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1. SAFE PASSAGE

I live in Austin, Texas, which is about a five-hour drive to the Nuevo Laredo border town in Mexico. The Relics were being displayed in Nuevo Laredo and when I saw that they were close enough for me to drive to see them. I knew I was going, no matter what.

 

It also happened to be the weekend that I was giving my daughter a baby shower for her first child, and we had invited guests from out of town for the celebration on Saturday.

 

Sadly, Nuevo Laredo is one of the most dangerous border towns in Mexico these past few years.Yet, I just knew I would be protected in going alone because I was going to visit the Relics.

 

Because Nuevo Laredo is renowned for being such a dangerous city and because of the baby shower, I knew if I told my family that I was planning a ten hour drive round trip on Friday to see the relics, they would think I had lost my mind and try to convince me not to go.

 

So I got early in Friday morning, telling no one, except one friend who lived in another state, what I was doing.I drove to Laredo, which is on the U.S. side, parked close to the bridge and walked across the bridge into Mexico.

 

Not knowing exactly where I was going but with address in my hand I found a taxi, gave the driver the address and off we went.Taxi drivers in Mexico are generally not the most trustworthy of people, but I was guided to a caring driver who wanted to be as helpful as possible.

 

He took me right to the front door. I felt no fear whatsoever. I knew I was safe. I felt protected.

 

I was able to spend a few hours with the relics and participated in a guided meditation during that time.It was beautiful.

 

One of my languages growing up is Spanish, but I had lost touch with that part of my life.So it was significant for me that I was visiting the relics for the first time in Mexico and that most of the information available at the event was in Spanish.It felt like I was integrating a lost part of myself.

 

When it was time to leave, there was not a taxi in sight.So I began to walk in the direction of the bridge along the route the taxi driver had brought me.

 

I lost track of the route, but knew the general direction, and had no worries of getting lost, none. I knew all was well. I picked up a taco from a street vendor and kept walking, still high from being with the relics.

 

Everything and everyone were so lovely. I don’t know how to explain it. I was thoroughly at peace and enjoying the journey. I made it to the bridge and crossed over to my parked car to proceed on the five hour drive back.

 

I was feeling joyful.Even laughing at myself, perhaps with myself!It was dark by the time I arrived home.I wasn’t the least bit tired. I had brought back some blessed water and I was looking forward to sharing it with my loved ones, and my unborn grandson (through his mother).

 

After the shower and after the fact (!), I told my family where I had gone. They were grateful to receive the blessed water and did so with reverence and graceful hearts.

 

Since then, I have visited the relics two other times, none since Mexico requiring such daring and boldness!!

 

Melissa Krieger, Austin, Texas 2009. Melissa hosted the relics in her hometown Austin, Texas in December 2012.

 

2. POLYSTYRENE

The relic event at Pagosa Springs, Colorado was held at very short notice in an extremely beautiful retreat center, right in the heart of the springs. A lady called Cindy, who wasn’t Buddhist, had come to a relic event in a different city and felt inspired to invite the relics to her hometown. This happens often on the Tour.

 

Together with her friend from Tara Mandala Center near Pagosa Springs these ladies organized the relic event in just a few days. This was quite remarkable considering that close to a thousand visitors came throughout the day to see the relics and be blessed.

 

The Founder of Tara Mandala Center is Tsultrim Allione. She is a very famous Buddhist teacher and practitioner. She wrote “Women of Wisdom”. She came to speak at the Opening Ceremony.She spoke of how she used to be a young nun living in Nepal beside the Great Stupa at Bouddhanath. One morning, there was a hammering on her door. A monk outside was calling to her in great excitement.

 

“Ani-la! Ani-la! Come quickly!”He shouted.

 

She followed him and saw to her astonishment that around the base of the Stupa were hundreds of what looked like tiny polystyrene balls. When she looked more closely, she realised they were in fact relics.

 

Monks were darting about, frantically collecting these precious ringsel objects that had miraculously manifested from the Stupa overnight.

 

She felt a bit dazed. As she looked around she realised that all the tourists wandering beside the Stupa were unaware of this frantic activity going on – the monks scraping up the precious relics before they disappeared and were lost.

 

The tourists were completely oblivious to the thousands of tiny white pearl relics at their feet.

 

The miracle of the relics had passed them by.

 

She realised at that moment that you could be in the middle of extremely precious or sacred event and not know it.

 

She explained that these relics are in fact a representation of your own Buddha nature and an extremely precious event. She asked each person:-

 

“Please be present for this”.

 

Victoria Ewart, Maitreya Loving Kindness Tour Director, 2002

 

3. KIRTI TSENSHAB RINPOCHE

The benefits of seeing relics are great. Relics have the nature of primordial awareness comprehending emptiness and the aspect of pills, bones and so forth. They are established by enlightened beings with great compassion.

 

It is said that the body of the Buddha is vast like the ocean but ordinary beings cannot perceive it. For their sake, the Buddhas manifest relics. The enlightened beings with high realizations establish relics as a means for passing on blessings of their body, speech and mind.

 

Due to the power of realization and compassion of these beings, anyone who sees, hears of, touches or even thinks of relics, receives their blessing. Relics might appear as ordinary bones to those with untrained, ordinary minds but in reality the relics are not ordinary at all.

 

The Buddha has said that there are four special places: “the place of my birth, the place of my enlightenment, the place where I gave teachings and the place where I will pass away. Visiting any of these places is equivalent of meeting Me in person”. The same is true for relics.

 

Relics are rare. When Buddha Shakyamuni passed into parinirvana his body was divided in eight parts that were entrusted to 8 different kings. They placed Buddha’s bones and remains in eight different stupas.

 

The blessings come from both the side of the relic and the side of the person. The person needs to have strong faith in order to receive the blessing. You could say that the power of the relics is like the rays of the sun: they are always shining on everyone.

 

But sometimes there are clouds in the sky that prevent us from receiving such blessings. The lack of faith is like these clouds.

 

What happens when you are touched on the head by relics depends on the amount of faith you have. If you see them as ordinary, then nothing special happens for you. If you have conviction and faith then your body is blessed. If course it goes without saying that you mind is also blessed.

 

There is no difference between a picture and the actual object of relics for those with strong faith and resolution. For those who are lacking that faith, the relics are merely some forms printed in a piece of paper.

 

If you have faith you understand that a picture is like the appearance of an image on your TV screen. Although what you see is only a reflected image, you know that this reflection appears because somewhere there is an actual object. A similar understanding dawns in your mind when you see a picture of a relic.

 

Buddhas manifest different aspects according to the needs of various beings. To some the Buddhas manifest as ordained beings, to some as kings, to some they even manifest as inanimate objects such as mountains and so forth. For some, the Buddhas manifest in the aspect of relics.

 

The Maitreya statue on its own is a very powerful object. By enshrining the relics at its heart, its power and blessing multiplies. It is like increasing the amount and intensity of sunshine in one place. The climate will definitely get warmer!

 

Relics will remain and multiply as long as there is faith from the side of sentient beings. If that faith disappears, the relics will also disappear. Relics represent the love and compassion of the Buddhas.

 

This love and compassion never stops, never decreases. It can only increase.

 

So the relics also increase and multiply. Relics are like seeds of love and compassion – they only produce a new crop of love and compassion. And as from one seed we get an abundance of crops so from one piece of relic we get many more relics.

 

Relics need to be safeguarded because they are so rare and precious. Many people want to steal precious things. Also others, with no faith, might wish to destroy them. It has happened in the past that someone who wanted to get hold of relics substituted the genuine ones, in this case hair of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, with his own! So to avoid such cases, they are enshrined.

The idea of a tour is very good. In the past in Tibet if there was an epidemic or some other serious natural disaster they would take the Kangyur and Tengyur around the hills of the village. They believed that their blessing powers would pacify the disease or any other harm.

 

Relics can benefit not only those with faith but also those without faith as well as bless the environment. The blessing of the relics pervade the whole world but when we actually see them, we receive the blessings directly and this is necessary for beings with ordinary, untrained minds.

 

As you will fly over many countries with the relics, the oceans and countries you will cross (but not land) will also be blessed, which is great.

 

In your tour you will visit many countries with many different religious beliefs and traditions. Certainly some of the countries are Christian countries but of course, even in these countries there will be Muslims, Buddhist, Hindus and so forth.

 

It is important not to insult anyone’s religious feelings. There is no need to use Buddhist term. You do not even need to say that the relics carry the blessing of the Buddhas. Do not use the word “buddha”.

 

Every religion has its own Principal, sometimes known as God, sometimes known as Allah and so forth. Try to use a general rather than a specific Buddhist name and terminology.

 

It is very good to rinse the case of the relics with water and then collect this blessed water. Then carry the water in various locations in the countries you will visit, such as the ocean, the mountains, the rivers and so forth.

 

Bless the land with this water and make prayers that peace and prosperity prevails in that land, that AIDS and cancer become non-existent, that the crops grow in abundance, and that inner and outer peace is actualized.

 

The relics possess the potency to bless all that come into contact, directly or indirectly, with them.

 

Good luck!

 

Interview with Rinpoche, translated by Voula Zarpani, South America, November 2001. Kirti Tsenshab Rinpoche passed away in 2006. Rinpoche’s relics were included in the touring collection.

 

4. RAINBOW

All areas were magic, like magic everything runs perfectly. Even in Cusco, when the church where relics where due to be shown, at the last minute cancelled the event, everything was like the Buddhas were really there, acting.

 

I felt that the buddhas were showing to trust and have confidence – anything that is for the good and benefit, they help.

 

Everyone says rainbows are auspicious, that rainbows are Buddha signs, that the Buddhas and the rainbows have a bond.

 

On the last day, over the venue on top of the roof came a huge, huge rainbow.

 

Many people took pictures. This huge, huge rainbow in the sun. This sign at the end was fantastic.

 

Harold Schofield, Lima, Peru, South America, February 2010

 

 

5. INTERRUPTING PRAYERS

At the very beginning of my visit to Peru as a relic manager, I became fully aware of the strong relationship of this trip to my spiritual practice.I had experiences that made me aware that my whole 15 days on the tour would be an intense opportunity to strengthen my practice.

 

I was sharing a hotel room with another relic manager called Gandhi. On the very first day after arriving in Peru, I left the room and on my way back, I entered the room, not really thinking, I just walked straight in as Gandhi was doing his daily meditation practice.

 

I strongly apologised for having interrupted his practice and he kindly replied, “Don’t worry at all. Practice is never interrupted, once you are committed to Dharma, your whole life becomes practice which is never interrupted.”

 

I instantly realised that the next fifteen days everything I did would be practice! And not any kind of practice, but practice in the presence of the holy relics.

 

What an opportunity!

 

Albert Fournier, Relic Manager, Peru Tour, February 2010

 

6. ALARM CLOCK

Throughout the Peru Tour in 2010, our phone was set so that every hour an alarm would sound.

 

This was a reminder to us on the tour team of our commitment to refresh our mental awareness, bringing it to the present moment.

 

Every hour all three of us and whoever was with us, would stop for two minutes becoming conscious of our mindfulness practice, becoming aware of our environment and the blessings.

 

So for the fifteen days everything I did became mindfulness practice.

 

Alberto Fournier, Relic Manager, South America Tour 2010

 

7. DICTAPHONE

When I first began the tour, host organisers would often ask me to make presentations about the holy relics during the events. I absolutely hate public speaking. It was increasingly a problem and I was running out of excuses.

 

Then I had a brainwave.

 

I requested an interview with Lama Zopa Rinpoche and brought along a handheld dictaphone. I explained to Rinpoche that hosts and visitors wanted a more detailed explanation about the relics during events. I asked if Rinpoche would please consider dictating a message for them. I would record today and then read aloud at every event. Rinpoche listened carefully to my brilliant plan and nodded saying that he understood.

 

Triumphant, I pressed the record button and placed the dictaphone near Rinpoche, silently congratulating myself that I had been smart enough to bring spare batteries in case of a technical hitch.

 

Rinpoche immediately “fell asleep”. His head dropped onto his chest and he began to snore loudly. The other relic manager with me began to giggle softly.

 

This “sleeping” continued for about five or ten minutes.

 

I didn’t get it. What was Rinpoche doing?

 

Rinpoche then woke up and offered us tea. No more was said about the message or speeches during relic events.

 

I could not understand what had happened. Rinpoche could have said that’s a great idea and dictated a message.

 

Or, he could have explained that this was a bad idea. But he did neither. He “slept”.

 

I had no choice now. At the next relic event, I took a deep breath and spoke from my heart. I spoke about what how being with the relics had affected me personally – what I had seen, experienced.

 

It took me at least six months of speaking like this every week at events to understand. Gradually I realised that people respond if you speak from your heart not your head.

 

It was much, much more powerful for relic team members to speak directly from their experience and hearts than for them to read out a message dictated by someone visitors had never even heard of.

 

If Rinpoche had told me all this on that day instead of sleeping, would I have listened? Probably not. I knew better. I was the relic tour director after all.

 

Rinpoche said nothing, leaving me to figure it out for myself.

 

And I have never forgotten it.

 

Victoria Ewart, Maitreya Loving Kindness Tour Director, 2002

 

8. TONG-LEN

While giving blessings at the relic event in Lima, Peru, I stopped and realised I could transform the act of offering blessings into tong-len practice (this is a Buddhist practice of exchanging self for others).

 

From that moment, every blessing I offered was done with full awareness of my breathing, offering at least three breaths for every blessing.

 

Through my left hand I visualized taking all the pain, suffering, ignorance and afflictions of each visitor.Through my right hand, while holding the stupa with holy relics on their crown, I visualized giving whatever each person needed.

 

During the Peru relic events, I must have given approximately 2,000 individual blessings.

 

Due to the power of the relics, each blessing offered became a privileged inner experience.

 

Alberto Fournier, South America Tour Manager 2010

 

9. MERIT

It’s hard to put into words what my experience of hosting the Relic Tour was. It is an emotional thing.

 

I knew wanted to do it, but I didn’t know why.

 

I had seen the relics twice before. Both experiences were positive and I have had a strong connection with holy objects ever since I started studying dharma.I knew of the Maitreya Project and had no real feeling towards it.

 

When the pack of hosting materials arrived we realised it was quite a lot of responsibility. We wrote to people in the south west of England to see if they would donate for hosting the relic event.

 

At first, no one stepped forward, so we got a little worried.

 

Then my son Brendon stepped forward to offer help.He has a degree in events management and acted as consultant. The team meetings with just four or five of us had a real buzz to them. Gordon and I had great fun bouncing ideas off each other, Kay was quite wired too. Brendon – not quite a Buddhist was very dynamic about the event. The event took on a life of its own!

 

Throughout my life, I have worked on quite a few Buddhist projects and have found that they can be really hard, with incredible obstacles, all uphill.

 

But the Bath relic event was so positive. It was like cutting the lawn with a new lawnmower, turn the switch and point it in the right direction and it cuts itself.

 

The turning point for me personally came when I showed the tour DVD to the local Saraswati Buddhist group. The group meet at my house once a month. It has an average of about 10 people attend and after gathering to watch the DVD, the change happened.

 

The DVD showed visitors being interviewed, Geshe Lama Konchog’s cremation and the monks collecting the relics from the ashes. It showed what relics are, really showed the feeling of great kindness.

 

Straight away one lady stepped forward, Claire Rutigliano. She decided she wanted to help with the publicity in Somerset by arranging more DVD showings.

 

Claire and her family had been going through hard financial times and family problems – quite a difficult time. She had to take on a second job delivering leaflets.

 

One day she was delivering leaflets when she was bitten by a ferocious dog. It took a huge chunk out of her arm and her leg. This completely freaked her out and she fell on the floor and screamed “I do not want to die. It’s not my time to die!”

 

Claire was having really tough time, the bites was not healing. It was really bad, like spirit interference. Claire and her husband attended the opening ceremony on Friday evening in Bath. The she returned on Saturday bringing her daughter, Janine and grand-daughter. Claire told me that as a result of the Friday night visit to the relics, her wounds had almost healed. It was amazing.

 

Janine was not so sure about the relics. I suggested to Claire that she be blessed directly on her wounded arm with the relics. Janine gave me the most beautiful smile like she knew.It was a beautiful experience. My feeling was the family had purified a huge obstacle.

 

I live opposite Geshe Thinley from the Lam Rim Buddhist Centre in Bristol. During a meeting with him, he said, “The relics are manifestations of wisdom and compassion. Tibetans actually believe they are buddhas”.

 

He described it like we all have buddha-nature within us and when we came into contact with the relics it awakens that buddha-nature.

 

All my life I have guided Buddhist study groups, but during the relic event what you see is non-verbal. It is the opposite of rational level. Buddha-nature is in each of us and is touched by the relics.

 

Before the event, I was working on a project to create a retreat centre in England. After hosting the relics, I realised that the retreat project is a merit-making facility. It’s not about money or about building a property. It is about creating merit for the community then it becomes a merit-making factory!

 

One of the trustees of the retreat project was arranging pujas (prayer offering ceremonies) for success of the project. I could not relate to that. It sounded like a good idea, but. . . .

 

Since the relic event I now know I need to focus on pujas and merit-making. It is a great lesson.

 

Andy Wistreich, event organiser, Bath, England, 2010. Andy later went on to become a trustee of the Relic Tour in 2012.

10. DOING THE ACCOUNTS

Three days ago, I went into the tour office with the intention to make progress on the accounts. It is now way past the reporting deadline.

 

When Lama Zopa Rinpoche was still teaching in London, I made a few attempts to sit down at my desk but more pressing matters made me change my plans and the accounts remained on my urgent to-do list.

 

So on Wednesday, with my motivation all set to do the accounts as I left my front door, I went into the office – and three days later, I had spent all my time with the relics!

 

Victoria and I ended up spending the last three days in the office checking and re-housing relics, contacting those who had offered relics, researching the offered relics on the internet, cataloguing, photographing and updating the archives.

 

On Thursday morning, which was also Dharma Wheel Turning Day, while Victoria was on the phone calling an offeror in Australia, I was photographing some relics.

 

Then while zooming the camera lens into one pale grey ringsel of Choeying Dorje Rinpoche, I noticed a tiny white hair inside the stupa. This white hair was about 8mm long and as wispy as a cat’s hair. I thought to myself that I must mention this hair to Victoria, which I thought must be a contaminant, so that we can remove it.

 

On the information sheet, I read that it was a hair relic that had been offered. But I was looking at a pearl relic of about 2mm in diameter! I looked at the container. I looked again on the information sheet. I looked into the stupa for that hair. I blinked a few times. I had doubts. I checked the label on the base then I verified the words on the sheet. This I repeated at least three times.

 

Wow! Wow! Wow!

 

There is no mistake here, Jackie! I told myself. This ringsel has manifested!

 

After Victoria put down the phone, she turned to me and I told her to look at that ringsel. Then I asked her to look for that wispy hair. She found it. I asked her to look at the information sheet. She looked at the paper then looked at me and smiled and said in amazement, “This ringsel has manifested?!”

 

I nodded, “Yes. Looks like it!”

 

On Friday morning, I received a call from China where the person who offered the relic was on holiday with her family. I asked her what relic she offered to the tour a few years ago.

 

She told me it was a tiny, tiny white hair which is hard to see with the naked eye. Nothing else.

 

I told her of our discovery of the ringsel. She was very happy but not totally surprised.

 

She told me that Choeying Dorje Rinpoche only became well-known after he passed away because many ringsels appeared in the temple.

 

Before she visited the temple, she and her husband were also sceptical about it. But after visiting the temple a few times and getting to know the abbot and hearing more stories of this great yogi, she also developed trust.

 

The little hair that she and her husband received from the abbot was their wedding gift.

 

As a few teachers and Rinpoches have said to me since I started touring with the holy relics, “It is all very worthwhile”. This ringsel showed me that.

 

Jackie Yip, Relic Manager, Asia Tour 2013

 

11. SWEETS

When the relics were displayed at Pagosa Springs in Colorado, Tsultrim Allione came to speak during the Opening Ceremony. She is a very famous Buddhist teacher and practitioner who wrote Women of Wisdom. She founded Tara Mandala Center nearby.

 

She said she knew that relics manifest. She told a story of her young daughter who had asked her parents for a buddha statue. The child was given a statue and whenever she was given sweets, she always offered some to the statue first.

 

One day Tsultrim’s daughter and her little sister came running to her.

 

“Mommy! Mommy! The statue is rattling!”

 

Tsultrim knew that when she bought the statue it had been empty. Sighing, she followed her daughters to the altar and picked up the statue. She shook it. There was a rattling noise.

 

Opening the base of the statue, she shook out a large, pure white relic like a pearl.

 

Her daughter’s devotion and offerings had manifested a relic.

 

Victoria Ewart, Maitreya Loving Kindness Tour Director, 2002

 

12. ABBOT

We confirmed an event in Vancouver during September 2002. I received a telephone call from a man called Thaibao Tran who lived in Calgary. He asked me to bring the relics for display there after the Vancouver event.

 

Doubtfully, I asked how long the drive was from Vancouver to Calgary. He said it was just a few hours. So, we made arrangements to bring the relics there in late September.

 

During the Vancouver event I asked the organiser how far it was to Calgary. Two hours? She burst out laughing. “Try twelve hours!” she said.

 

We arrived after a long journey in the Tour van passing through the stunning scenery of the Canadian Rockies. It reminded me of my homeland, the Scottish Highlands, but here was on a much grander scale.

 

Thaibao had arranged the Calgary Buddhist Church to host the event. For the Opening Ceremony, a Vietnamese Abbot came to give blessings to the visitors present. I noticed that he was shaking and sweating a little. I asked a volunteer if the Abbot was feeling ok. She told me that he had cancer and was very sick. I immediately asked him to sit down to rest.

 

More and more visitors trickled into the Ceremony until there was a long queue. The Abbot got up from his chair (with obvious effort) and stood to bless each person waiting. His knees trembled and he sweated more and more. But he gently refused to sit down each time I suggested it.

 

He blessed every single person that came into the Church that evening. And I have never forgotten it.

 

Victoria Ewart, Maitreya Loving Kindness Tour Director, 2002

 

13. MOTIVATION

At the beginning of the Tour it was very hard. I had taken the relics to Auckland in New Zealand, Taichung in Taiwan and San Jose in California. But it was difficult to persuade groups to host the relics. People didn’t understand the benefits or were simply not interested.

 

I felt frustrated. I was failing my Guru.

 

I expected people to help me. I had been trained as a lawyer in Scotland and worked in Edinburgh and then in London with top tier law firms. There was someone to type up your work, someone to deliver the mail, someone to fix the computers. Out here, I was on my own. No support system.

 

I felt very sorry for myself. Eventually I hit on the solution. I confided in my friend, Fabrizio, a long-term dharma student.

 

“I have decided to move back to London and become a lawyer again”, I announced grandly.

 

“Why?” he asked.

 

“Well, Dharma comes from the mind, right? So, I will go back to London and be a lawyer and transform my legal work into Dharma.”

 

Much easier than working on the Relic Tour, I figured to myself.

 

He started laughing.

 

“But, baby. You can’t even turn the Relic Tour into Dharma!”

 

I was outraged. What was he talking about? Of course I was creating merit doing the Relic Tour – every single day! I was surrounded by holy objects. I was doing my very best to make it work.

 

Then I considered it more deeply. My motivation was all about success – being seen as a competent director, making lots of events happen and generating lots of funds. This was all worldly. I had turned something pure into something poisonous.

 

I knew he was right. And I stayed in California and events began to happen.

 

And I check my motivation every day now.

 

Victoria Ewart, Loving Kindness Tour Director, 2001

 

14. GOLDEN LIGHT SUTRA

Also, the activity of passing away and leaving relics in the world in other time periods shows the skilful means (of Buddha). Sentient beings who make offerings and also who offers service to the relics should look at them as due to the Tathagata’s compassion and root of virtue.

 

That being whoever makes offering and offers service to the relic will completely abandon the eight non-freedoms and will meet a Tathagata, will have a virtuous friend, will not give up bodhicitta, will increase unimaginable merit, and will quickly go beyond from samsara. This is [one of] the holy deeds and one will not get lost because of bondage in samsara. Therefore you should practice precisely and without distraction [making offerings to relics and offering service.]”

 

During relic events visitors were encouragsed to read pages of the Sutra on the Relic display altar. Lama Zopa Rinpoche said: “Anybody who wants peace in the world should read The Golden Light Sutra. This is a very important practice to stop violence and wars in the world. The Golden Light Sutra is one of the most beneficial ways to bring peace. This is something that everyone can do, no matter how busy you are, even if you can read one page a day or a few lines and in this way continually read The Golden Light Sutra.”

 

Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Auckland, New Zealand, March 2004

 

15. THANKS

I would love to thank all of you involved in the Maitreya Loving Kindness Tour for changing my life forever.

 

Being at the Linh Son Buddhist Temple in Worcester, Massachusetts on October 16^th, 2010 was the best experience of my entire life.

 

I didn’t know love like that, or peace on that level existed.

 

I would love to see all those who were travelling with the relics at that time to give them my deepest thanks.

 

I was lucky enough to see them again in Ansonia, Connecticut which was fantastic. Thank you so much all of you!

 

Now I know Love and Peace most certainly do exist!

 

Nate Chopoorian, Massachusetts, USA, 2010

 

16. DAVENPORT

I just spent three days with the Buddha Relics hosted by Cristian and Louisa in conjunction with Steve and Cindi Reed in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

 

It was such an amazing, life-changing experience.Words do not come close to describing the spiritual impact of this experience.

 

I planned to come the first night just to attend the opening ceremonies and to receive a blessing. I stayed throughout the whole evening until the Relics were put away and the lights were turned off.

 

Since I live an hour and half from Cedar Rapids I had time to reflect on my way home and decided I had to come back.

 

Each of the remaining days of the event I journeyed back to Cedar Rapids and stayed the entire day to be in the energy and environment of the powerful love and joy the Relics provide.

 

I have been moved in such a significant way and want others in my community to experience this internal shift as well.I would like to invite the Buddha Relics to my area, and to serve as the host for them here in the Illinois/Iowa Quad Cities.

 

Both Christian and Louisa encouraged me to contact you – so here I am. Please let me know if Buddha decides this would be a good place to visit.

 

Rochel Rittgers, Davenport, Iowa, USA. Rochel hosted a very successful event in Davenport two years later. More than 3,500 visitors came to be blessed.

 

17. SCREWDRIVER

Jesse Thompson, who had hosted the Relics in Salem in the past, Oregon, invited us to bring the relics into the Oregon State Penitentiary a few days before the event scheduled in Salem for this year.

 

His sister, Karuna Thompson, is a Buddhist Chaplin. Trained at Naropa University, Karuna has worked at the prison for a year and leads meditation classes there.

 

Venerable Norbu, my co-Manager on the Tour, has experience teaching meditation classes in one prison outside her hometown of Guadalajara, Mexico. It would be the first time I had ever set foot in a maximum-security prison.

 

Oregon State Penitentiary is the state’s oldest, all-male maximum security prison. Located in the heart of the city of Salem, the prison is able to hold up to approximately 2,200 inmates. It contains Oregon’s Death Row and lethal injection chamber where it is reported that 37 people are being held awaiting execution.

 

On the morning of July 7th, 2014 we climbed into the Tour’s Dodge Sprinter which was all packed up and ready to go. Despite our efforts to be well-prepared and punctual for our visit, when we tried to start the van, the battery was dead.

 

Fortunately, this first obstacle was easily overcome and we were able to call a taxi to bring us and the holy relics to the prison. Our driver was very accommodating and helped to pack up all of the Tour display materials into his trunk and the backseat of his Toyota Prius. He brought us to the entrance of the prison where Karuna and Jesse were waiting.

 

After going through all the security procedures and checks, we were escorted upstairs to the prison chapel where the event was to be held.

 

It was a large, drab room that had a few bookshelves set up against bare off-white walls. There were some meditation mats and chairs stacked up on one side of the room and a few long tables in the centre.

 

Although Salem was experiencing a heat wave with temperatures predicted to reach the high 90’s, there was no air conditioning in the room so it was already very warm.

 

Venerable Norbu, Jesse, Karuna and I began to set up the altar display on the tables and place out the chairs and mats on both sides of the room. A few inmates were in the room and offered to help us with set up as well.

 

It was my job to set up the plexi-glass display cases for the Relics. As I began to assemble the cases, a kind, middle-aged inmate offered to help me. Usually, this job is easier done alone by an experienced person, but because of this man’s gentle disposition and with the knowledge that he was able to make a rare and powerful connection to the Three Jewels (Buddha, Dharma and Sangha) through his service, I welcomed his assistance.

 

As we worked together, I noticed myself becoming a bit nervous because there was a screwdriver involved in setting up the cases. I didn’t want to show any fear or distrust towards this man for I sensed he had been dehumanized and shamed in the prison system. It’s my belief that if you try your best to treat people with dignity and respect, focus on their good qualities, then that is what usually manifests.

 

I really wanted to treat this person in a way that would help him feel safe and trusted by me because I know in the prison environment he probably would rarely be treated like that.

 

However, at the same time I was a bit nervous because I was aware that I was in a maximum security prison where many inmates of that population had been convicted of serious violent offenses and a screwdriver is a pretty deadly weapon.

 

Fortunately, he was honest, never making any attempt to steal the screwdriver.

 

As we set up the cases he questioned me about the Relics, Buddhism and meditation. He shared that he was part of a program which helped him learn about the victims of his crime.

 

The program was a way to help come to terms with what happened, how he had affected people, and to develop empathy. We talked about how it was programs like this that helped him to rehabilitate himself in the prison environment. He mentioned he had been taking yoga classes at the prison, but had not tried the meditation classes yet.

 

Originally, he said that yoga had been presented to him as just a body exercise class, but due to all the internal, energetic shifts he was experiencing he felt there was a much deeper process going on, that it was indeed spiritual, and now he was interested in trying the meditation classes.

 

Then all of a sudden, he realised the time and told me that he had to leave, he had to go back to his cell. I was surprised, and asked if he was going to come back and see the Relics. He seemed so interested and helpful, for sure I thought he would be attending the event.

 

“No”, he said, “I am not authorized to go to this one”.

 

And it was that simple.

 

For inmates to have the opportunity to see the relics they had to sign up and be approved in advance.

 

For some reason undisclosed to me he was not part of the group and there was no way to change it. I thanked him for all his help and said goodbye. Feeling very sad he was unable to attend, I also knew that by being in the presence of the Relics, even though they were still in their bag, he was receiving powerful blessings. I felt very happy that the service he offered enabled him to make a connection to the 3 Jewels and hope it created the cause for him to meet the Dharma in the future.

 

After he left, I started putting away all the luggage for the display and Karuna took the screwdriver. I realised she had probably had her eye on it the whole time too. It was not safe to leave it in the Tour suitcase like we usually do for someone might steal it. She held onto this and also the matches used to light the candles for the entire event until we needed to use them again.

 

When we finished placing the Relics in their cases, the inmates were able to come in. It took some time for the room to fill and we waited quietly as they filed in and took their seats on the chairs and meditation mats we had placed out. Then inmates were all wearing identical blue-denim prison uniforms.

 

They were free to walk about the room, and there was very little security inside. A racially diverse group of inmates appeared, some seemed very young, while others could have been in their sixties. The men who were allowed to view the Relics were eligible to be there because they had a record of good behaviour and they had applied to attend weeks ahead of time.

 

We began by giving a short talk about the Relics, the Tour, the viewing process and suggested thoughts to hold in their mind as they circumambulated (walked around) the Shrine.

 

Venerable Norbu then led a very beautiful meditation on loving-kindness. After the meditation, the inmates were able to walk around the Shrine and receive a blessing from one of the Stupas containing the Shakaymuni Buddha Relics.

 

Many of the inmates had profound and powerful experiences while in the presence of the Holy Relics. A few men even became so emotionally overwhelmed, that they were seen leaving the event early in tears. After walking around the Shrine and receiving a blessing many of the inmates returned to their seats to sit and meditate quietly or chat with each other while enjoying the beautiful, healing energy that was emanating from the Relics.

 

I overheard one man talking to a friend saying how powerful he felt the energy was, and how this experience was changing his view of the world. When the inmates spoke to me they asked some general questions about the Relics but no personal information was revealed.

 

I have heard that it is not so PC to ask people in prison what they are in for, so I refrained even though it was always on my mind with everyone I met. All the inmates I interacted with were very polite, grateful and kind, if it was not for the drab environment and prison uniforms, I would have very easily forgotten I was interacting with maximum-security inmates.

 

One man, however, did approach me after receiving a blessing and talked to me a bit about himself. He revealed to me that he had been “down” for over a decade and had began to practice Buddhist meditation while in prison and how much it had helped him. At first I did not understand what was meant by the term “down”. We both laughed a bit and then he explained that it was referring to the time he was incarcerated and that he was feeling very anxious because he was going to be released in just a matter of months if all goes according to plan. While in prison he had begun to practice Buddhist meditation in the Shambala tradition.

 

Describing himself as an angry trouble-maker before he had started meditating, he was able to transform using techniques that taught him to observe his mind and work with his emotions.Through his practice, he told me he was able to develop a more peaceful demeanour and became a better person. He was sincerely hoping to continue to develop his practice and to find a Sangha community to meditate with on the outside, and asked if I knew of any in Portland that might be good. I recommended to him a few organizations I thought might be worth looking into and gave him some names to type into Google so he could research them further online. He was so serious and sincere about pursuing these leads that he went away and came back with a pen and paper so he could write the names down with correct spelling.

 

The event lasted about two hours and we estimate that around 40 inmates were able to come see the Relics that day. Several members of the prison staff even dropped by.We were all pretty quiet as we packed up and headed back to where we were staying in Salem. Jesse and Karuna were gracious enough to help drive us back to the hotel.

 

As we said good-bye to each other in the parking-lot we offered Karuna a hand painted Chenrezig Statue to take back to the prison Chapel. She was very moved by the gift and expressed how grateful the inmates would be to have such a beautiful holy object in their chapel.

 

Amanda Karg, USA Tour Manager, 2014

 

18. ESCALATOR

I suffer from ill-health, which prevents me going anywhere or doing very much after late afternoon.

 

I am too exhausted with legs that don’t work, so no evening visits for me and certainly no tube or rail stations during the rush hour.

 

However, nothing would have held me back from the evening at Jamyang Buddhist Centre in London.

 

When I left the relic event and made my way home, I was aware of an inner contentment. I felt full of happiness, with a smile on my face.

 

I felt good.

 

When I reached Waterloo station, I approached the escalators with the usual trepidation, only to find myself impatient as I waited in line behind the commuters.

 

To my surprise, I wanted to pass and then found myself running up the escalator, no weakness, no pain. I rushed easily to my train and no problems with my bus home either.

 

It was only then that I realised there had been a dramatic increase in my energy levels. It was miraculous, and I have maintained a high level of achievement since.

 

It was totally unexpected, and a joyous bonus to a wonderful experience I will remember for the rest of my life.

 

I have given a copy of the Maitreya Peace Meditation to the chaplaincy of St Bernard’s Mental Hospital. We are involved in an interfaith project, and I suggested that the prayer be illustrated and part of the Buddhist area when it is finished.

 

Thank you for everything.

 

Vicky Greenwood, London, England, 2010

 

19. LOVING KINDNESS

Lama Zopa Rinpoche has made this all possible.That’s something that stays with me all the time. His kindness.

 

And the kindness of all the masters because really they say that the masters leave relics in order to benefit others.So this is their kindness that’s here in this room.

 

The people experience, I think, that kind of unconditional feeling that all people want and this is what Maitreya is all about – loving-kindness.

 

And the reason for the Maitreya statue is so that loving-kindness will arise in the hearts of all beings.So it will be a symbol of loving-kindness.

 

Venerable Chodron, USA Relic Manager, 2005

 

20. MAITREYA PROJECT

The statue itself is not the goal, it is the method for achieving the goal.

 

By making this statue, people will learn loving kindness by learning the teaching of the Maitreya Buddha.

 

With this good heart, then, you see, wars can be stopped. Everybody needs loving kindness. From loving kindness, then, you can achieve freedom!

 

Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Spiritual Founder of Maitreya Project and Maitreya Loving Kindness Tour

 

21. VAIL

Vicki Walker has been studying the Dharma for nine years. The names Shakyamuni, Ananda, and Shariputra are familiar to her. But tonight, they mean something much more.

 

She has tears in her eyes, and she can hardly speak. There is a gentleness about her. Her two sons, ages nine and twelve, are also bowed in prayer.

 

They have just met the relics of the Buddha – the relics of Shakyamuni, Kasyapa and other great Buddhist masters, touring the world, and tonight are visiting the town of Vail in Colorado.

 

The relics are displayed in tiny stupas in the centre of the room, amidst a majestic array of lights, candles, kataks and a graceful Maitreya Buddha statue.

 

Earlier in the evening, the Walkers had listened to dharma teachings given by their local teacher Venerable Michael Gregory of the Summit Dharma Center. He had spoken of the Buddha’s life, his teachings, the three principles of the path, and how to use scepticism wisely.

 

At the conclusion of the teaching he blessed each person who so wished on the head with a magnificent golden stupa containing the relics of Shakyamuni Buddha.

 

Vicki returns to her seat, absorbing the significance of the event. “I just pray for wisdom and loving-kindness,” says Vicki. “I want it for myself, for my family and others.”

 

Helen Chang, Vail, Colorado, 2002

 

22. VAJRASATTVA

When I began the tour there were so many obstacles. No-one wanted to get involved. No-one really understood what the relics were or why they were important. Students had faith in Rinpoche but none at all in me.

 

That was understandable of course. I had taken refuge in late 2000 and been appointed director of the tour in May 2001. I was a baby student.

 

I cried a lot. I contemplated giving up almost every day.

 

A few months later events were happening but the problems piled up every day. I had had enough.

 

I requested an interview with Lama Zopa Rinpoche. Rinpoche received me kindly and gently as always. He asked about the tour.

 

I described in detail all the various problems. Each time I stopped, Rinpoch prompted me, “Then?”

 

And I would begin again my long tale of woes. Eventually, exhausted after listing all my complaints, I ended by concluding that the Relic Tour was just too difficult to manage and that I would be better doing Vajrasattva purification retreat in the quiet hills of Dharamsala. I pictured myself serenely chanting mantras in the beautiful meditation hall feeling peaceful and happy. I would chant the mantras and purify lifetimes of negative karma then eventually build the merit needed to doing retreat.

 

Rinpoche cleared his throat. Bending towards me Rinpoche whispered, “The Relic Tour is your Vajrasattva retreat.”

 

“But Rinpoche!” I wailed. “There are so many obstacles.”

 

“The more obstacles, the better”, Rinpoche replied.

 

Victoria Ewart, Maitreya Loving Kindness Tour Director, 2001

 

23. HOME

When I got home from seeing the relics I had a really odd feeling – that I wasn’t arriving home because my home was where I had just come from.

 

Lorri Tolan, Relic event organiser, Leeds, England, 2010

 

24. I MUST BEGIN MEDITATING

I have never experienced anything like this and find it difficult to believe what happened to me.

 

Ordinarily I am a realist, and after years of writing newspaper editorials, I tend to be cynical.

 

But now, I feel at peace and happy.

 

Could you tell me, please, what music was playing and what incense was used.

 

I feel I must begin meditating.

 

Patricia, Youngstown, Ohio, USA, 2011

 

25. CHANGED FOREVER

On Sunday morning, during the relics blessing ceremony, something miraculous happened for me.

 

Although, it is indescribable, I know I am significantly changed forever.

 

I have reached out to various people, especially those who served as volunteers.They also have been profoundly changed. Also, strangers are offering to buy people’s gas, groceries, etc.

 

While others are receiving the comment “you have changed”.”

 

Tammy Schwartz, Austin, Texas, USA, 2012

 

26. GOD WITHIN

I think everyone can benefit from seeing the relics because you can’t put a religious title on love, or God, or anything.

 

You know, we have all just come together to pay our respects to the god that is within ourselves as well as in others.

 

Teri Gram, San Francisco, California, USA 2003

 

27. TRAVELLING WITH THE RELICS

We are about to finish the North America relic tour. I have been travelling almost all year with the relics and it has been such a wonderful opportunity for me. I really have no words at all to give you thanks for the incredible opportunity you gave to me.

 

The experience has been very enriching. It has been like a sort of retreat, where I was forced most of the time, to observe my mind. This adventure has been like walking into a deep forest. Some days you can breathe a lovely light, a beautiful refreshing breeze and then, when you least expect it, you open your eyes again to find yourself in a whirlwind of bears, crocodiles, tigers, monkeys and elephants. And on those days the conditions presented were more conducive to delving into the depths of the forest and gave me the best opportunity to observe, observe and observe and finally use my best internal tools.

 

It has been a wonderful journey where, as in life, sometimes you can enjoy the sun and other days the sun is there but you do not perceive it. And it’s been an adventure where the smile of the moon can cause you the most genuine smiles and on other days the saddest tears of the season.

 

This tour has given me the opportunity to observe more deeply my mind and what is in it. It has offered me the chance to see more closely, with profound sadness, in the eyes of people and realise the suffering that afflicts us is deafening.

 

It has also given me the chance to practice, in a more effective and efficient way, taking care of the aggregate of my body during travel times. I practised Qi Gong and it is amazing the way it helps and discovered the food I need to eat and above all the best way to take care of my mind.

 

It’s an interesting experience to be in a different country where you cannot be with your friends or with your family. You cannot talk to them by phone, you cannot run to them to ask for a hug when you need it.

 

That feeling of “loneliness” definitely gives you new horizons and perspective of what “family” and “friends” are. And in another sense, it’s like meeting new members of your family and new friends.

 

Venerable Norbu, Americas Relic Manager, 2013

 

28. SOUND CHECK

While the relics tour managers often meet with strange and wonderful synchronicities.

 

Like the time in Sedona, Arizona, the hosts showed us a tent on top of a hill in a large county park where they planned to display the relics.

 

I was dismayed by this as there was red dust from the earth blowing everywhere and no flooring. Dejected, I wandered through the park to the main amphitheatre. Our host, Ani Miranda, explained that she would have loved to have hosted the holy relics on that huge stage but it cost a mere $10,000 per day to rent. Somewhat beyond her budget!

 

We saw some technicians on the stage clearing up and began chatting to them. They said the stage was not being used this weekend, would we want it? After a few phone calls, suddenly the relic event was upgraded to a huge amphitheatre. For free.

 

The buddhas decided the windy, dusty tent was not appropriate for visitors’ minds.

 

During the event, the sound professional sound technicians swore they had turned off all the music equipment when they left that evening.

 

But when they returned next morning they found that a cassette tape of Buddhist chanting invocations had been playing all night, as if to pour out continuous blessings and purifying the environment.

 

Victoria Ewart, Loving Kindness Tour Director, 2002

 

29. THE THIRD TIME

Having volunteered for the tour in Minneapolis I was completely blown away by the power of these Relics and the effects it has on people who have no connection to Buddhist belief.I watched the openings of hearts, the healing of those in need of healing and the sparking of general curiosity.

 

Please allow me to share one such healing that took place:

 

On the first day of the event, a visitor entered the building and was gently approached by a male volunteer. Instantly, he fell to the floor and screamed, because, as we were told a few minutes later, he hated and feared men.

 

He then entered the exhibit and Dekyi-Lee (relic manager) immediately went up to him and offered to walk with him personally as he viewed the relics. She explained all about the relics in each display case as they walked around. He seemed to calm down during this process and, after standing in the back of the monastery and observing people for a while, he left.

 

He returned the following day and when he entered the temple he was immediately greeted by the host who proceeded to walk with him around the exhibit, gently explaining the relics in the display cases again.

 

He returned again on the third day and circumambulated the relics a third time with assistance from a woman. He then stood at the back of the room watching for about 30 minutes, as the event came to a close. During this time I had been guiding people to the Baby Buddha Bath and explaining this practice of purification. As I turned around he approached me and said:-

 

‘I feel I can trust you. I have been watching you helpingpeople. I think you are blessed.’

 

I took his hand in mine, gently pulled him close, and as our foreheads met, I said, “These blessings are for you my friend.”

 

He hugged me and as he did so, he began to soften and cry.

 

I felt that I had been a first-hand witness to the healing power that accompanies these relics and I wish for anyone who can, to visit the relic tour.

 

Skip Parsons, Minneapolis, USA, September 2011

 

 

 

 

30. OAXACA

Oaxaca is a city located southeast of Mexico where there are about 15 indigenous groups of people with their own cultures, languages and spiritual traditions. The rest of the population mostly is Catholic.

 

In April 2014, I was one of the relic managers during a 10 day event in Oaxaca. In 9 years of Mexico relic events, this was the very first time the holy relics had visited this place.

 

On the third day of the event, a woman of about 50 years old (for the purpose of this narrative, we will call her Rose) approached me and said, “I was at the opening ceremony three days ago, and since then I cannot stop crying.”

 

I replied that tears are natural, that the energy of the relics is the energy of loving kindness and sometimes we feel like crying and that she should not worry.

 

Rose said, “Yes indeed, I feel like my heart needs to be open and to fix things in my life. I feel the need to ask for forgiveness from my family, like if I’m going to die and I need to be in peace.”

 

Rose cried deeply. She began to close her body like a flower during the sunset and slowly sank down onto the floor. Then I bent down to be closer to her and said gently, “Rose, try to breathe deeply and we are going to try to calm down through our breath.”

 

Once she was a little bit calmer, I went on, “This is a great opportunity for you Rose. For some reason your heart is opening like a beautiful lotus flower. Just listen to your heart and try to identify what you need to do at this time of your life.”

 

As she sobbed deeply and I saw the pain from the expression of her face, she took my hands and I shared with me her story, “About 30 years ago, I had a boyfriend and was pregnant. The man did not want to marry me, but decided to marry my sister. My mother supported the whole situation, helped them to be married and I was alone having my baby. Since then I feel very resentful towards the three of them. Today, I have a strong feeling to ask them for forgiveness.”

 

I was flabbergasted! I just could not comprehend why she wanted to apologise to her family. In my view, her family had not supported her at all. They left her alone with her problem and she was the one she was carrying in her body all that suffering for so long.

 

So, very surprised at myself, I dared to ask her why she felt she needed to apologise.

 

Her reply was simple: “All these years I have been feeling resentful towards my mum, my sister and the man who is her husband now”.

 

I was still confused. I just could not understand why she needed to apologise. So, I got more courage and I asked her again: “I’m so sorry Rose, I just cannot comprehend why you want to ask your family to forgive you.”

 

Sobbing, Rose replied, “For all these years, I harboured all this pain and resentment in my heart. I have felt the most terrible thoughts about them and I have wished them to experience the most horrible things. In my mind I wished them to die a lot of times. I just do not want to live like that; I need to ask for forgiveness for thinking so wrongly and for so many horrible thoughts towards them.”

 

I could not believe what I was hearing. It was just incredible for me to witness how Rose was able to open her heart in such a beautiful way. I fell silent for a couple of minutes and then I told her, “Rose, trust in yourself, follow your heart, get closer to your family and try to ask them for forgiveness.”

 

I was very worried about her, because although Rose was having this wonderful healing experience, we never know about the reaction of others. I was worried about how these three people were going to respond to her, what their reactions would be.

 

So, I added: “Rose, I just want you to do me a favour. You are the one who is opening your heart and at a very deep level. However your family has not had this experience. Prepare in your mind all kind of possibilities; it could be that they do not want to open the door of their house and listen to you or maybe they will listen to you carefully and harmony will return to all of you.”

 

I did not want her to be hurt by her family again. She listened very carefully and she replied, “Yes, you are right, I will think about it”. She gave me a hug and thanked me then she left.

 

Rose did not show up on the followings days. The event finished. Impermanence arrived. So, we packed up all the display materials that we used to create the Relic mandala (altar) at the event. After we finished, I was dragging a suitcase to the exit, when Rose appeared in the front of me.

 

She had a beaming smile. Her face was shining like the sun and she was carrying a beautiful bouquet of white flowers in her hands. Looking into my eyes, she said softly, “These flowers are for you. I do not have any words to convey to you my gratitude for this experience. I want to share with you, that I talked with my mum, my sister and her husband and I asked them to forgive me. They listened to me. We cried together. Then we all had a big, big hug. Now I can be in peace and experience harmony in my family. The flowers are just a very little gift for you for being so kind to bring the relics to Oaxaca. This has been the most beautiful experience in my life ever.”

 

I could not hold back my tears. Crying, I hugged her tightly, taking the flowers I said, “Thank you so much, for being so brave and courageous, for listening to your heart, for contributing to world peace by bringing harmony to your family.

 

“Thank you very much for giving me a great lesson of loving kindness. Next time, when my mind experience resentment, I’m going to remember this huge and profound teaching you have given to me. I will pray to have the same courage you had, to put down my pride and ask for forgiveness. Thank you so, so much.”

 

We laughed and cried together and had a big hug. Then she started walking to the exit door. While I was observing her, I had an instinct to follow her and ask one last question, “By the way Rose, how did know about the exhibition?”

 

She replied with a big smile, “On the day of the opening ceremony, I finished my work as usual, I was just walking by this street, and I saw outside the building a banner advertising the event. That got my attention and I decided to walk inside the building and see the exhibition”.

 

She said goodbye and walked away. I felt a deep bliss in my heart which returns every time I remember her face with her beautiful cinnamon skin.

 

Venerable Norbu, Mexico Relic Manager, 2014

 

31. WILLIAMS LAKE

The Relic Tour was amazing.

 

I received the email from Victoria asking if we would be interested in hosting the tour about two days before our monthly management committee meeting. I replied to her that I did not know if we could do it but I would take the invitation to the meeting for the consideration of the other committee members.

 

They were absolutely stunned when I brought it up and after discussing what an amazing opportunity this would be to offer to others, we decided that yes, we would do it.

 

It was a whirlwind of activity, and learning how, and searching for an appropriate venue right from the start. I asked myself several times a daym, “what have I gotten myself into?” I don’t know how to write an invitation letter to the mayor, I don’t know how to address the chief of the Shuswap nation, I don’t know what an “appropriate venue” is. . . . Lots of I don’t knows!

 

But.

 

Lots of questions and research and back and forth and to and fro with tons of support and encouragement from poor patient Victoria and that wonderful package that Truus mailed to me – and we did it!

 

Dianne Noort worked like a little Trojan to gather and organize more than twenty volunteers who were very excited to help us offer this incredible tour to our community. At first there were only five and then ten and then more – and more!

 

Marilyn and Barrie Dickson even brought flowers for the altar and brought their granddaughter to view the relics.

 

All the volunteers worked tirelessly to do whatever needed to be done and made special efforts to take care of one another, bringing water to each other, spelling people off when they needed a break and just handing out smiles to everyone who passed us by.

 

We had two young men drive all the way from Washington state to help, a couple from Vancouver jumped on a plane and came up to be here in time for the opening ceremony, people came from Kamloops, Prince George and Quesnel to take part and to view the relics.

 

I actually mc’d the opening ceremony and did not die of stage fright! I didn’t do a great job, but I think I did ok. Saturday brought many curious members of the public who just wanted to see what this was all about and it sortof felt like that in the room.

 

Sunday seemed to hold a totally different atmosphere and energy as many people were moved to tears to just be in the presence of the relics. The energy built all day and was what fueled us all to just want to be in that room with the relics, or in the store selling stuff or guiding people down the hall, or counting them, or showing the video – we all felt tired but energised by this incredible event.

 

On Saturday, one woman came up to me and told me the story of how she was in a second hand store one day in south eastern BC and found this “thing” that she just felt connected to and had to “rescue” from the shop and give it a good home. She had no idea what it was but knew it was old – and somehow Eastern?

 

She described it to me and as she was talking I realised that she had found a very old hand-held Tibetan prayer wheel. She brought it in from her car, presented it to Venerable Tenzin to check over for her and started to cry when she saw Tenzin holding it.

 

She was very moved and delighted to know more about one of her most valued possessions. She stayed for quite some time and when she left, she was still a bit unsteady but sure that she could drive herself home and couldn’t wait to share what had happened with her family. Talk about karma ripening!

 

We had one young boy come reluctantly with his mother – only because she wanted to and then begged her to bring him back a second and third time! He spent part of his time sitting in a corner meditating and part of his time just staring at the relics as he walked slowly around and around them.

 

We had one woman come in and very excitedly tell us that she had just come home from visiting her sister in Vancouver where she had found out about the Relic Tour visiting that city and was “totally bummed out” that she had missed it by a day.

 

She drove home dejected and when she got home she made a cuppa and sat to read the local paper.She opened the paper to exactly the page with the article about the Relic Tour visiting Williams Lake the very next day! She came Saturday and Sunday and has been to the centre for Sunday Dharma talks twice since then.

 

One lady read a few pages of The Golden Light Sutra that was on display on the altar and immediately tracked me down to ask if she could purchase a copy of that “most wonderful book of poems”. She just felt that she had to have one and read it!

 

I still run into people in the grocery store who know who I am (but I don’t know who they are) and tell me thank you for bringing the relics to Williams Lake and how moved they were by the experience.

 

Everyone one of us who were involved in the organising committee were just amazed at the power of these holy objects to move and touch so many people – including ourselves! I still feel the energy of that wonderful event around me and my community.

 

Two days later as I am talking to a couple of the volunteers, I heard the phrase, “Next time we do this”, and I knew it was a success for the volunteers too.

 

And I also knew that we gained so very much by offering this opportunity to others. The gift was ours.

 

Colleen O’Neill, Williams Lake host, September 2015

 

32. THE WRONG ROAD

We brought the holy relics for display at a Chinese Temple in Las Vegas during October 2002. Our host organiser was Betty Fellows. She and her husband were very kind people. Betty’s husband was worried because the next relic event after Las Vegas was scheduled for the following day in Phoenix, Arizona.

 

He had noticed that day that the tour van was very low on fuel. He told us that once we left Las Vegas there were no petrol stations until we reached Phoenix. He offered to take the tour van and fill up the tank for us.

 

We said not to bother. We were planning to get up early and drive straight to Phoenix. We would get the petrol before we left Vegas. No problem.

 

We got up at dawn and drove to the petrol station. Soon we were on the highway making good time on our journey to Phoenix. We planned to arrive by lunchtime to set everything up because the opening ceremony was scheduled for early that same evening.

 

After an hour or so, I got that feeling – that uneasy feeling way down in the pit of your stomach. Something was wrong. It took me a few minutes but slowly it dawned on me. I turned to the other relic manager in fright.

 

“Fleur! We forgot to buy petrol!” She began to laugh. We had stopped at the petrol station and bought muffins, magazines and coffee. But no petrol.

 

I snapped at her telling her it was not funny. I checked the fuel guage. The dial pointed to below the reserve. In fact the tank was almost completely empty.

 

“What are we going to do now?” I wailed at her.

 

“Pray to Rinpoche and say mantras.” Fleur said, calmly. She began counting off mantras on her lapis lazuli mala.

 

I swallowed my anger at myself and tried to control my rising feelings of panic. I began chanting mantras under my breath and praying hard to Lama Zopa Rinpoche to forgive us for our stupid thoughtlessness.

 

It was inevitable. We were going to break down and be stranded in the middle of the desert. Then what was going to happen?! Two women stranded in the desert with a collection of precious holy relics while dignitaries, the hosts organisers, event volunteers and many visitors waited in Phoenix at an opening ceremony – with no relics.

 

After about ten minutes of mantras, I was growing increasingly desperate. Then, like a mirage in the desert, a petrol station appeared on the side of the road.

 

Ok, I thought, you are hallucinating for sure.

 

Fleur began to giggle again.

 

“There! I told you to have faith”, she said.

 

My rational mind would not accept it. Betty’s husband could not have made a mistake. This road to Phoenix had no petrol station. He had been clear.

 

Feeling huge relief, I filled up the tank and walked inside to pay. A thought occurred to me.

 

“What road are we on?” I asked.

 

“This is Highway I-95 to Phoenix”, drawled the attendant.

 

“But we are supposed to be on Highway I-93!” I exclaimed.

 

“That’s ok”, he explained patiently. “Both the I-93 and the I-95 go to Phoenix. I-95 is a bit longer but it will get you to Phoenix, don’t you worry.”

 

I knew that Highway I-93 was the road that we were supposed to take and that it had no petrol station. So, how on earth had we ended up on driving on the I-95 that did have a petrol station?

 

Then I remembered. In the early morning light, as I slurped my takeaway coffee, there had been a junction just outside the petrol station. There were signs for the I-93 and also for the I-95. I had followed the signs for I-93 but at exactly that moment the sun had glinted into my eyes, blinding me for a few seconds. And we had ended up on the I-95 instead.

 

To this day, I am convinced that it was the buddhas that caused the morning sun to glint the light in my eyes at precisely that moment.

 

We arrived in Phoenix a few hours later and set up in time for the opening ceremony.

 

Victoria Ewart, Maitreya Loving Kindness Tour Director, 2002

 

33. BUDDHA’S HAND

I had the most profound religious experience of my life. The relics are beautiful and powerful. Just being in their presence is in itself a profound experience and being blessed with the relics of Shakyamuni Buddha was an experience for which I have no words.

 

The love and compassion of Lord Buddha seemed to flow into me during the blessing. Almost as if Lord Buddha Himself was placing His Hand on my head.

 

I have no words to explain the depth of my experience.

 

Cindy Bird, Birmingham Alabama, USA, November 2012

 

34. RIPPLES OF PEACE

Having spent hours today and yesterday in the presence of the relics has been life changing. Thank you so much for what you do for humankind and universal peace. Your kindness in sharing this love around the world is wonderful.

 

Please visit Manchester again ASAP so the city can once more benefit from the blessings of the Buddhas and all the enlightened masters, and so these blessings can continue to ripple out and spread the peace across the world.

 

Please come back soon.

 

Kerry Wilson, Manchester, UK, 2012

 

 

 

35. MIRACLES

 

I just cannot find words to express you my gratitude for inviting me to be part of the Relic Tour in Mexico.

 

As a monk it was a deep experience which inspired me to be a better person every single day. Watching the suffering of so many people it really moved me.

 

But at the same time it was a happy inspiration to see and witness “miracles” in the people just because of being in front of the relics. How amazing our beloved teachers are. I just don’t have more words right now.

 

Maybe it is too soon for me to really know what this experience meant in my life.

 

Venerable Yeshe Namdak, Mexico City, Mexico, April 2012

 

36. BECOMING A TOUR MANAGER

The very first time I was in front of the Holy Relics was an incredible experience for me! I was a volunteer in the first exhibition in Aguascalientes, Mexico in 2007.

 

The first day when they were taking the relics out for the display I started to cry. I was very surprised, because I don’t cry easily.

 

The following day before the people arrived, I was admiring the Relics, when suddenly I noticed that one of them (Shariputra’s) was glowing by itself. I called another volunteer (the director of the FPMT centre), and he said it was the lamp. Then we turned the lamp off, and we both realised it was glowing by itself! I was astonished! Since that very moment I was hooked!

 

Then for several years, whenever I could, I followed the relics in different cities of Mexico as a volunteer. Finally, I became a tour manager in 2015 (the last year they toured). With no doubt, the best experience I have ever had in my life!

 

Thank you!!

 

While the opening of the exhibition in Merida, Mexico in 2015 was taking place, a guard and I were alone, taking care of the holy relics. Suddenly I noticed the guard was concentrating very hard, staring at the Buddh’s holy relics. He was so interested that I told him the story of Prince Siddharta’s life. He was really moved. As Mexico is a very Catholic country, of course he had never heard about the Buddha before.

 

During the following days of the exhibition, he was on duty at the door. Whenever his work let him, he approached to the relics. I offered him to receive a blessing, but he told me he was working and was not allowed. Once I was surprised to see him appear on the line for the blessings. It was his day off, and he had come just to receive a blessing! He looked very touched, and I was too!

 

At the same event there was a policeman who had two guard dogs. He brought them to the exhibition and circumambulated the holy relics with the dogs. Then he came for a blessing for the three of them. He was very impressed with the relics!

 

This man had mentioned that his mother used to have Buddhist texts in his house when he was a child (not very common in a Catholic country). He looked very touched since the very first time he visited the relics! So, he came back every day at the end and brought the dogs to be blessed!

 

Every time he looked moved. It was unusual to see a tough guard acting that way. The relics had touched his heart!

 

Martha Cabral, South America Tour Manager, 2015

37. DOG’S TOOTH

It is very difficult to tell a genuine from a fake one. But if you have faith in the object, you will receive the blessing anyhow. There is a story related to that.

 

The son of a mother was going to Lhasa, Tibet and his mother asked him to bring back to her a piece of stone from the statue of Jowo Je. The son went to Lhasa but forgot his mother´s request.

 

Just before arriving home he remembered and being embarrassed to come home empty-handed he collected an ordinary stone from the side of the road and presented that to his mother as a piece of the statue.

 

His mother placed the stone on her altar, and made many offerings and prostrations to this piece of stone.

 

Some time later the mother and son quarreled for some reason. In the heat of the moment the son revealed that the stone was just an ordinary piece he had collected from the side of the road.

 

The mother was so annoyed that she picked up the stone and threw it to the ground. As the stone hit the ground it split open and revealed the relics of the Buddha inside.

 

So, being treated as a holy object, it became one!

 

Interview with Venerable Kirti Tsenshab Rinpoche, translated by Voula Zarpani, South America, November 2001. Kirti Tsenshab Rinpoche passed away in 2006. Rinpoche’s relics were included in the touring collection.

 

39. SASKATOON

First off thank you for scheduling the relics in Saskatoon. The benefits are so deeply apparent and so immediate…as always.

 

We had those who wept, those who became overjoyed, and the joyous sounds and squeals of the children but there was also the beauty of calm, of those in our community who could look upon one another and realise/accept that this form of energy, this way of treating one another each and every day is not only possible but exists, here, now.

 

Fred Chlan, Saskatoon event organizer, Saskatchewan, Canada, 2011

 

40. HOSTING

Hosting the relics was one of the most meaningful experiences of my life. To those who are thinking of hosting them but are afraid of the difficulties or are reluctant, I say, “Go ahead”.

 

Things will always work out when the relics are involved and any difficulties you may encounter will be repaid a thousand-fold when you see the visitors and the immediate benefits the relics can bring.

 

Donna Brown, Milan Relic event organizer, Italy, November 2009

41. SHINING

The relics are shining, giving us this wonderful energy and hopefully raising our spirits to go on in the world and do what we need to do to help the world at this time.

 

Because the world needs a lot of help.

 

Olga Osbourne, San Francisco, California, 2005

42. LEEDS

Many non-Buddhists were walking around the statue and being blessed and coming into contact with these rare, powerful, holy objects. It was overwhelming to observe. Young girls were spending time writing out the Sanghata sutra, dogs were being blessed.

 

People were coming off the street without prior knowledge of the event and were emotionally overcome. The range of nationalities, gender, age and race was extensive. It was wonderful.

 

Bob Charlton, organizer of Leeds event, England, November 2007

 

43. UNIVERSAL

The exhibit helps people around the world to examine their potentiality of a kinder mind and heart within themselves.Regardless of religion, people everywhere can relate to love, kindness, compassion, happiness, and peace.

 

The great masters, teachers, sages, yogis, of all time have a pure quality of unconditional love and, these relics emanate this with amazing energy. You just feel the spirit and positive energy in these events.

 

Their lives and virtuous attributes are left behind in these pearl like crystals we call Relics, to inspire us to become better human beings, really helping us in opening our hearts.It’s just amazing.

 

Nearly everyone reports some kind of change or shift, whether it is releasing physical or emotional pain or experiencing a profound sense of peace.

 

Amanda Russell, USA Tour Manager, 2014

 

44. MY QUESTION IS THIS

Since my family had the great pleasure of experiencing the relics of the masters when they were displayed in Las Vegas, our lives have seemed to open up to great things.

 

My heart has been filled with unhindered compassion, from listening to my children’s needs to changing my profession. As of today I am Reverend Anthony, receiving my Doctorate in Religion Philosophy and starting a private counselling service to assist people who are suffering.

 

My question is this. Can I still ask the Relic Masters to aid my life’s work that I have chosen? Not for me, but for all the people that I will come in contact with and to open up a non-profit Healing Center. How can I ask for their help? Or have they already helped me!

 

Thank you and thank you once more.

 

Reverend Anthony Cordova, Las Vegas, 2004

 

45. AFRICA

Some 2,300 people viewed the relics in two days on the Island of La Reunion. We had to extend the hours from 9 a.m. all the way until midnight just so the people standing in line for two hours could see the relics and receive the blessings.

 

The three of us sangha members took turns placing the stupa that contains Buddha’s relics on people’s heads while reciting Buddha’s mantra and sending the blessings through their being.

 

Some people cried, most smiled, some even passed out! Reunion Island has people of all races – a rainbow of the human family. The relic tour is exhausting but I can’t think of anything more worthwhile to do with this life!

 

Constantly I am reminded of Kyabje Zopa Rinpoche’s vast vision and immense kindness, we both feel greatly honored to serve Rinpoche and sentient beings in this way. To see how the relics touch people’s hearts and open them to the blessings of Buddha’s teachings is astounding and awesome.

 

While people viewed the relics, Venerable Roger Munro gave talks on the story of Buddha’s life and led Dharma discussions. I led meditations on loving kindness and Chenrezig. Rinpoche told Victoria that it is beneficial to offer music to the holy relics, so I led song circles where people offered their wonderful songs.

 

We also read The Sutra of Golden Light a few times in each place. After I explained how reading the Sutra creates the cause for wise leaders, so everyone was enthusiastic to read.

 

I heard mutterings about ending corruption in government. What a cacophony of virtuous sound as 100 people read one page all at the same time!

 

Cape Town didn’t feel so light and easy going as Reunion Island, but still, the people in the center were warm-hearted, generous and kind. Victoria and I shared Akong Rinpoche’s room. Man, great meditations and technicolour dreams!

 

After the weekend, Brian, our artist-surfer-dharma friend and Emma, took us to climb Lion’s Head Mountain, a peak in the middle of Cape Town. At the top Venerable Roger and I did Chod practice while Victoria, Brian and Emma read the Sutra of Golden Light. Afterwards, Victoria had the idea to encase one of Ven. Tom Ivory’s prayer wheel pendants in a boulder on top of the mountain. The trail up to the top goes round the top twice before getting there, so now all the tourists are going round the prayer wheel.

 

Venerable Paula Chichester, Africa Tour Manager, 2009

 

 

46. MEETING BUDDHA

I just want to thank you two for all your effort, commitment and lovely presence in this tour.It must be exhausting moving from one place to another and I really have a high regard on your capacity for staying so serene and beautiful after those journeys, after answering all the questions people ask, after sharing your experiences with such a delightful energy, it is simply marvelous and admirable.

 

I pray you keep on with that energy, I bet you will, the relics itself, those beings there, are already taking care of that.

 

Today I saw the image of Buddha Shakyamuni I have over my computer and my feeling was strange. The image is not anymore seen as an image, today I feel he is a friend…you know….oh! words are so short to describe the sensation.

 

Let me put it this way, it is something like if you have talked about “Christ” or even “GOD” all your life and all of a sudden you go to a café and someone says, “Hey Diana, let me introduce you to Mr Jesus Christ and Mr God”, and I just sat there have coffee and laugh for a while with them – so next morning what are they?

 

I have the feeling that Shakyamuni Buddha is like part of my family in this conventional reality, not far away in a dharmakaya state.

 

Diana Ospina, Taos, New Mexico, USA 2002

47. VIENNA

People were so deeply moved, Buddhist as much as non-Buddhist. It was such a peaceful, harmonious atmosphere. People just walked around got the blessings and then sat down to stay with it, even doubting ones, like my sister or my doctor.

 

Even the boss of the big Museum came twice and took pictures once. He is a nature scientist and said to someone beside me, “such a different world” but one can see how moved he was.

 

Even people from Budapest and Bratislava came (we hope to stay in contact). More than 3,500 people came – something special during a hot weekend in Vienna surrounded by cooling mountains, and a big part of the Danube to swim in.

 

When the relics left Vienna there was in the east dark clouds, in the center were the Relics were hosted, very light and bright clouds, andin the West were they were moving towards.. no clouds at all, and it was a very fine and soft rain.

 

Andrea Husnik, Director of Panchen Losang Chogyen Centre, Vienna 2007

48. KITTEN

I went to the relic tour in Hamilton yesterday. My daughter and I brought her kitten that has been sick and had recent surgery, for a blessing.

 

I did not anticipate a healing.She has had a lump on her tummy the size of a small egg, from her surgery. When my daughter and I picked her up today we noticed the lump had almost disappeared.

 

This is an overnight change on a lump she has had for about a month.

 

Bev Eybel-Misch. Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, 2005

 

49. ANIMAL BLESSINGS

Lhading Rinpoche, Geshe Yeshe and Geshe Lobsang led the opening ceremonies with the Drepung monks lead chant master on Friday evening at Drepung Loseling Centre.

 

Shortly after the opening began, a moth was brought in writhing in the palm of a young man named Brendan. The wing was bent back and it really didn’t look like there was much chance of survival for this moth. Brendan circumambulated the relics three times and then placed the moth carefully next to the main Maitreya statue.

 

The following morning as we set up the altar with offerings for the day, we noticed the moth was gone – but was found again, on the side of the face of one of the smaller Maitreya statues.The moth was in perfect condition! So, we left it there, and it remained for the entire day.

 

The young man returned and was quite amazed at the transformation the moth had undergone.He also brought his black cat in for a blessing along with many other folks bringing their beloved cats and dogs.

 

We thought at one point there must have been as many pets as people, which was approximately 500 throughout the weekend.

 

A young lady brought in her near death feline and circumambulated the relics three times.She then sat to the side of the relic display altar with her dear furry friend and spent the better part of the day allowing the loving kindness energy to envelope her kitty. She felt at peace in her heart knowing that her cat would hopefully gain a better rebirth in its next life.

 

Carmen Straight, USA Tour Manager, 2004

 

50. DUBLIN

Thank you for bringing the Heart Shrine Relic Tour to Ireland.

 

I visited the relics on Sunday and, as a practising Buddhist,

 

The personal Blessing I received was one of the most important moments in my life.

 

Debra James, Dublin, Ireland, 2006

 

51. HAMILTON

The universe is so timely, with my brother’s passing on Friday, Phil and I and two of our three sons could not have wished for a better two days to have followed that then visiting/volunteering at the Heart Shrine Relic Tour. The exhibition of these ancient and sacred Buddhist relics is profound to say the least.

 

Being in that peaceful energy and receiving a blessing brought me such a peace, purification and sense of relief that is unexplainable.

 

You do not have to be a practicing Buddhist to view them or receive a blessings, I am not myself, but believe in so many of their beliefs of sending love and kindness and compassion to everyone. I love the statement by the Dalai Lama “Don’t be what you learn from Buddhism to be a Buddhist; use it to be a better whatever-you-already-are.”

 

Una, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, 2006

52. SAT NAM

There were many people chanting when I walked in, hands in prayer pose and speaking in a foreign language. I closed my eyes to tune in to it and felt this marvelous boundary-less space.

 

After a while, we got to walk by the relics. Not sure whose I’d expected, but hadn’t really expected to see relics from Sakyamuni Buddha! And another Buddha I’m not familiar with.

 

It was like my consciousness became very smooth, like silk, and there was this palpating sensation of light and space. At the next display there were relics from Lama Yeshe, whose books I’d seen and of which I own one. There were others. It made me feel very blessed for the opportunity to relate to such great masters. My breath opened up. I had this clear channel of breath along my spinal column.

 

In the final display case there are relics of Milarepa and Marpa, who I’ve heard of. The experience of Milarepa brought an emotional response. Somehow, having read a book about Milarepa, had turned him into a storybook figure and it never occurred to me it would be possible to relate to this great soul. It felt like I was flooded with prana. And there was also a relic of Yeshe Tsogyal, who I’d never heard of, which seemed to open my heart, filling it with love.

 

And there was yet another blessing. A Zen master held the relics of Buddha, chanting in some deep mystical voice, and he placed the relic over our crown chakra. In watching others, it was clear that they were very moved. And yes, my tenth gate opened and somehow my legs brought me back to look at the relics again.

 

Let me explain who I am. I am a Western Sikh, born in the Bronx, who has studied with Yogi Bhajan for over 25 years, learning Kundalini yoga and meditation. My path is also that of a practitioner of the healing branch of Kundalini yoga, called Sat Nam Rasayan, that is based on a transcendent state of consciousness that makes it possible to merge and release resistance to being.

 

The state of consciousness seems to be similar, if not the same, as some Buddhist states of consciousness. So in viewing the relics, I opened up and emptied my space to be able to experience the consciousness of the great ones held in the relics. I am very grateful for this wonderful opportunity. Sat Nam.

 

Hargopal Kaur Khalsa, Los Angeles, California, 2005

 

53. PETROL NOT DIESEL

Our first show was in a Vietnamese temple in Nantes. The abbot had prepared a beautiful reception for the relics, and the first inspiring thing I learned was that the temple was new and had just been finished in the days before the relics arrived. They had worked very hard to be ready on time. Many people came to see the relics.

 

The Saturday night was very special; only the Vietnamese people (from all over France) were left, and we as custodians had done the tsog offering with prostrations, and they started to ask questions. This led to questions deep into the night about the Tibetan tradition, Lama Zopa Rinpoche and our motivation to practice.

 

The second show was in Lyon. They had organized a very beautiful procession. It became clear again that many young Vietnamese, like young Western people, have many questions. They respect and participate in the tradition of their parents, but I got the impression that only reciting sutras was not enough for them. It seemed to me that like us they want to study.

 

The third show was in Hamburg, and 16,000 people attended. The organisers told me how much disharmony there had been between the organisers before the relics arrived, but since the relics had arrived the harmony had returned and everyone was happy. What surprised me was that so many Germans really cried when they saw the Relics. The first day I saw at least 6 people crying (that’s a lot for North-Europeans) and many were visibly moved.

 

After the retreat in Osel Ling we had the next stop in a Vietnamese temple near Bonneville (France, near Geneva). Half an hour before we arrived we put petrol in the tank instead of diesel. The engine stopped just before the slip road onto the motorway. We backed the car up ten meters so that the other cars could continue, and we saw just behind us a garage from the same company as our car! We felt blessed by Tara.

 

The garage was still open that late on a Friday afternoon, so they emptied the tank. The Vietnamese were informed about our obstacle, and came with four cars to pick us up. People in all kind of different robes (red, grey, and yellow, and Western) emptying the car was a very special sight for the workers at the garage.

 

The master of the temple organized a lot of Vietnamese pujas, and they gave offerings to all the visitors so that they could offer them to all the relics. I rejoiced to see all the people making so many offerings and I remembered Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s words that even offering one flower to one holy object gives so much merit. Here lots of people were making lots of offerings to a lot of holy objects all at the same time!

 

There was also another guy, who was like me, from the Netherlands. He was almost in tears when we said goodbye. Seven weeks later, at the last show in Europe in Bruges, Belgium, he came again. He told me that his life had changed after this blessing. He had been touched. In Bruges he took his grandfather with him. He had no parents anymore, so he came from Amsterdam to Brussels to pick up his only family member, his grandfather. The evening before the show in Bruges his grandfather had a stroke, but still he was still able to come with his grandson to see the relics. It meant a lot to them.

 

It was a big honour to spend so much time around the relics. I rejoiced a lot in the merit so many people created by circumambulating, doing prostrations, making offerings of flowers, candles, stones, and other presents, doing their prayers and meditations for others and the project, finding hope, making donations, reciting Dharma texts, working hard, guarding, taking care of, and venerating the gurus, giving and getting blessings, listening to the loving kindness talks and to the information about the Project, leading animals around the relics, and asking questions about Dharma.

 

It seemed to be very beneficial, I hope the benefit is immeasurable for all those in whatever way involved.

 

Venerable Tendar, Europe Tour Manager 2005

 

54. TONGUE-TIED

Despite the fact that I teach dharma (within the context of the Shambhala mandala), I’ve found myself a little tongue-tied when it comes to describing this experience.

 

The experience that one might have – the one that I have had on my several visits to see the relics, in any case – is powerful, if difficult to describe.For much of the time of my visits and for some time afterwards, my chatty, unsettled and often cranky mind comes to rest and a more spacious and engaged heart awakens.

 

I have a more direct experience of the qualities of vast care and spotless sanity that I understand to be at the heart of “enlightenment”.

 

And though I have been a Buddhist practitioner for several years and understand my own experience of devotion near the relics, I have observed many people apparently of other faiths having significant, seemingly parallel, experiences.

 

This observation only deepens my appreciation that the Buddha taught not to create a separate religion particularly, but to bring all people to their inherent intelligence and goodness.His aspiration for their benefit—our benefit!—is palpable in these relics.What great fortune that the Maitreya Project Relics Tour has offered this experience to so many people!

 

Karen Porterhouse, Bridgeport, Connecticut, USA, 2004

55. FACES

Though our community is small in numbers, our hearts remain open to message of Loving Kindness. Knowing that in every moment there is a gift that is given and received.

 

If I could capture the expression that was often seen on the faces of those entering for the first time, it would be priceless. There is a sense of healing and love that travels with the Relics and we are honored to have been able to be a part.”

Dr Michael Kearney, event organizer, Palm Springs, California, USA, 2013

 

56. ATLANTA

Hosting the Relics is one of the highlights of my life.The whole time they were at our Center I couldn’t get enough of looking at them, praying to them and simply being in their presence. When I’m around them something shifts inside of me and I can finally see a glimpse of my true self, void of all my self- cherishing and ego.

 

The aura field that surrounds the Relics is so powerful it seems to touch everyone who comes in contact with them, at least that’s what I saw from the two exhibits at Drepung Loseling Institute.

 

As a host organizer I was fortunate enough to spend two nights sleeping in their presence and the experience was astounding.The first night I felt like someone was rewiring my circuit board. My dreams were disturbing, though not unpleasant, and I woke up feeling ready to tackle my self-grasping and ignorance.

 

The second night was completely different, full of wonderful Dharma dreams (which I never experience) that left me “floating” for days.

 

Wendy Hogg, Atlanta, Georgia, USA, 2004

 

57. GESHE DAKPA

Our kind and compassionate Buddha Shakyamuni when he passed away into Parinirvana in Kushinigar, India. Then the body was cremated. And from the cremation of the form (holy body of Buddha Shakyamuni) many relics came out and all these relics put together into a golden vase.

 

At that time in India there were many kings, regional kings and also great sponsors and so forth. They came to the Buddha’s cremation to get a little piece of that blessing. They had a little argument. One king said I am in charge of taking care of the Buddha Shakyamuni’s holy remainds and I want to take them back to my own region and I will build a holy stupa and celebrate every year like an annual ceremony and it should be done in my own region. But the others wanted to do the same thing.And finally, they almost got into a big fight.

 

Then there was a Brahmin practitioner who said that it was not appropriate to argue about Buddha’s holy remains and that one of Buddha Shakyamuni’s main teachings was to practice patience.

 

So finally they decided to divide the holy substances into 8 to go to 8 different regions.Then these kings took their portion back to their own territory to build holy stupas to have annual ceremonies to make offerings and so forth.Then what was left was the golden vase, the person who divided the relics into 8 portions and asked for the golden vase so he could take this back to his region and he built a stupa for this so he could do ceremonies and make offerings and prostrations.

 

So after the Buddha’s passing, there was a king named King Ashoka. In the first part of Ashoka’s life he was killing people and fighting wars and he also imprisoned many people.

 

Finally he met an arhat named Takpa and King Ashoka completely changed his mind and started to practice Buddha Dharma. He became a benefactor and then was known as ‘Dharma King Ashoka’. Then King Ashoka, since he engaged in so many negative actions, and in order to purify the negative actions he started to build many stupas to purify his negative karma. And in order to do that he needed many relics of the Buddha.

 

So he went back to the Arhat Takpa who told him to go to Rajgir to get the relics portion from another King Machita, and so King Machita’s portion of relics is in a stupa at Rajgir. So King Ashoka went to Magada at Rajgir and he searched the relics at the stupa. There were about six handfuls of relics at the beginning and at the end after King Ashoka went there they increased in amount to 120 tes (measurement of Tibet) tremendously increased.

 

So then King Ashoka started to build stupas all over the world and King Ashoka, he built 80,000 stupas in 24 hours, with the help of his friends, ministers, kings, non humans, so King Ashoka was one of the most powerful kings in India. So King Ashoka ruled and controlled from Pakistan, he also planned to celebrate once a year.

 

So the main purpose of Lama Zopa Rinpoche doing this, collecting all these relics, the main purpose is because of the benefit that you can receive from relics.

 

In a scripture recited by the Mulasarvastivadins, as quoted in A Compendium of Trainings, it says that when a Bhikshu prostrates with faith to a stupa [containing] hair or a nail of a Tathagata, he achieves the virtue to be born as a Chakravartin King one thousand times as many particles as there are under his body all the way down to the golden wheel”. 

 

Among these relics, there is the Kasyapa relics. Since Buddha Kasyapa came to this world many many years ago eons have past. How could we have these relics? You may have doubt. If you think about that seriously it is not impossible, it is possible.

 

We can still see the stupa of Buddha Kasyapa in Kathmandu Nepal, behind the Papashingu stupa, so that relics from Buddha Kasyapa can come from that stupa.

 

We have this great opportunity, because of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s compassion, to see these holy relics, to make circumambulations and prostrations.

 

If you understand that this is a great opportunity and that we receive a great amount of benefit and rejoice and how much faith and conviction you have in the relics, you will receive the merit according to your faith and conviction – that is the key

 

Geshe Dakpa, Tse Chen Ling, San Fransisco, California, 2006

 

58. LINZ

Today I received feedback from a woman I am in contact with through my work. She said, “I had a dream after I visited the relics event I dreamt about two people I always had negative feelings about, but in my dream I saw them in a different light. I had very positive feelings towards them. It was amazing and I have taken that feeling back into daily life. Also, I feel so relaxed and calm, I can’t believe it is true…”

 

Gerlinde Sailor, host organizer, Linz, Austria, 2012

 

59. COLORADO

I was honored to host the relics in Denver and Boulder, Colorado. I also had the opportunity to serve the Relic Tour as a marketing volunteer and later marketing manager.

 

As marketing manager I loved working with hosts around the globe who were excitedly planning an event that suited the needs of their communities. Their behind the scenes dedication and service was so beautiful.

 

The last tour visit I hosted was in Boulder, Colorado in the main shrine room of the Boulder Shambhala Center. The Center was founded by Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche forty-two years ago and many senior lamas including the Sixteenth Karmapa, Dilgo Khentsye Rinpoche, Kalu Rinpoche and others had taught in the same room so it was extraordinary to experience the relics in that space.

 

I was honoured to be able to facilitate relic blessings at that event and saw even more intimately the tangible physical blessings the relics imparted. For example in one case I placed the relic stupa on a visitor’s head but the relics seemed to be pulling towards her heart so I placed the stupa on her chest.

 

She wept openly for several minutes. Later she told me she just had triple bypass heart surgery. She had been in trauma from the surgery and facing her own mortality. Viewing and being blessed by the relics was “a game changer” she told me through tears. This is one of many examples of the kindness of the tour to sentient beings.

 

So many sweet and funny stories: in Boulder a little girl saw the flyer and told her mother they must come and they spent hours sitting, bathing the Buddha and viewing the relics. Her mother was moved by the relics and by her eight-year-old daughter’s devotion and excitement. In Denver the neighbor’s dog jumped a fence and ran directly up to the main room to do several laps of circumambulation around the relics.

 

The relics brought waves of blessings throughout communities and changed lives. They changed my life. I am eternally grateful to the great masters who incarnate to liberate beings. May beings continue to benefit from the holy relics. May all be free of suffering and reach perfect complete enlightenment.

 

May we be blessed to serve others skillfully with love, always.

 

Karen Smith, Denver, Colorado, USA, 2017

60. Mexico

Maitreya Loving Kindness Tour has been visiting Mexico for several years now and we are continually amazed at the positive response and large turnouts. Mexico is a Catholic nation, yet hundreds of thousands of people have been drawn to the Holy Relics.

 

We saw people wait for up to eight hours in line. This is nothing short of amazing, especially since most of the visitors are not Buddhist. They patiently waited in line, feeling drawn to the enlightened energy of the Masters. 

 

During the three months that the Relic Tour was in Mexico, about 30,000 people were blessed directly by the holy relics. Thousands, and perhaps millions more people received the blessing indirectly by simply being in the same city as the Relic Tour, and also seeing images and videos about the relics in TV interviews and other media.

 

The tour began in Guadalajara and visited six cities all over Mexico. One of the highlights of the tour was a visit to special home in Queretaro that takes care of children with physical and mental disabilities. There were about 100 children and we blessed them all by placing the bag which carries all the Holy Relics above their heads, as well as blessing the people who work there.

 

The experience was very powerful because many of the children were in a lot of pain and suffering. Many of them were constantly screaming. However, these children were so incredibly fortunate to be blessed by the Relics, and plant powerful seeds of a much better future rebirth and most importantly, a karmic link with the pure buddhadharma.

 

What most stood out from that visit was meeting the director of the home. She has been working there for the last seven years and her attitude is similar to a bodhisattva. She told us that she feels incredibly blessed to be able to serve these children, especially since nobody else would take care of them. With a glowing face, she said that these last seven years have been the happiest years of her life and these children have been such an amazing blessing for her. What an example!

 

The very last event was a ten-day event in a city called Oaxaca. A man came to visit the relics and was deeply moved. He approached us and asked if he could bring his father, who has been in a coma for a few years. We told him that as long as they can bring him in a wheelchair, they could come as many times as they wished.

 

Every day, this man and his brother would bring their father and they would spend several hours in the presence of the blessing energy of the relics. It was so beautiful to see the deep love and gratitude these brothers had towards their father, caring for him and doing all they can to help.

 

The holy relics also stopped by to visit the Teotihuacan pyramids in the state of Mexico. We climbed up all three pyramids (and the hundreds of steps) and at the top recited sections of both the Golden Light Sutra and the Sanghata Sutra, dedicating the merits and the energy of the visit to such a powerful place to the Enlightenment of all beings. 

 

Venerable Norbu, Mexico Tour Manager, 2014

61. Donovan Prison

I was very fortunate to have been in the presence of the relics when they were in San Diego in 2008. At the time I was an inmate at Donovan prison and part of a sangha that met bi-weekly. Buddhist volunteers from neighbouring communities would come regularly to facilitate these meetings. It was truly a great blessing.

 

I was so surprised when one of the volunteers (Lien) managed to bring these Relics into the prison to us along with a monk December of that year. I’ve been out and doing very well since November of last year. Now I wonder will the Relic ever visit Detroit, Michigan. I’ve moved here to be near my family & pursue my goal to being certified as a substance abuse counsellor. My former addictions are what brought me to prison.

 

I’d love to get another chance to stand in the presence to the Relics. I have to admit that when I heard they were coming to the prison I was not very interested. Fortunately, I decided that day to open up and just give the experience a chance. I am so glad I did. I now consider that experience priceless and a joyful memory. Hopefully one day I’ll be able to repeat it and share it with my new sangha brothers & sisters here in Detroit. Please send me any info. Should they ever come to our city I would love to be a volunteer supporting your work. Take care & may your great efforts be guided & protected by the power of the Dharma.

 

Eric Wilkins, Detroit, USA, 2008

 

 

 

61. DES MOINES

The very first time I heard about the Buddha relics something stirred within me. My Qigong teacher Master Chunyi Lin had shared his experience of seeing the Relics and had tried to put it into words but couldn’t.

 

The seed was planted though and I contacted Victoria to see if we could host the Buddha relics in Des Moines. Within just a few weeks I received a reply saying yes and that we would host the relics in August of 2012.

 

It was quite amazing how everything came together. We started meeting on a weekly basis in January to plan. It was divinely-guided as I started to share with people that we had made an agreement to be here at this time to welcome all of the Buddhist Masters. People came together to volunteer with open hearts knowing that they were supposed to help.

 

I was guided to search for several different places to host the Tour. One place stood out and it was the Hoyt Sherman Auditorium. It is set on a hill so it felt like it would be transformed into a stupa.

 

Opening night came and we had over 800 people packed into the Auditorium. It came time for people to view the holy relics and people stood in line for hours until well after midnight.

 

There was a feeling of love that was pervasive throughout and people were joyous being in the love and compassion. Over the next several days I witnessed 7,000 people come through the doors.

 

What struck me the most when people came up and talked to me was that some had no idea why they were there. Others came out of curiosity when they saw the many Tibetan flags flying outside. We had hung hundreds of prayer flags around the entrance to the Auditorium and it was quite beautiful. We tried to recreate the look of prayers flags going into a cave or retreat.

 

One of the most amazing things I was able to witness was that of a veteran who had Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (see 10 Soldier). The veteran’s wife, Rose, approached me the day before and asked if she could bring her husband explaining he cannot be around crowds.

 

As we talked I reassured her that we would do everything that we could to make his experience comfortable. I assured her that if he were to come that we would make it possible for him to receive a private blessing in the auditorium. I did not know what to expect as it sounded doubtful but he then came on Sunday the last day. I got one of the Tour Managers to meet him in the auditorium to give him a blessing.

 

The next thing I noticed was that he and his wife were in the main area just outside of where the relics were viewed. He was literally surrounded by hundreds and hundreds of people waiting to view the relics. He not only stayed for the rest of the afternoon but he also stayed to help us to pack up the relics and he helped to carry the Maitreya Buddha statue to the van.

 

There are so many stories to tell from both the 2012 and the 2014 exhibitions. All the volunteers coming together with their hearts open knowing that they needed to be there to help share the loving kindness and compassion with the 7,000 people who showed up in two and a half days in a traditionally Christian Community is a miracle in itself.

 

For the event, we decided to rename the tour as the “Loving Kindness Tour”. This helped get the message out as to what this event was. This was key because Des Moines is a traditionally Christian area with no familiarity with relics. People did know what loving kindness was and through that were introduced to the Maitreya Loving Kindness Tour, to love and compassion and perhaps a better understanding of what Buddhism is about.

 

Kevin Thoren, organizer of Des Moines events in Iowa, 2012 & 2014.

62. PLANTING SEEDS AROUND THE WORLD

For the third time, the Relic Tour visited the Austrian Museum of Folk Life and Folk Art in Vienna. As a peace project, the Maitreya Project has a strong global reference. For that reason we decided to invite every ambassador in Vienna and some showed up at the opening ceremony. We welcomed about 1,800 visitors at the event.

 

 

 

Furthermore we were very happy that we could offer 4,000 packages of organic biological seeds to visitors. These seeds were of different kinds of vegetables; spinach, herbs, beans, salad. The packets of seeds were then blessed by the Holy Relics of Buddha Shakyamuni.

 

For us this was a wonderful chance to thank Mother Earth for the generosity we receive here in all kinds of living aspects. Visitors really responded to this idea. Many took packets of the blessed seeds to plant later.

 

Visitors brought these blessed seeds back to Indonesia, Australia, Brazil, USA as well as to other European countries and many other countries and places. Meanwhile they grow on Viennese roofs just as in some gardens in Bali.

 

May the seed of peace prosper for all beings!

 

Even though we can hardly grasp the dimension of this exhibition, we are always strongly moved by the noticeable manifestations of all these Holy Masters. Their great and loving power can always be felt.

 

May as many beings as possible come into contact with the Maitreya Project and the Holy Relics! May all beings be happy!

 

Barbara Kochschitz and Martin Schaurhofer, FPMT Vienna, Austria, 2011