VILNIUS - Vilnius residents seeking spiritual enlightenment, or at least a unique cultural experience, can head to the Association of Lithuanian Architects building during the Nov. 16 - 18 weekend where a fascinating collection of over 1,000 sacred Buddhist relics will be on display.
This is the Maitreya Project Relic Tour, which has been traveling the world since 2001 bringing the relics of the Buddha and other Buddhist masters to the U.S., Canada, Taiwan, Singapore and countries around Europe.
"I think that it is difficult to overestimate the spiritual and historical significance of this event. The arrival of such a great number of extremely important relics in Lithuania or any other country is a very rare phenomenon," Nijole Valaityte Volmer, head of the UDUMBARA Center of Integral Spiritual Development, the tour's local host, said in a statement.
Here "relic" has a different meaning than that used in Western religions. It's not a bone fragment or object belonging to a dead saint. According to the tour's literature, when the bodies of spiritual masters are cremated, beautiful, pearl-like crystals called "ringsel" are found among their ashes.
"These ringsel are special because they hold the essence of the qualities of the spiritual master. His inner purity appears in the form of relics. ...The relics are physical evidence that the teacher attained qualities of compassion and wisdom before death," says the project's literature.
The Buddhist belief holds that the masters deliberately chose to leave these relics behind to give the living a cause for happiness.
The relics on display include those of the historical Shakyamuni Buddha, born in 563 B.C., and the Kasyapa Buddha who preceded him. A complete catalog of the collection is in a souvenir brochure, available by donation.
Visitors should know that while the traditional way to pay respect to the relics is to walk around them in a circle, prostrate and make offerings, there are no set guidelines or formalities, and everyone from every religious background is welcome. Organizers only ask that visitors be respectful.
They also say that people who come to view the relics are often moved to pray for world peace, and that Buddhists and non-Buddhists alike report feeling "inspired, healed and at peace" simply by being in the presence of the relics.
Whether or not that happens, the tour offers a one-of-a-kind chance to glimpse a culture that's as far removed from Baltic tradition as one can get. And it's a chance that won't be around much longer 's the ultimate goal of the project is to have the relics permanently en-shrined in the heart of a Maitreya Buddha statue to be completed in Kushinagar, northern India, in 2010.
The tour starts with a 5 p.m. opening ceremony on Nov. 16, and can be viewed throughout the day Saturday and Sunday.
Maitreya Project Relic Tour
Association of Lithuanian Architects
Kalvariju 1
Nov. 16, 5 p.m. opening ceremony
Nov. 17 's 18, 10 a.m. - 7 p.m.
Entrance free
