Rude Awakenings - Forest Sangha Publications

^0 S E C O N D M O O N 06relics to put in other stupas, and left the tenth portion and rebuilt thestupa. Nobody made much of all that until the remnants of the stupawere discovered in 1958. In the heart of the rubble was a small soapstonereliquary containing burnt bone. The ruin itself, which we visited afterthe museum, consisted of an ancient earth core that had been enlargedwith bricks on several occasions and showed signs of having beenopened about 250 years after its construction. But now even that reliquaryhad been taken away from Vaishali. According to the museum,the relics, along with anything of archaeological interest, were now inPatna Museum. All that remained here were a few lumps of stone delineatingwhere the stupa had stood. It had held the Enlightened One’sremains for two thousand years, and now it looked like the decayedmolar in the jaw of something long since dead. In the falling dusk, Iplaced some of the offerings I had brought from England into the emptyheart of the stupa, then circumambulated it with lit candles and incense.Tea with our host on his rest day was a pleasant relief for everybody.Nick and I talked to him about Buddhism in Britain, and we were excitedto hear that the relics from the Buddha’s cremation, although not onshow, could be seen if one obtained special permission from the directorof the museum in Patna. Strangely enough, he had never got roundto pursuing the possibility himself.The next morning it was back to the drum. We sat in for the last time,and as the night sky paled, left the throbbing temple and headed overthe long bare mound to the southeast. Nick was telling me all about it,but I wasn’t interested. All this dead stuff seemed beside the point.There was a story the Buddha told about a drum, a great drum thathad not been properly looked after; eventually the drumhead rotted andonly the pegs remained. The drum was unable to sound. This will happento the Dhamma, the Buddha had warned, if the Sangha does notkeep the teachings in the suttas well learned. These teachings and theVinaya were his bequest. Leaving Vaishali for the last time, the EnlightenedOne had turned and given it a long, fond look: his final blessing.1 6 6