Śarīra

Śarīra
Various sarira from the Buddha and various students. Part of a collection by Maitreya Project
Chinese name
Traditional Chinese 舍利 or 舍利子
Simplified Chinese 舍利 or 舍利子
Tibetan name
Tibetan རིང་བསྲེལ།
Vietnamese name
Vietnamese Xá Lợi
Korean name
Hangul 사리
Hanja 舍利
Japanese name
Kanji 仏舎利
Hiragana ぶっしゃり
Thai name
Thai พระบรมสารีริกธาตุ

Śarīra (शरीर) are generic terms for "Buddhist relics", although in common usage these terms usually refer to a kind of pearl or crystal-like bead-shaped objects that are purportedly found among the cremated ashes of Buddhist spiritual masters. Sarira are held to emanate or incite 'blessings' and 'grace' (Sanskrit: adhishthana) within the mindstream and experience of those connected to them.[1] Sarira are also believed to ward off evil in the Himalayan tradition.

Contents

[hide]

Terminology

The term sarira or "sharira" (शरीर) is a loanword from Sanskrit. The term "Sarira" originally means "body" in Sankrit, but when used in Buddhist Sanskrit texts to mean "relics", it is always used in the plural: śarīrāḥ. The term ringsel is a loanword from the Tibetan language. Both of these terms are somewhat ambiguous in English, they are generally used as synonyms, although according to some interpretations, ringsels are a subset of sariras.

Sarira (舍利) can refer to:

The word "shrine" is sometimes used as a translation for ringsels (e.g. heart shrine relic refers to ringsels that supposedly formed from someone's heart.) This rather peculiar use of the term "shrine" reflects the Buddhist concept of shrine. For Buddhists, a shrine is anything that is deliberately constructed to remind one of something that is essentially intangible. Ringsels, whose primary function is to act as a memento, serves the same purpose as shrines, hence it is referred to as such.

Pearl-like Sariras

Although the term sarira can be used to refer to a wide variety of Buddhist relics, as listed above, it is generally used to refer to the 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 the spiritual masters. They are taken as evidence of the masters' enlightenment and spiritual purity. Some believe that the sariras are deliberately left by the consciousness of a master for veneration, and that the beauty of the sariras depends on how well the masters had cultivated their mind and souls. Sariras 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 as well as enshrined inside the masters statue. The pieces of sarira are also believed to mysteriously multiply in number while inside their containers if they have been stored under favorable conditions. Saffron threads are sometimes placed within or around the bowl containing the individual pieces of sarira as an offering.

It is believed that individuals, regardless of their faith, will be overcome with emotions of joy, love, peace, inspiration, or even spiritual transformation when in the presence of the ringsel. There have been testimonies of healings and visions attributed to seeing these relics.

In Samguk Yusa it is told that the monk Myojong gets a sarira from a turtle which causes others to treat the monk better.[2]

The occurrence of sarira is not restricted to ancient times, as well, many Buddhists have shown that sarira does not limit to humans or masters. The cremation of Tong Xian (通显法师) in March 1991 reported 11000 sariras. Many Pure Land Buddhism texts have also shown sariras of many adherents, some occurring recently.[3] Parrots and a dog have been reported to leave sariras after cremation.[4][5]

Some Buddhists associate a student's spiritual life with the amount and condition of the sarira they leave after cremation. Many Pure Land Buddhists believe Amitabha's power manifests cremated remains into sarira. Many claim that pearls of sarira rain at the funerals of eminent monks. There are reports sarira may appear, multiply or disappear, depend on a keeper's thought.[6] One's vow may also be important. A legend holds that the translator Kumārajīva wanted to show his translations were not false; as a result his tongue remained intact.

Explanations

One possible scientific explanation for the phenomenon is that they are bladder or kidney stones which survive the cremation. Also, there is evidence that under certain conditions of heating, human bones can form crystalline structures.[7] Sarira are purported to appear after a cremation, and so this could be the mechanism by which they are made. In one chemical analysis, sariras were found to be composed of matter from bones and stones.[8] But there are also hair, flesh and blood sariras.[9] It is probable that after a cremation, sarira would be present in any human remains, as there is doubtful any physiological differences between the structure of the bodies of a highly advanced Buddhist master compared to that of a layman, although Buddhist and Taoist disciplines do exist which are designed to alter the function and composition of the body of the practitioner (See Taoist Yoga). These practices center heavily on attaining the levels of awareness of enlightened masters, such as those purported to leave such relics. Although the common conception is that the majority of bones in the human body are of a size ranging from that of the femora to the phalanges of the fingers, it is rather the case that many of the bones in an average human skeleton are smaller than the more rare, larger bones, and range from the microscopic (as in the ossicles of the inner ear) to the size of a pea, small nut, or pearl. It is possible that some sarira may be these smaller bones, which survived the crematory process relatively intact. As well, a certain confirmation bias may be at hand when considering the phenomenon. In Buddhist culture, since the processes which go into the manufacturing of sarira are highly ritualized and well-known, the appearance of these artifacts will have a tendency to be noticed by those who are looking for them, as opposed to the situation in non-buddhist cultures, where cremation often serves a more utilitarian purpose, and tellingly, dramatically fewer instances of the sarira phenomenon are reported. In Buddhist cultures, sariras are generally not reported on non Buddhists after their cremation. These explanations have not explained why sarira are only reported in buddhists where cremation is a main way to reduce dead bodies for the people, and some companies make business on turning ashes to diamond or beads with complicated process.

Documentary films

Pearl relics are documented in the 2008 film, Unmistaken Child, in the cremation ashes of Geshe Lama Konchog.

In Javanese Language

Have a strong bond with Hindu and Sanskrit. Śarīra is also used in Archaic (Kawi) Javanese "sarira" which preserves its original meaning as 'body' or 'human body'. The word also make its way to Modern Javanese Language as "slira" with the same meaning. "Sliramu" (strictly translated as 'your body') and "Sliraku" (strictly translated as 'my body') are usually used in poem or song to replace "You" and "I" respectively. The word is not common but often used both in speaking and writing.

See also

References

  1. ^ Martin, Dan (1994). 'Pearls from Bones: Relics, Chortens, Tertons and the Signs of Saintly Death in Tibet'. Numen, Vol. 41, No. 3. (Sep., 1994), Source: [1] (accessed: Friday April 23, 2010), p.274.
  2. ^ Il-yeon: Samguk Yusa: Legends and History of the Three Kingdoms of Ancient Korea, translated by Tae-Hung Ha and Grafton K. Mintz. Book Two, page 100f. Silk Pagoda (2006). ISBN 1-59654-348-5
  3. ^ 真佛報(一九九二年元月份)
  4. ^ 物猶如此 動物念佛往生西方極樂世界實錄
  5. ^ (202) 千里之外的看見
  6. ^ 妙雲集下編之十一
  7. ^ . PMID 7665130. 
  8. ^ A Brief Introduction of Forshang World Foundation
  9. ^ 舍利漫談

External links