The Buddha's relics on view (Feb. 2-10)

MahaStupa.org/showings; Dhr. Seven, CC Liu, Crystal Q. (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

All are welcome to view the relics and receive New Year blessings (mahastupa.org)

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The 10,000 Buddha Relics Collection Exhibit

I'll meditate and leave relics.

The 10,000 Buddha Relics Collection includes sacred remains of the historical Shakyamuni Buddha as well as tens of thousands of brightly colored crystals said to have been found among his and others' cremation ashes. These "relics," known as shariras in Sanskrit, will be on display with those of his family and close male and female disciples. Many people experience powerful energy when meditating in the presence of the Buddha’s relics. Those who are sincere will receive what they wish.

 

Close up of colorful pearl-like relics.

This rare free exhibit will be held at the all NEW Wei Mountain Temple, formerly a large Presbyterian church at 7732 Emerson Place, Rosemead, CA 91770, (626) 766-1009, rather than their former home, the nearby and related Lu Mountain Temple. 

• Facebook event
• Saturday, February 2, 2019-Sunday, Feb. 10th 
• Free showings: 10:00 am-7:00 pm 
• Meditation hours: 9:00 am-10:00 am and 7:00-8:00 pm. *Meditation instruction available on request.
• Lion Dance Feb. 2 and Feb. 10th at 10:00 am 
• New Year Chanting Feb. 2, 9:00 am

• MEETUP: Dharma Meditation Initiative, Feb. 10

L.A. is a Buddhist crossroads (field trip)

Ven. Samruay; Ven. YongHua; CC Liu, Dhr. Seven, Ashley Wells, Wisdom Quarterly

Ajahn Samruay and Master YongHua at Korea Sah Temple, Los Angeles

Silk Road temple, Mogao, Dunhuang, China

What made Siddhartha and Jesus and Mohammad possible as founders of the three world religions was the fact that they lived at crossroads.

Jesus could go to cosmopolitan Jerusalem, which had a Silk Road route to India and the East. Siddhartha lived along the Silk Route, and one of his hometowns was greatly enriched by trade coming through Kapilavastu.

The Silk "Road" was many connected routes.

He grew up and lived in three seasonal capitals of the Scythians' "Shakya Land," a range from Indo-Sakastan to Kazakhstan and Iran/Persia to Magadha, likely in what is modern Afghanistan (Bamiyan, Mes Aynak, and Kabul), on the northwest frontier of "India" (Jambudvipa, Maha Bharat), in the remnant territory of the once great Vedic Indus Valley Civilization. Mohammad lived not far away -- Dr. Ranajit Pal places all great religious figures (including Zoroaster) around Pataliputra (Palibroha, Patna) in Central Asia -- and had a crossroads from which his message could spread.

It's a long way to India and the Sacred East...but it's well worth it for the sages.

 
Los Angeles Field Trip, Oct. 2

Korean Sah Temple, East Hollywood, L.A.

Los Angeles is a lot like that. All Buddhist traditions and ethnic groups are present here, often as their first point of entry.

The result is a blending and happy commingling of communities that would only be side by side in Bodh Gaya, India (presumed site of the Buddha's enlightenment, where all Buddhist traditions have a temple). This FREE field trip takes place Sunday, Oct. 2, 2016 for a most interesting combination of traditions, and YOU are invited!

The Theravada Thai Forest Tradition elder Ven. Phra Ajahn Samruay, Abbot of Wat Bhuridattavanaram (Buddhist Temple of America, Ontario, California), has been invited to speak at Korea-Sa Buddhist Temple in East Hollywood/Koreatown, Los Angeles. And he is bringing along and sharing the stage with Vietnamese/Chinese Ch'an Meditation Master YongHua from Lu Mountain Temple (chanpureland.org) in Rosemead, California.

• Korean Sah Buddhist Temple
• 500 N. Western Ave. Los Angeles, CA
• 11:00 am: Recitation of the Buddha's name (temple program)
• 11:45 am: short meditation
• 12:00 pm: Dharma talk, Ven. Samruay/Ven. YongHua
• 12:30 pm: FREE lunch (Korean vegetarian)

What about history's Silk Route?

Shashi Thoroor, Huffington Post

NEW DELHI, India - The phrase "Silk Road" evokes a romantic image -- half history, half myth -- of tented camel caravans winding their way across the trackless deserts and mountains of Central Asia [in and around faraway Afghanistan].

But the Silk Road is not just part of a fabled past; it is an important feature of China's current foreign policy.

 

The historical Silk Road comprised an overland and a maritime route, both of which facilitated the transfer to Europe of South and East Asian goods and ideas, from Chinese tea to inventions like paper, gunpowder, and the compass, as well as cultural products like Buddhist scripture... More

The Buddha was born at the crossroads between East and West along Silk Road.

The Buddha's relics to go on display (L.A.)

Lu Mountain Temple (MahaStupa.org); Dhr. Seven, CC Liu, Wisdom Quarterly

(Relics Tour) A larger collection of  Buddhist relics (shariras) than the Tibetan collection that toured the world will go on display in Los Angeles at Lu Mountain Temple.
 

CLICK TO ENLARGE

 

Master YongHua shows relics in crystal containers to devotees in Rosemead, CA (MS)

Ancient stupa with arhat relics protected by devas and devotees, oil candles and Milky Way light, Kamphaeng Phet Park, Thailand (Pakphipat Charoenrach/flickr.com)

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The MahaStupa Project

Wat Phra That Luang, Laos (Bugphai)

The "10,000 Relics Collection" is intended for the benefit of all beings. So Bodhi Light International has launched the Maha Stupa Project to build a stupa (sacred Buddhist reliquary/burial mound) complex for the protection and preservation of these sacred artifacts. The Maha Stupa serves as a major monument to Mahayana Buddhism in Southern California.

Experience the Healing Energy of Buddha’s Relics
The next display of the 10,000 Buddha Relics Collection will take place from Friday, September 2, 2016 through Monday, September 5, 2016 at Lu Mountain Temple in the City of Rosemead, San Gabriel Valley, Los Angeles County. Read more for detailed showing schedule.

Home Showings Relics Gallery Project Press Contribute Contact

Lunar New Year's RELIC Tour, 2016

Wisdom Quarterly; Lu Mountain Temple (MahaStupa.org)

Lunar New Year Exhibit

The collection’s newest acquisitions, relics of the Burning Lamp Buddha and Kassapa Buddha, will be on display. The very sacred teeth and finger bone of the Buddha will also be exhibited. All are welcome to experience their peace and bliss, to meditate or pray and receive auspicious blessings for the new year.

• Feb. 6-Feb. 14, 2016, 10:00 am - 7:00 pm
• Lu Mountain Temple, Los Angeles
• 7509 Mooney Dr., Rosemead, CA 91770, (626) 280-8801

"Relics" are cremation remains with inexplicable properties such as multiplication,.

Chan Meditation Retreat (Dec. 12 - Jan. 30)

Lu Mountain Temple with Dharma Master YongHua (ChanPureland.org); Wisdom Quarterly

Beginning Saturday, Dec. 12, 2015 9:00 PM and running for seven weeks is a free meditation intensive open to the public.

Lu Mountain Temple (Bodhi Light International), which periodically displays one of the world's largest collections of Buddhist relics (shariras), is holding an intensive chan marathon sitting. 

Chan is the Chinese pronunciation of the Buddhist term jhana (Sanskrit dhyana, Japanese zen, Vietnamese thiền, Korean seon, Tibetan bsam gtan). It refers to "meditative absorption."

Left half of Lu Mountain meditation hall (WQ)

Participants may follow as much of the meditation (nearly 24 hour) schedule as they care to, taking extra rest breaks as needed. Part-time is available (to practice after school or work) is available.

Sits begin at 2:30 am and run to 11:30 pm with breaks for breakfast, lunch, optional dinner, instructions, rest periods, and restroom visits. More (for free Dharma talks and photos)

• Lu Mountain Lư Sơn Tự (chanpureland.org)
• Chan Meditation City Retreat (626) 280-8801
• Dec. 12, 2015 to Jan. 30, 2016
• 7509 Mooney Dr., Rosemead, CA 91770

Dharma Master YongHua shows devotees relics in glass container (mahastupa.org)

Various śarīra from the Buddha and students in the collection of the Maitreya Project (wiki)

The Buddha's tooth, which keeps growing, covered in colorful glass-like shariras (MS).

The Buddha's RELICS on display! (Sept. 5-7)

CC Liu, Teri Mei, Bhante, Dhr. Seven, Wisdom Quarterly; Master Yong Hua (MahaStupa.org)

The remains of the Buddha's body will be on display Sept. 5-7, 2015. See details below.

They are hard to believe in or understand, but all are invited to see for themselves (MS).

Kids love the energy emanating from Buddhist relics rarer than precious gems (MRT)

Cameras record miraculous viewing of sacred tooth and other relics (MahaStupa.org).

Visitors view relics on Lu Mountain, L.A., Aug 18, 2013 (Christina House/LATimes.com)

Close up of various relics multiplying under glass in full view of onlookers (MahaStupa.org)

Relics in glass, Lu Mountain, Aug. 2013 (Wisdom Quarterly: American Buddhist Journal)

Relics on cover of the Los Angeles Times

First of all, what is a "relic" (Sanskrit sharira, "subtle body emanation")? It is a part of the body, or more often the post-cremation remnant, of an enlightened person, literally a "saint" or arhat in Buddhism.

• Buddhist Śarīras or "relics"
  
• Buddhist relics of the world

Something about the body transforms at the moment of full enlightenment, arhatship. And the physical proof of this transubstantiation is evident in the ashes of the cremation pyre -- miraculous crystal like "beads" and bone fragments, colorful concretions, formations, inexplicable pieces of glass with the unique property of multiplying and disappearing and reappearing.

Prajna Paramita, the Buddha, and Quan Yin on Lu Mountain altar (Wisdom Quarterly)

 
Buddhist miracles and marvels today?

Special glass containers with various relics (WQ)

It is easy to imagine that when a revered teacher passes away, her or his students, wishing to "prove" their teacher was an enlightened meditation master, might toss in bags of sand or something. Then with great heat brought about by binding in prodigious amounts of wood, linen wrappings, and oil the glass might melt into beads.

That would be one hot fire to congeal sand into glass like an atomic blast. Yet, it would still not explain the marvelous powers of the remains. Everything burns up, but these colorful glassy formations grow, appear, multiply, disappear, teleport, and give coherence to meditation in their vicinity. People more easily enter states of profound concentration (stillness, one-pointedness, serenity, calm, joy, samadhi) when they meditate.

Ven. Abbot Yong Hua holds relics (MS)

The abbot, Master Yong Hua, is very generous and from time to time is drawn to give one or more away. Then those blessed persons experience miracles -- seeing the relics multiply (or disappear if they are not worthy of them for lack of virtue or sufficient respect).

September 7th 2015 Event

Massive collection of the Buddha's relics goes on display in Los Angeles on Sept. 7, 2015 at Lu Mountain Temple in California. The collection includes teeth, the Buddha's finger bone, hair, and thousands of colorful crystallized shariras formed when the Buddha's body was cremated.

The 10,000 Buddha Relics Collection is the largest collection of its kind in existence in the United States. To our knowledge it is the biggest in the world, with the possible exception of the collection gathered by Tibetan Buddhists and deposited in Kusinagar, India, at the future site of the world's largest Buddha statue (of Maitreya, the "Buddha-to-come," see maitreyarelictour.com). Two teeth and one finger bone of the Buddha will be on display and are among the most sacred relics of the Buddha and his immediate enlightened disciples in the world today.

• These showings are FREE and open to the public! 
• Saturday, Sept. 5 to Monday, Sept. 7, 10:00 am-7:00 pm
• Lu Mountain Temple, (626) 280-8801
• 7509 Mooney Dr., Rosemead, Los Angeles, CA 91770

Tibetan altar from the Maitreya Relic Tour building reliquary in India (MRT)

Growing tooth relic, gift of generous benefactor who acquired it in Thailand, also on display.

Meditation and puja hall where cases will be placed under guard for display (WQ)