What happens to your body when you die? If you’re a high lama, they wait at least three days for your consciousness to completely leave your body, and then they cremate you. If your practice and your mind have been very pure, precious relics will form in the fire. I had heard this many times, but I had never seen sacred relics–until this week.
Pearl-type relics formed from Lama Geshe's body after cremation.
When I went to visit Genchoedar, a lama at Kathmandu’s famous Kopan Monastery, about my upcoming trip to Tsum Valley, he took me to a locked room above a Tantric altar where Lama Geshe’s relics were kept under glass. Lama Geshe meditated for decades in Tsum Valley and was reincarnated there as well. Genchoedar tells me the 6-year-old boy who is Lama Geshe’s reincarnation is already mature and wise. He reports, “When older monks don’t conduct themselves properly, the young monk scolds them saying, “We are monks, you should not behave this way.” Old soul in a new body.
Back to the old body: when Lama Geshe was cremated, many relics came out: pearl-like formations from the bone, copper and silver type hair, a calcified tongue like a shell. Usually hair burns off completely and no “pearls” appear. I don’t know what typically happens to the tongue, but everyone assures me it doesn’t normally look like a shell. The glass cases held a long series of relics, all from Lama Geshe’s body. The pearls, in fact, continue to appear, taking about a year to form and coming out from pieces of bone. Yes, nearly 7 years after death, relics are still forming from Lama Geshe’s remains.
Pearl-type relic still coming up from the bone 7 years after his death.
I’m not going to tell you that I think these are holy emanations, but I’m also not going to tell you that centuries of Buddhist belief is wrong. One thing I’ve learned is that most Buddhist belief is rooted in observation. Who am I to contradict monks who have dedicated their life to strict practice and observation of the world and of themselves? As I mature, I find that they are often both accurate and insightful in their observations about human behaviour, thought, and life in general.
Religion may conflate superstitious rituals and functional practice, but it’s no conflict with science to hold that if you practice clean living (mind and body), your body will look different after death than others do. Why these various relics form, I can’t begin to explain (though I’m sure it follows the laws of nature and science). However, there’s no doubt that an unusual amount of them came from Lama Geshe, and this is taken as further proof of his spiritual attainment. In November we’ll be traveling to a place of deep spiritual power, where not only Lama Geshe pursued enlightenment but where many others study and meditate as well.