Re: L.S. Cousins & the dating of texts

Dear Nina,

Yes, I think the Abhidhamma cty that Cousins mentions is the same one
(Vibh-a 433). Do you have a translation of the Thupava.msa? This text
contains quite a detailed history of what happened to the remains of
the Buddha, and I believe it has something to say about previous
Buddhas as well. For some Buddhas, the relics just stay in one place,
whereas in the case of Gotama, the relics get distributed far and
wide. I know of 4 stupas in North America that contain Buddha relics,
and I imagine the situation is similar in Europe and Australia. I
helped construct/reconstruct two of them in 1982 and saw a small
nugget of the relic before it was placed into the top of the stupa.
There was one curious incident I was thinking about yesterday where
there were several of us (mostly monks) near the stupa construction
site. The sayadaw handed us some very tiny pellets and we were each to
swallow one of them. I could never figure out what this was all about
until yesterday when I thought of the possibility that each pellet
could have contained a tiny dust-sized particle of a relic or it had
come into direct contact with the relic that went into the stupa. It
was a comforting thought to think of the possibility that there could
be a few atoms from the Buddha embedded in my bones!

It's going to be hard for me to respond to Lance's reply as I happen
to believe that the relics do possess some power. I also think that
the teaching of the 3 parinibbaanas is a very old one known to the
Buddha and the arahants who also would have recollected the same
phenomena during the times of previous Buddhas. Now, how do you
explain that to a group of sceptical academics?

Best wishes,
Jim

> Dear Jim,
> Thank you, it is good if you now and then frwd an interesting
discussion
> from another list.
> The Dispeller of Delusion (Co to the Book of Analysis) mentions
after the
> three kinds of disappearance: the three kinds of parinibbana. As to
the
> third it is explained that all the relics will go to the Great
Wisdom Seat :
> "Heaped up on the Great Wisdom Seat, they will become one solid mass
like a
> ppile of gold and will emit six-coloured rays..."
> Last time we were in India someone read this text when sitting under
the
> Bodhi tree.
> Is this perhaps the Abh Co cousins refers to? It is an important
commentary.
> Nina.
> op 28-07-2003 11:44 schreef Jim Anderson op jimanderson_on@...:
>
>
> > I'm forwarding this response from L.S. Cousins who doesn't think
that
> > the doctrine of the 3 parinibbaanas could be pre-Asokan for the
> > reasons he gives.
>
>
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