The Teaching of Luang Phor Anan.

 The Teaching of Luang Phor Anan.

Monk: I have the doubt arise that after offering the cremation fire to the Buddha after his passing, how many major relics of the Buddha were there? And what are the benefits of giving puja, homage, to the relics? 

Luang Phor Anan: We can’t count how many pieces there were, because after the cremation, there was a white cloth, the last cloth, that covered all of the Buddha’s relics. It was all gathered into this white cloth. 

All the bodily bone relics of the Buddha. Here, Dona Brahmin separated them out for the big countries, the ones who had power at that time. He separated them out for their puja. 

And to give puja to relics have great benefits. Because we puja and homage the relics, for the purpose of recollecting the noble virtues: the metta, loving-kindness, the great compassion (maha karuna), the wisdom, and the great purity of the Buddha. This is merit and goodness. 

And the benefit is that one will gain all good things in all ways. Having happiness in this life, and happiness in the next life. But greater than this is not that we just recollect the merit, but we practise as well. The important thing is to use it to practice. 

And another thing is that some people go to puja the relics, and they have happiness. But if the relics fall or it disappears , they have suffering coming up. Here we have to be careful as well. 

Because when the merit arises, we feel pleased. And after that, if the relics grow in number, we are pleased and feel happy. But we think, “Will any of the relics fall?” And one day, if some of the relics disappear, the number reduces, we will have suffering. “Is it because we don’t practise well?” We have thoughts like this arise. So we need to be careful of this. We should know that to recollect the relics is in the field of merit and goodness. But we should take Dhamma practice as the important foundation. 

Luang Phor Anan

Wat Marp Jan

Cr. watmarpjan.org