I heard a thought-provoking little story today. It came from a
Buddhist source but could have just as easily been told from a
Christian, Jewish, Islamic or other religious perspective. It went like
this:
Once upon a time, a Chinese monk was preparing to make a
pilgrimage to India, to see the places where the Buddha was born, had
lived, and had died. A very devout elderly woman in the village heard
about the monk's impending journey and implored him to bring back a
relic from his pilgrimage. Even the
most trivial relic of the Buddha would suffice, the woman said, and she
would build a shrine around it where she and her friends could worship and pray.
The monk didn't give
much credence to the veneration of relics but because of the woman's
devout sincerity he told her he would see what he could do.
On
his long journey he completely forgot about the woman's request. In
fact, he didn't remember it until he was returning and was just a few
miles from home. Thereupon he noticed the carcass of a dog laying by
the side of the road. He bent over and pulled out one of the dead dog's
teeth and wrapped it in a piece of fine silk. When he got to the
village he presented the tooth to the old woman, telling her it was a
relic--a tooth from the Buddha.
The woman had a shrine built
around the tooth, where she and her friends and many others prayed and
worshiped daily with humility, gratitude and devotion. Gradually, the
enshrined tooth began to glow with an aura of holiness.
