Catholic RELIC tour, LA, SGV (3/17)

Over the years, the legend is enhanced to make magnificent Eurocentric art unlike reality.

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What happened?

The Holy Face of Jesus relic presentation and veneration and mass, Saint Therese Catholic Church

This seems to be the original.

It's a miracle. It's a miracle how anyone holds onto faith in Catholicism in the face of insults like this, a "third-class relic," by the church's own description, "a replica of the cloth Veronica wiped Jesus’ face with" that "has been touched to Veronica's Veil, the True Wood of the Cross, and the Lance," oy vey. By this rationale, the original could fall on the floor (be touched to) and thereby bless the whole earth, ushering in world peace, blind faith, and worldwide allegiance to Rome and the Vatican. Has the Church tried that? If they did, it hasn't worked. Blessed are the meek, for they [shall believe and] inherit the earth. What they'll do with it only the God knows. When is the Rapture again? All we can think of is Alanis Morissette and her Catholic sentiments: "We all needed something to cling to, so we did. We all had delusions in our heads. We all had our minds made up for us. We had to believe in something, so we did."

Pretty art: St. Veronica with Holy Kerchief (painted by Mattia Preti, 1650)

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A kerchief is a "head handkerchief."

*Christian Carnival Barker Voice* Get out of the bars, boys and girls, and into Catholic church to see the Holy Kerchief, the Vernicle (Sudarium or "Sweat Cloth"), Veil of Veronica or simply Veronica, the "Face of Jesus" relic.

Yes, just this one time, it may never come round to your neck of the woods again! You were wowed by the Holy Hand of St. Judas last year in Pasadena, but did you know the Creator's own son, drenched in blood, sweat, and tears while being whipped and beaten at the sixth Station of the Cross, had a kindness shown to him?

Veronica holding face of Jesus on her veil after wiping him

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, St. Veronica was kind enough to use her hanky on the lord, and with no time to emanate an entire life-size photocopy like he would with the Shroud of Turin, he left a headshot.

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  Icon of Black Jesus (Saint Issa)

  NOTE: While it may sound as if Wisdom Quarterly is mocking the idea of relics, sacred objects, particular religions, or those invested in their faith, a closer examination reveals that what is being mocked and made fun of is commercialization, corruption, and greed in the name of religion. This is what Mr. Show is aiming at, as well as taking on conservatives in government, Christianity, and hypocrisy in general. It is our confirmed belief that some objects are holy, sacred, divine, supernatural, extraordinary and miraculous. This may or may not be them, but such things exist. The Buddhist tradition, which preceded Christianity by six centuries, spoke of relics (sariras).*
• Put down the pints of St. Paddy's Day Guiness and join us as we go out to see them on tour just as we went out to see various stops of the worldwide Relic Tour by Tibetan Vajrayana Buddhists years ago in LA. Wisdom Quarterly will be at each stop as part of our ongoing "Adventures in Church" series.
• ALL religions are beautiful. They may not be true, but they are all beautiful.
• Those who wish to be spiritual should not let commercialized religion stand in the way.

• Preacher: Don't mess with Almighty God, Satan
• Good News (What To Think Network) Christian Conversion Therapy (Mr. Show with Bob and David)
• HOW TO SELL GOD: The Bible Machine: The 13th Apostle Marshal the Salesman, author of The Book of Marshal: Power, Passion, and Profits

Asian face Jesus?

(Veil of St. Veronica, 1500)

It may look like a splotch, but with
FAITH, it becomes a holy face.

Think about it. You loved the Blood Moon, a mere sideshow, you loved snow in LA's mountain tops in spring, you think fire, rain, and chilling cold are spectacles, but how about the authentic miraculous face of the creator-savior incarnate?

Yes, leggys and germs, this is gonna be a really big shoe. This may be your only opportunity to stand up close to a real relic (as recognized in both Catholic and Orthodox traditions, though Protestant not so much).

Hieronimus Bosch painted these hideous nutters, including Veronica's Veil in lower left.

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Artist enhanced version of image

It's authorized by your children's friends at the Vatican, within the fortress city-state, inside the vestigial heart of the Holy Roman Empire (not merely Rome, Italy, but the tiny, independent country known as the Holy See once dedicated entirely to the worship of the solar son-God Mithra and his mysteries), under CEO Francis, while he yet hangs on by the power of prayer and modern medicine.

Sudarium: Holy Sweat Towel 

Price? Priceless! Donations? Solicited.

Cost? What is money but the seed of Mammon, the joy of Shaytan (Shaitan), the love of which is the root of all evil? It's free. But buy paraphernalia at the concessions stand with plastic bottled water, sugary drinks, plastic trinkets, tchotchkes, Catholic bling, and curios. Booklets and stickers too. Why not invest in an "I Saw It 2025" tour t-shirt to wear on your deathbed or any future surface where you might meet G Almighty? Might score some leniency points with St. Pete.

The Holy See (gay Vatican) loves gays. - T-shirts, get your t-shirts here!

• But Satan (Shayatin) and the Iblis need me in a bar on Saint Patrick's Day to part and turn the toilet water green. Fiducia supplicans blesses gay Catholic marriages?

This is no joke, so don't dream of laughing (Alicante).

They made Veronica a saint for it

Need an indulgence (for the remission of sin by the Church for money)? Why not get a set of authentic wood simulated plastic rosary beads laced together with plastic twine to carry in your pocket, wear around your neck, or dangle from your rearview?! Now available in child and adult sizes. Please allow time for a long line of penitents and curiosity seekers ahead of you in the queue. No photography please as this relic replica may be very delicate and light sensitive.

True meaning of St. Pat's Day

Drive "snakes" out = kill pagans for Jesus - "Nazis" of the first Reich (Rome)

• St. Therese Catholic Church, Alhambra
• 6:00-10:00 pm, March 17, 2025
• Alhambra, LA County, California
• While here, cruise by the cloistered nuns of Carmel: Carmel of St. Teresa - Carmelite Monastery, Alhambra, California, who are always in need of vegan food donations to sustain their holy endeavors

Earlier the same day, St. Patrick's Feast Day to the secular world of imbibers and intemperate drinkers, see the Vernicle travel from the small town of Monrovia, a foothill community in the SGV, to neighboring Alhambra for a stop at Immaculate Conception Catholic Church on Shamrock, just off of Foothill Blvd. (the famous Route 66):

• Immaculate Conception Church - Monrovia
• 12:30 pm to 3:30 pm, Monday, March 17, 2025
• 740 S. Shamrock Ave., Monrovia
• Los Angeles County, California

Not a joke, a real relic tour

Immaculate Conception Church - Monrovia, California

Is there any information?

Don't get your hopes up, huh?

Fortunately, St. Therese Catholic Church has something to say about this event in advance so parishioners might choose a St. Pat's party instead: "This year, being the 100th anniversary of the canonization of St. Therese,* we are having a special visit of a Holy Face relic on MONDAY, MARCH 17, FROM 6:00 TO 10:00 P.M.

"This third-class relic is a replica of the cloth Veronica wiped Jesus’ face with and has been touched to Veronica's Veil, the True Wood of the Cross, and the Lance that pierced Christ's side.

St. Patrick's Day celebration, Lenten Mission

Since this image was touched to the instruments of Our Lord's Passion, which were drenched in His Blood, it has therefore been touched to the Blood of Christ. And so is considered a “Living Image of Jesus Christ.”

(*Note: When she was still in the Carmel in Lisieux, France, our patroness’ religious name was Sr. Therese of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face. She was first given the name “Therese of the Child Jesus” when she entered, and she added “and the Holy Face” when she took the veil.) The evening will begin with a talk at 6:00 p.m., by Vicki Schreiner, author of Chronology of the Holy Face Devotion, followed by Mass at 7:15 p.m., and then veneration of the Holy Face relic until 10:00 p.m." Source: Church bulletin, sttheresechurchalhambra.org).

Eve Libertine/Crass "Reality Asylum"

WARNING: Not suitable for anyone under 70. Vile, vulgar, crass, obscene

condemnation of the holy figure of Christianity's savior figure! (Rated X)

(Why is Crass SO angry at British/Irish Christian religious oppression?)

Atheist/Agnostic point of view

Mr. Show exposes hypocrisy, ripping it a new hole

Once upon a time in the Valley of Los Angeles, California, HBO gave Bob Odenkirk and David Cross the money to develop a comedy sketch show for cable TV: Mr. Show with Bob and David. They ran with it and filmed one of the funniest and smartest shows (right up there with Amy Sedaris' Strangers with Candy) ever created for basic cable. It has only gotten funnier with time, having introduced the world to many actors who went on to stellar comedy careers like Sarah Silverman, Jack Black, and that shy bald guy. In this 30-minute episode entitled "What to Think" (S1E02), they brilliantly satire the U.S. government's censorship attempts, the hypocrisy of the Christian church (at least the televangelist wing of it), and greedy transnational corporations, while cussing a lot.

*Relics (sarira) are real in Buddhism

Śarīra is a generic term referring to Buddhist relics, although in common usage it usually refers to pearl or crystal-like bead-shaped objects [which Wisdom Quarterly has determined to most likely be silica] that are found among the cremated ashes of the Buddha, chief disciples, and other Buddhist spiritual masters (aka "noble ones," the Aryans).

Relics of the Buddha after cremation are termed dhātu ("elements") in the Mahaparinibbana Sutta [1]. Śarīra are held to emanate or incite "blessings" and "grace" (Sanskrit adhiṣṭhāna) within the mindstream and experience of those connected to them [2].

• Mind here refers to streams of cittas ("mind-moments")

Sarira are also believed to ward off evil in the Himalayan Vajrayana Buddhist tradition.

The Buddha, beloved figure of Thailand, SE Asia

Terminology

Cremation pyre relics of Shakyamuni Buddha

Śarīra (pronounced /ɕɐɽiːɽɐh/) means "body" in Sanskrit. When used in Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit texts to mean "relics," it is always used in the plural: śarīrāḥ.

The term ringsel is a loanword from the Tibetan རིང་བསྲེལ (ring bsrel). Both of these terms are ambiguous in English; they are generally used as synonyms, although according to some interpretations, ringsels are a subset of śarīras.

Śarīra can refer to:

• Dharmakāya śarīra, which are sutras as told by the Buddha. According to Ding Fubao's Dictionary of Buddhist Terms, a "Dharma body" śarīra is "the Sutra as told by the Buddha: That which is unchanging in what is told by the Buddha, is of the same property as the essence of the Buddha himself, hence it is called the 'dharma body śarīra.'"
• Remains of the Buddha or other spiritual masters, either cremated remains or other pieces, including a finger bone or a preserved body, similar to the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox incorruptibles.
• Broken-body śarīras refers specifically to cremated remains. When used without qualification, it generally refers to the pearl-like remnant of a master left after cremation.

Pearl-like śarīras

Mass market holy Buddhist relic container

Although the term śarīra can be used to refer to a wide variety of Buddhist relics, as listed above, it is generally used to refer to pearl or crystal-like bead-shaped objects that are purportedly found among the cremated ashes of Buddhist spiritual masters.

These objects are considered relics of significant importance in many sects of Buddhism since they are believed to embody the spiritual knowledge, teachings, realizations, or living essence of spiritual masters.

If expecting this, disappointment awaits

They are taken as evidence of the masters' enlightenment and spiritual purity. Some believe that śarīras are deliberately left by the consciousness of a master for veneration, and that the beauty of the śarīras depends on how well the masters had cultivated their mind and morals.

Śarīra come in a variety of colors, and some are even translucent. Sariras are typically displayed in a glass bowl inside small gold urns or stupas (burial mound reliquaries) as well as enshrined inside the master's statue.

Śarīras are also believed to mysteriously multiply while inside their containers if they have been stored under favorable conditions.

Saffron threads are sometimes placed within or around the bowl containing individual śarīra as an offering. More

• The Catholic Church; Mr. Show with Bob and David; Team Recovering Catholics (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Who is the Future-Buddha Maitreya? (sutra)

Dhr. Seven, Amber Larson (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly based on Ven. Thanissaro, "The Wheel-Turning Ruler," Cakkavatti Sutta (DN 26); G.P. Malalasekera, Dictionary of Pali Names (PTS)

The Future Buddha Maitreya towering in Ladakh (Sahil Vohra/flickr.com)

 

Maitreya Buddha, Thikse Gompa, Ladakh

The following discourse consists of a narrative illustrating the power of wholesome karma (skillful action).

In the past, unskillful behavior was unknown among humans on this Earth. As a result, we lived for an immensely long time -- 80,000 years -- endowed with great beauty, wealth, pleasure, and strength.

It was the golden age portion of the aeon-cycle or kalpa. Over time, some began misbehaving. This caused the human lifespan to shorten, which very gradually trends down but is punctuated by highs and lows, until it now stands at 100 years, with a proportionate decrease in human beauty, wealth, pleasure, and strength.

In the future, as our virtue (sila) degenerates further, our lifespan will continue to shorten until it is 10 years, with people reaching sexual maturity at 5.

• Virtue: A Brief Code of Buddhist Ethics (DN 31)
• Classical Buddhist art in San Francisco

Among those human beings, the Ten Courses of Unwholesome Action (AN 10.176) will have entirely disappeared... The word "skillful' will not exist, so where will we find anyone doing what is skillful? Those who lack the noble qualities of motherhood, fatherhood, recluseship, and Brahminhood will be the ones who receive homage... Fierce hatred will arise, fierce malevolence, fierce rage, and murderous thoughts: mother toward child, child toward mother, father toward child, child toward father, brother toward sister, sister toward brother.

Indo-Greco Afghan Maitreya Buddha (Boonlieng/flickr)

Ultimately, conditions will deteriorate to the point of a "sword-interval," in which swords appear in the hands of human beings with which they hunt one another like game. A few, however, will take shelter in the wilderness to escape the carnage. And when the slaughter is over, they will come out of their shelters and resolve to take up a life of skillful and virtuous action (karma) again.

With the recovery of virtue, average human lifespan will gradually increase again until it reaches 80,000 years, with people attaining sexual maturity at 500. 

Only three diseases will be known at that time: desire (thirst, craving, passion), lack of food (hunger), and old age (deterioration). At that time, another Buddha -- Metteyya (Sanskrit "Maitreya") -- will gain enlightenment with the ability to teach the Path, his monastic community numbering in the thousands. The greatest ruler of the time, Sankha, will go forth into homelessness (monastic ordination) and attain full enlightenment under Maitreya's guidance.

 

The story, after chronicling the ups and downs of human lifespan and so on concludes with the following lesson on karma and skillful action:

..."Meditators, live with yourself as your island, yourself as your guide, with nothing else as your guide. Live with the Dharma [teachings, truth] as your island, the Dharma as your guide, with nothing else as your guide.
 

Gandhara-style Maitreya, SFO Museum (Boonlieng)

"And how does one live with oneself as island, oneself as guide, with nothing else as guide, with the Dharma as island, the Dharma as guide, with nothing else as guide?

"There is a case where a meditator remains focused on the body in and of itself -- resolute, alert, and mindful -- putting aside greed and grief with regard to the world. One remains focused on sensations in and of themselves... mind [processes] in and of themselves... mental phenomena in and of themselves -- resolute, alert, and mindful -- putting aside greed and grief with regard to the world.

"This is how a meditator lives with oneself as island, oneself as guide, with nothing else as guide, with the Dharma as island, the Dharma as guide, with nothing else as guide.
 
"Wander, meditators, in your proper range, your ancestral territory. When you wander in your proper range, in your ancestral territory, you will grow in long life, beauty, pleasure, wealth, and strength." More

• The Buddha's "Second Coming"
• Buddhist art of the Himalayas (Norton Simon)

The Future Buddha (fifth in this aeon)
G.P. Malasekera, Metteyya (Buddhavamsa XXVII.21); Dhr. Seven (ed.), Wisdom Quarterly

Buddha Maitreya in the Buddhist Indian Himalayan state of Ladakh, India/flickr.com)

  

Sri Lanka's national nāga tree

According to the Cakkavatti Sīhanāda Sutta, the future buddha Maitreya (Pali Metteyya) will be born when human beings again live to an age of 80,000 years.

He will be born in the city of Ketumatī (present-day Benares, Varanasi, India), whose ruler will be the World Ruler Sankha. Sankha will live in the deva palace where King Mahāpanadā once dwelled. But later he will renounce and give the palace away to become a follower of Maitreya Buddha (D.iii.75ff). [The name derives from the Pali word metta, maitrī (मैत्री) in Sanskrit, which means loving-friendliness, amity, loving-kindness. "Noble friendship" (kalyana mittata) is a high Buddhist ideal because it is only by this noble friendship that one can find and observe the path to enlightenment. Our best friend, therefore, is a buddha.
 
The Anāgatavamsa (Journal of the Pali Text Society, 1886, pp. 42-46 ff., 52; DhSA [Atthasālinī].415 gives the names of his parents) gives further particulars. He will be reborn in a very eminent Brahmin family, and his personal name will be Ajita. Maitreya is evidently the name of his familial clan or tribe (gotta).

(W/WQ) In the Greco-Buddhist art of Gandhara, in the first centuries CE (common era) in northwestern India, Maitreya is represented as a Central Asian or northern Indian nobleman, holding a "water pot" (kumbha) in his left hand, sometimes a "wisdom urn" (bumpa). He is flanked by his two acolytes, the brothers Asanga and Vasubandhu. The Maitreya-samiti was an extensive Buddhist play in pre-Muslim Central Asia (gengo.l.u-tokyo.ac.jp). The Maitreyavyakarana (Sataka form) in Central Asia and Anagatavamsa in South India also mention him. More

 

For 8,000 years he will live the household life in four palaces: Sirivaddha, Vaddhamāna, Siddhattha, and Candaka. His chief wife will be Candamukhī and his son Brahmavaddhana. Having seen the four signs (old age, sickness, death, and the possibility of renunciation) while on his way to the park, he will become dissatisfied with householder life and will spend one week practicing austerities.

He will then leave home, traveling in his palace [platform, vimana?] and accompanied by a fourfold army, at the head of which will be 84, Brahmins [scholar priests] and 84,000 noble (khattiya, warrior caste) maidens.
 

A large naga tree in bloom (BDN)

Among his followers will be Isidatta and Pūrana, two brothers, as well as Jātimitta, Vijaya, Suddhika and Suddhanā, Sangha and Sanghā, Saddhara, Sudatta, Yasavatī and Visākhā, each with 84,000 companions. Together they will renounce the household life and arrive on the same day at the bodhi tree, the tree under which Maitreya gains enlightenment, which will not be a Ficus religiosa but a nāga tree (Mesua ferrea). After his great enlightenment the new Buddha Maitreya will preach in Nāgavana [grove of the nāga tree]. And King Sankha will eventually ordain, formally taking robes to become a monastic under him.

Maitreya's father will be the Brahmin Subrahmā, chaplain (court priest/minister) to King Sankha, and his mother will be Brahmavatī. His four chief disciples will be Asoka and Brahmadeva, among the male disciples, and Padumā and Sumanā among the female disciples.

Cobra's saffron, Indian rose chestnut

Sīha will be his personal attendant, and his chief patrons will be Sumana, Sangha, Sanghā, and Yasavatī. His enlightenment-tree will be the nāga tree. After the Buddha's final nirvana, his teachings (Dharma) will continue for 180,000 years.
 
According to the Mahāvamsa (Mhv.xxxii.81f.; see Mil.159), Kākavannatissa and Vihāramahādevī, the father and mother of Dutthagāmani, will be Maitreya's parents. Dutthagāmani himself will be his chief disciple and Saddhātissa his second disciple, while Prince Sāli will be his son.
 
At the present time the Future-Buddha is living in the Tusita deva-world (Mhv.xxxii.73). There is a tradition that Nātha is the name of the future Buddha in the deva world.
 
The Bodhisattva

Tibetan Buddhists are so eager to invite the next buddha to Earth from Tushita that they are erecting the largest Buddha statue in the world in the ancient village the historical Buddha chose for his final nirvana, Kusinara, India. To do so, the Relic Tour is traveling.

  

Maitreya at Thiksey, Ladakh (IP)

The veneration of the Bodhisattva Maitreya seems to have been popular in ancient Theravada Buddhist Sri Lanka; King Dhātusena adorned an image of him with all the equipment of a ruler and ordained a guard extending for the radius of seven yojanas [leagues, ~49 miles] (Cv.xxxviii.68).
 
Dappula I made a statue in honor of the Future Buddha 15 cubits high (Cv.xlv.62). It is believed that Maitreya currently spends his time in the deva-world, preaching the Dharma to the assembled (spirits, light beings, fairies, gods, godlings). And in emulation of his example, King Kassapa V used to recite the Higher Teachings (Abhidharma) in the monastic assemblies (Cv.lii.47).

Parakkamabāhu I had three statues built in honor of Maitreya (Cv.lxxix.75), while Kittisirirājasīha erected one in the Rajata Temple Complex (vihāra) and another in the meditation cave above it (Cv.c.248,259).

It is the wish of most Buddhists that they be fortunate enough to meet Maitreya Buddha and hear directly from him the Dharma that leads to their sudden awakening to attain final liberation from all suffering (nirvana, nibbāna) under him. See, for example, Jat.vi.594; MT. 687; DhSA.430.

See upcoming tour dates in the USA and worldwide (MaitreyaRelicTour.com)

Relic Tour in Hollywood

By Seven Jaini for Wisdom Quarterly

The Maitreya Project's Relic Tour came through Hollywood midsummer. (See full schedule for North America and Europe).

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The event, sponsored by Golden Bridge Yoga, included Relic Blessings, relic blessed waters, constant meditation, respectful circumambulation, bell singing (for musicians), and baby Buddha bathing. Relics on display belonged to Shakyamui Buddha, Kassapa Buddha, a few Great Disciples, and the funerary remains of a famous Tibetan lamas. The Buddhist Channel covered the San Jose tour stop earlier this month.

Sample of Shakyamuni's relics (Maitreya Project)

One psychic meditator ("Ron") explains that "relics are condensed consciousness" capable of appearing, disappearing, multiplying, growing, deterioration, and intensification right off the charts of an Integrity Scale.

• What are Buddhist Relics?

Gurmukh (center with turban), Golden Bridge owner, in line for blessing (Seven Jaini)

Relic Blessing -- with enshrined objects placed on head -- in progress (Seven Jaini)