume that because he could be an arahant, but he didn’t have enough time to purify his body to make the remains to become relics. But if one’s remains became relics, then you can assume that he must be an arahant.
“Dhamma in English, Mar 25, 2019.”
By Ajahn Suchart Abhijāto
YouTube: Dhamma in English.
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