Hosting the Jade Buddha
A student wrote to Rinpoche about his experiences hosting an exhibition of the Jade Buddha for Universal Peace, as part of its world tour. Rinpoche gave the following advice.
My very dear Adrianne,
So many people have visited the Jade Buddha, it is really amazing. It is really having an effect in the world. So many millions of people in Vietnam came to see it. It has brought so much benefit to the world.
Many people also go to see the holy Maitreya Buddha statue in Gum, Sikkim and receive so much benefit. Even though the tourists don’t have faith in Buddha, they plant the seed of seeing Maitreya, which is so beneficial.
The Jade Buddha has been so very, very, very, very, very beneficial. It also depends where it is seen. So many negative karmas are purified for so many people and so much merit is collected, just by seeing this buddha.
In the Sutra of the Mudra of Developing the Power of Devotion, Buddha said that if someone makes an offering of 100 devas’ food and nectar, and 100 devas’ dresses, which are unbelievably precious—there is not enough wealth in this world, even if all the human wealth is put together, to buy even one deva dress—if these are offered every day to solitary realizer arhats, the merit is equal to the number of sand grains in the universe.
It is so amazing! Wow, wow, wow, wow, wow! Now, think about the universe, the sun and moon etc, to get an idea how much merit we collect. Wow! So now, just by seeing a statue or painting of the Buddha, we collect numberless greater merit than all the previous merit mentioned.
You helped all those people to collect so much merit, so rejoice. Please tell the students and Geshe-la—those who did the hard work—to enjoy and rejoice. Thank you for making this event manifest. Thank you very much.