The Buddha's Tooth Problem

There's a shrine in Kandy, Sri Lanka, Sri Dalada Maligawa, the Temple of the Tooth, located in the royal palace complex. Its claim to fame is that it has been built around a sacred relic - a tooth of the Buddha.

On Wednesdays, this tooth is bathed in nanumura nangallaya, water steeped in herbs. The water, having been in contact with the tooth, is reputed to have healing powers.

There really doesn't seem much difference between this behaviour and that of some Western church that, say, anoints a sacred relic like a finger bone of some saint and prays to it at a shrine.

And I find that to be a problem, because I don't see the Buddha's tooth, or any saint's finger bone, as being particularly holy.

The holy things that saints and Buddhas did, they did while they were alive.

I have long sought the meaning of the Buddha's last words. From this site:-

"Behold, O monks, this is my last advice to you. All component things in the world are changeable. They are not lasting. Work hard to gain your own salvation. Do your best."

From this site:-

vayadhammā sankhārā
appamādena saṃpadethā

Conditioned things are perishable;
with vigilance, strive to succeed.

And I find myself reading these other words, again attributed to Buddha:-

Believe nothing on the faith of traditions,
even though they have been held in honor
for many generations and in diverse places.
Do not believe a thing because many people speak of it.
Do not believe on the faith of the sages of the past.
Do not believe what you yourself have imagined,
persuading yourself that a God inspires you.
Believe nothing on the sole authority of your masters and priests.
After examination, believe what you yourself have tested
and found to be reasonable, and conform your conduct thereto.

and:-

One of his students asked Buddha, "Are you the messiah?"
"No", answered Buddha.
"Then are you a healer?"
"No", Buddha replied.
"Then are you a teacher?" the student persisted.
"No, I am not a teacher."
"Then what are you?" asked the student, exasperated.
"I am awake", Buddha replied.

And finally, this:-

As the Buddha was dying,
Ananda asked
who would be their teacher after death.
He replied to his disciple -

"Be lamps unto yourselves.
Be refuges unto yourselves.
Take yourself no external refuge.
Hold fast to the truth as a lamp.
Hold fast to the truth as a refuge.
Look not for a refuge in anyone besides yourselves.
And those, Ananda, who either now or after I am dead,
Shall be a lamp unto themselves,
Shall betake themselves as no external refuge,
But holding fast to the truth as their lamp,
Holding fast to the truth as their refuge,
Shall not look for refuge to anyone else besides themselves,
It is they who shall reach to the very topmost height;
But they must be anxious to learn."

These words, you see, hold more truth for me than any holy herb-drenched bicuspid ever could. I could look at that tooth in its tiny monstrance, and wonder whether this really is a tooth of the Buddha, or whether it came from some third century monk who'd had one of his teeth put out of his face in a fight somewhere.

But I can see these words and hold them to be true - the words that tell me to look for my own answers, and to look for no answers from On High whose worth you cannot verify for yourself through diligence and striving to learn.

Finally, on a lighter note, the last words exhorting people to strive for excellence remind me of some words spoken during the last season of Doctor Who, by the character of Winston Churchill:- "KBO, of course. Keep Buggering On."