Dear Discutants,
another locus classicus, re relics and their power to help visualization:
Mahavamsa, XVII, 1-3, relics as :
1. Vutthavasso pavāretvā kattikapuṇṇamāsiyaṃ
Avove'daṃ mahārājaṃ mahāthero mahāmati:
2. "Ciradiṭṭho hi sambuddho satthā no manujādhipa,
Anāthavāsaṃ avasimha, natthi no pūjiyaṃ idha."
3. "Bhāsittha nanu bhante me sambuddho nibbuto" iti.
Āha "dhātusu diṭṭhesu diṭṭho hoti jino" iti.
Wilhelm Geiger's translation:
WHEN the great thera of lofty wisdom, after spending the rain-season (thus),
had held the pavarana-ceremony, on the full-moon day of the month Kattika, he spoke thus to the king:
'Long is the time, O lord of men, since we have seen the Sambuddha.
We lived a life without a master. There is nothing here for us to worship.' And to the question:
'Yet hast thou not told me, sir, that the Sambuddha is passed into nibbana?'
he answered: 'If we behold the relics we behold the Conqueror.'
And - Bodhi-tree (bodhidruma, bodhivṛkṣa) as a visualization support?
Best,
Artur Karp
Senior Lecturer in Sanskrit and Pali (ret.)
South Asian Studies Dept.
University of Warsaw
Poland