On the seventh floor of the Relic Pagoda, Zhou Tianyi, Miao Weiqiang, Dong Tinghua, and the old monks did not find anything valuable, but piled up gold and silver jewelry in the corners of the wall, which is what the old monks called the Seven Treasures of Buddhism. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 ｉｎｆｏ

"This floor, it's weird!" Dong Tinghua said.

"That's right, this floor is completely different from the previous six floors, what we see is not an illusion!" Miao Weiqiang said.

"Exorcise the distractions in your heart and take a look, won't you know!" Dong Tinghua said, closed his eyes to expel the distracting thoughts in his heart, and when he opened his eyes again and looked around, the entire seventh floor was still full of gold, silver and jewelry.

"It doesn't seem to be an illusion, these gold, silver and jewelry are all real!" Dong Tinghua said.

Now Miao Weiqiang, when Dong Tinghua saw the mountains of gold and silver jewelry again, he was not as crazy as the first time, so he thought about putting the gold and silver jewelry in his pocket, and now he has completely lost his previous interest in these gold and silver jewelry, and what he wants is those rare treasures!

There was nothing special to find in the seventh layer, and around the gold and silver jewelry, a few people walked towards the eighth layer!

The eighth and last layer of the stupa is also the secret, what secrets are hidden in this layer? Will the veil of the Buddha be untied here!

Zhou Tianyi, Miao Weiqiang, Dong Tinghua, and the old monk cautiously walked into the eighth layer, not knowing what kind of danger they would encounter in the eighth layer, let alone what kind of monsters were waiting for them inside!

When you come to the eighth floor, the space on this level is much larger than the space above, it is like the bottom of the root of a tree, about one hundred and fifty or sixty square meters.

The walls around are full of small holes of different sizes, and in each hole there is a small Buddha statue, and in front of the Buddha statue are objects of different shapes, exuding a faint golden light!

"What is this..." Dong Tinghua asked.

When the old monk saw the things in front of the small Buddha statue, he was very excited, and said tremblingly: "These... These are the relics left by the Buddha of the Western Heavens!" ”

Relic is a transliteration of Sanskrit and is a general term for the body of Indians after death. In Buddhism, the hair, bones, and ashes left behind by monks after death are called relics; After cremation, the crystals produced are called relics or sturdy seeds.

Relics and relics are revered and worshiped in Buddhism, according to the doctrine of dependent voidness, Buddhism believes that relics are only material elements and have no supernatural components, and Buddhists respect the relics of the Buddha and the relics of the Buddha's disciples, mainly because of the merits, compassion and wisdom of the great monks during their lifetimes.

In India, it is customary to use cremation to cremate the body after death, and the ashes (relics) after cremation are hidden in metal, stone, and ceramic containers and buried in the ground. The one that is slightly higher than the ground is called the tower, and the tower is the meaning of high appearance, which is equivalent to a Chinese tomb. Containers for Tibetan relics, whether metal or stone, have a special form and can be enshrined in a house, also known as a pagoda. This kind of pagoda containing relics is the source of Chinese pagodas. Therefore, relics and pagodas, in the Indian national religion, became objects of reverence. In China, the remains of ancestors have become the object of respect.

According to the principle of respecting the body, the shaved hair, claws, teeth, and ashes of the great monks before their deaths are all relics and are respected. Therefore, in Buddhism, there are hair relics, claw relics, tooth relics, and hair pagodas, claw pagodas, tooth pagodas, etc.

According to the Buddhist scriptures, relics are cultivated through the merits of the "six paramitas" (bodhisattvas' practice) and "precepts and wisdom", and are rare and respected. Modern Yinguang Master also said that the relics are made by practitioners due to the Taoist power of precept and wisdom, and they are the appearance of the union of the mind and the Buddha, and have nothing to do with the essence and spirit mentioned by the Dan family.

Buddhism emphasizes that relics are related to the practitioner's merits, and at the same time, according to Buddhist teachings, it also affirms the "impermanent" materiality of relics. The relics are nothing but the essence of flesh and blood, and the bone fat is cremated and condensed, which is a material element and has no supernatural components; Buddhist disciples respect relics because of the merits of compassion, wisdom, and merit of eminent monks.

There were four burial methods in ancient India at the time of the Buddha: cremation, water burial, earth burial, and forest burial (abandoned forest). The Buddha listed cremation as the first of all burial methods, and Buddhism has continued to this day. Before the Buddha entered the extinction, he instructed the disciples to collect the relics and build a pagoda temple, so that the descendants could see the pagoda when they could think of the creation of the Buddha, after the Buddha was destroyed, the disciples set up incense wood to burn the Buddha's body according to the instructions. After the Buddha's death, the Buddha's disciples obtained the Buddha's relics from the ashes.

According to the existing Buddha relics and Buddhist scriptures, it can be known that there are roughly two kinds of Buddha relics: one is the unburned bone fragments, such as four teeth (only two remain), a finger bone, two collarbones, part of the skull and a few hairs; The other is the bead-shaped relics described in the "Essentials of the Buddha's Teachings" that are as bright and strong as five-colored beads.

As for the reasons for the formation of relics, there is still no answer in today's era of advanced science, and there are many scientists who have made some explanations for the reasons for the formation of relics, but whether these explanations are the real reasons for the formation of relics cannot be confirmed.

Some scientists believe that the formation of relics is due to the long-term vegetarian diet of monks, who ingest a large amount of fiber and minerals, and after the metabolism of the human body, it is easy to form a large amount of phosphate and carbonate, and finally deposited in the body in the form of crystals. The counterpoint is that there are countless vegetarians in the world, but there are no relics.

It is also believed that human bones may recrystallize in various shapes when they are cauterized. The human body has many small bones, such as phalanges, phalanges, or tiny bones in the ear canal. The possibility exists.

According to information on a Buddhist website, in 1998, they cooperated with the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Taiwan to analyze the relics of a high monk and found that they were mainly composed of human bones. And other scientific studies have also proved the bone theory. In addition, teeth are also burial goods carried by the deceased. The composition of teeth also includes many inorganic salts, and the cementum part is similar to the composition of bone, so it is speculated that teeth are the source of relics.

Some people interpret relics as stones. Among human stones, the main components of gallstones are macromolecular organic matter, cholesterol, bilirubin, and a small amount of calcium carbonate; The main components of kidney stones and bladder stones are calcium salts, calcium oxalate, calcium phosphate, and other mineral salts, uric acid, etc. Among them, the latter has similarities with the inorganic components of bones, inorganic salts containing calcium and phosphate. However, calcium and a small amount of metal salts, which are the main components of stones, precipitate, turn into powdery oxides at high temperatures.

Secondly, the opposing view is that the number of stones in the human body is very small and can cause unbearable severe colic, and it is impossible for patients to endure the pain for a long time without delaying medical treatment; In addition, many patients with stone disease are cremated after death, and none of them have crystals, and almost all of the monks who have come out of the relics are healthy, peaceful and long-lived old people during their lifetimes. (To be continued.) )