Rude Awakenings - Forest Sangha Publications

^0 T R E A S U R E 06“Of course.” So the assistant curator took us out into the room nextdoor, brought us paper from his room, and we sat down to compose aformal letter of request, which Ajahn Sucitto was concerned to get justright. It had to explain who we were and what we were doing and to bewritten in the humble rhetoric of Victorian English that he felt the curatorwould like. It took a while but eventually it was done, written outneatly with lots of flowery phrases. We were taken back in, and the curatorreceived our crafted letter without even glancing at it. He just put itaside on his desk and announced. “Now we can go to see the ashes. Youare most fortunate. To see the ashes you must have two sets of keys, andfor that you must have both myself and this man here.” He indicated auniformed employee who must have been called to the room in ourabsence.Our party then set sail behind the figurehead of the curator, whopassed majestically through his museum. We went through the outerroom and past the assistant’s room, then past the stairs and variousarchaeological exhibits in glass cases, until we came to a distant storeroom.The uniformed assistant stepped forward to unlock the door, andwe all entered. Inside was a dusty room full of cupboards and widechests with long drawers. There was only one window, high up on thefar wall, and from it a shaft of light slanted down into the room. Thecurator got his keys out, unlocked one of the cupboards, and lifted outan old flat wooden box the size and shape of a thick pencil box, whichhe unlocked with a small key. Inside the box, nestling in deep blue velvet,was a simple but delicate off-white soapstone casket, and beside thatan ordinary screw top glass phial like those used in hospitals. The phialwas half filled with grey ashes. The remains of the Buddha! He took itand the casket out and placed them on his hand for us to look at moreclosely. I asked him to raise his hand so that they were illuminated by theshaft of dusty sunlight and then I took a photo. My heart was singingwith delight and awe.1 8 7