Benefits of Relic Tour

I have brought many buddhas’ relics and tsa-tsas to your house. You should attempt to circumambulate them as much as possible. The benefits of circumambulation are vast; it is extremely important to circumambulate holy objects. Maybe you have not heard about this.

It would be a pity if you don’t take time to circumambulate all the holy objects, especially the relics. This could be the only opportunity you have; we cannot be sure about our next lives, it could be very difficult to have the chance again to circumambulate holy objects. Who can say when we will have this opportunity again? It may not happen for an incredible length of time. It is such an easy way to purify negative karma and collect extensive merit, the cause of enlightenment, liberation from samsara, happiness in future lives, and a good rebirth. You should take the opportunity as much as you can, even if you can’t walk much, to do one, two, three, or four circumambulations.

Now we are able to see holy objects such as Buddha’s pictures, statues, stupas, and scriptures but even that may be extremely difficult in the next life. Animals cannot see these holy objects and even human beings don’t all have the opportunity to see them. Many human beings have no karma to see holy objects their entire life. They work so hard, experiencing one problem after another, just to survive, and then die, just like that. Then the body is burned or buried and that’s it. The body and skeleton disintegrate, and the mind is somewhere else.

As it is mentioned in the teachings, and as you can tell, our motivation or attitude during a day is mostly attachment, seeking happiness in this life. That is totally non-virtuous, and the result will be your own suffering. Then, there is anger, jealousy, and other delusions from which actions become non-virtue. Even for new practitioners, who believe they are practicing Dharma, it is very rare that a virtuous thought arises in one day, it needs a lot of effort. Only by putting effort into thinking about impermanence and death, and so forth, can you cut the thought of the eight worldly dharmas, attachment clinging to this life; then only do actions become virtue. Or when anger arises and you practice patience, it becomes virtue. So, it is not easy.

Therefore, this is one time you can see holy objects of the Buddha—these statues, stupas, and scriptures—it is not certain that you will be able to see them again for eons, let alone collect merit from them.

Knowing this helps not to take for granted being able to see so many buddha pictures and statues, so that you don’t become careless, so that every day you think how precious it is. You recognize this rare opportunity, feeling how fortunate it is to be able to see these holy objects, being inspired to collect merit by making offerings and prostrations to the objects, even putting your palms together many times a day, as you see the holy objects in your room.

By making offerings to holy objects and just by merely seeing them you collect infinitely greater merit than by offering divine food of a hundred tastes (much higher quality than human food) every day to solitary realizer arhats. Solitary realizers are freed from samsara, delusions, and karma by having completed the five paths, based on seeing the entirety of samsara in the nature of suffering, like a prison, like a nest of poisonous snakes, not finding attraction to samsaric pleasures for even a second. On the basis of that realization they entered the path and completed all the five paths; within each path there are many branches, realizations, and qualities to be achieved.

Merely seeing Buddha’s form in a statue or painting collects far greater merit than offering divine food of a hundred tastes to solitary realizer arhats equaling the number of atoms of all the worlds. How much is “all the worlds?” They are equal in number to the grains of sand in the Pacific Ocean. Offering food every day for how long? For one eon. So, the merit of making that many offerings every day for that long is small compared to just seeing a holy drawing or statue. The merit is many times greater if one puts one’s palms together in front of the holy object; so there is no question about the merit of making offerings of flowers, incense, and light.

This is the method to increase merits, from the scriptures of Buddha.