Does a fake Buddha tooth still have power?

[yontenjamyang]

Yes. A Buddha relic does not depends on the physical make up of the relic itself. Basically, everything is made up of energy. It makes no differences if it is the Buddha's tooth or an animal's tooth. It is made if the same thing.

However, if the devotees needs it to be 'real' then, to those devotees the power definitely will dwindle. It is because the actual power depends on our side, not on the tooth's ultimately.

I am afraid to say that in this day and age, if the tooth relic is proven to be not from the Buddha, then to many there is no power anymore because of their faith.

[lightning]

Have anyone wondered why displaying Buddha Relics and what are the benefits:
1) Buddha relics are from Pureland and they are here for sentient beings to enjoy, whereas 1st ground Bodhisattvas can enjoy seeing Enjoyment Body of Buddhas.
2)  Buddha relics inspire faith in Buddha Teachings and make them pursue Buddhism.
3) Seeing Buddha relics can accumulate massive merits, get rid of negative karma and most importantly plant positive karma imprint in sentient beings mind so as to propel them towards Enlightenment, making them easier to meet good Spiritual Guides in future and making them easier to meet Buddhas in future.
4) In Maha Paramita Sutra stated by seeing Buddha relics is equivalent to seeing Thatagatha and in this lifetime, they will not befall into Hell realm.
5) By approaching Buddha Relics, they have huge amount of positive blessing energy bestowed. You can hold them or place it on top of your head.
6) By making offering to the Buddha relics such as offering flowers, is equivalent to offering to Buddha Himself. The merit accumulated is much stronger than Buddha statue, as most of us do not know how to visualize the 3 body of Buddha when they are doing offerings.

An Actual Buddha relics can reproduced itself with smaller relics and if measured by energy detector have strong positive energy measured or captured under aura photograph, these relics have strong purple lights which consist of magical qualities. If a small amount can be remove for DNA test, the history of relics will be around the Buddha's time around 2500 yrs ago, no matter if the small relics are reproduced recently.
The Buddha tooth relics could have grown over ages and it may not be of the actual human size, hence the dentist maybe inaccurate in this sense.

To prove whether the relics are real by age, DNA lab test will find out when the relics belong to and energy test to confirm its authenticity and the relics curators to verify them.

[Klein]

"It's like Buddha saying that if you see your teacher as an ordinary being, you will receive the blessings of an ordinary being. But if you see your teacher as a Buddha, you will receive the blessings of a Buddha. I do believe that we create our own reality."


I've heard from dharma talks about the above. We create our own realities. Such is the power of our mind. It sounds cliche but I'm sure we all have experienced glimpses of this.

How we are in our life is our own creation. Regardless of external factors, at the end of the day it's how we perceive them and react to them. That's the sum of our reality.

Likewise, if the Buddha tooth is not genuine but we perceive it to be genuine, it still has power. Why? This is because our entire mindset and actions reflect this belief. Since there is karma to our actions, the result should resemble the cause.

[Manjushri]

I think a 'fake Buddha tooth' still does have power... Do not underestimate the power of faith, as faith alone can create a field of merit. If one believes that an object is holy, and offers water/offerings/incense etc. on a daily basis, by power of holding on to their believe, their vow, their determination and dedication, it creates all the blessings necessary that is needed to make the object holy already.

I really like the example that if you believe your guru is a Buddha, then you will attain the blessings of a Buddha. If you view your guru as an ordinary being, your actions alone will not push you to create the conditions necessary to generate a field of merit to gain the blessings. You have already limited your ability to do even more. It is all in the mind, I feel. Having the faith will push you beyond boundaries. When there is no faith, you have already in your mind failed yourself, because you will not strive to achieve the results.

[jeremyg]

Yes why not?

It is exactly the same case with Stupas, texts, and statues. They many not be the real thing, but we visualize and imagine them to be the enlightened mind, enlightened speech, and the enlightened body; this making them real. So why not? As long as the motivation is there, and your mind changes for the better, then why not?

[vajraD]

Yes. It is not about the tooth relic real or fake is it about once person faith in it. If one have strong faith in it. It will have is power and is effect. Similar to reciting a prayer. I was questions many times if they have recite mantra out of tune will it still have its effect. May reply is if you have faith in then it will have its effect but if you have doubt then there is no effect to it.

[ratanasutra]

I feel that it doesn't matter that the tooth is the real or fake as it have been believed its a tooth buddha relic so it depend on one faith.

By making offering we collect amount of merit with it depend on 3 parts below;
1) the receiver : the high lama, just normal monk or fake monk etc : the highest one is the buddha
2) the object of offering : where you get it from, its from virtuous work, clean, cheating or mistaken
3) motivation of people who make offering : pure, faith, want  something in return, want fame, been force etc

to apply to this case if the relic is real then the donor with faith will collect lot of merit as the 3 parts are pure, if the relic is fake then the donor with faith still collect merit as the receiver not real relic but because of the place also have sanghas who hold vows who represent it.

Hence for the donor side they still collect merit but for the dentist who claimed without proof and make people faith shaken, they collect lot of negative karma by doing that.

[hope rainbow]

A person that says: "this tooth is not the real tooth of the Buddha, therefore your worship does not have a basis", can only come to that thinking process and conclusion if he has imputed real power to the genuine tooth of the Buddha in a rather mystical, almost magical way.
So? was this said by a scientific person (a dentist)? Or by someone believing in magic?

A dead tooth does not have power, our thoughts, speech and actions have power.

Would a dead tooth affect our actions for the better, then that dead tooth has power.

[lightning]

A Buddha Relic is an actual manifestation Buddha body!

[fruven]

If our motivation is good our actions will bear good results therefore we develop faith or our faith becomes stronger. When we have faith we develop good motivation when we pray and thoughts of others therefore the tooth is not a fake anymore.

If we are having doubts because of what people had said perhaps we should question ourselves whether we have good motivation on the Buddha's relic in the beginning and whether we have faith in the Buddha and the blessings from his tooth.

[WisdomBeing]

Just to address the point that the Buddha’s tooth does not look like a human tooth, if we look at the description of the Buddha, he definitely did not sound like a typical human being. Finely webbed toes and fingers? Thousand-spoked wheel sign on feet? Hands reaching below the knees? With those kind of descriptions, I am not the least surprised if Buddha’s teeth did not conform to traditional dimensions!

From Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Physical_characteristics_of_the_Buddha), it says that the Buddha is traditionally regarded as having the Thirty-two Characteristics of a Great Man (Skt. mahapurusa laksa?a). These thirty-two characteristics are also regarded as being present in cakravartin kings as well.

The Digha Nikaya, in the "Discourse of the Marks" (Pali: Lakkha?a Sutta) (DN 30) enumerates and explains the 32 characteristics. These are also enumerated in the Brahmayu Sutta of the Majjhima Nikaya (MN 91).

The 32 major characteristics are:
1.   Level feet
2.   Thousand-spoked wheel sign on feet
3.   Long, slender fingers
4.   Pliant hands and feet
5.   Toes and fingers finely webbed
6.   Full-sized heels
7.   Arched insteps
8.   Thighs like a royal stag
9.   Hands reaching below the knees
10.   Well-retracted male organ
11.   Height and stretch of arms equal
12.   Every hair-root dark colored
13.   Body hair graceful and curly
14.   Golden-hued body
15.   Ten-foot aura around him
16.   Soft, smooth skin
17.   Soles, palms, shoulders, and crown of head well-rounded
18.   Area below armpits well-filled
19.   Lion-shaped body
20.   Body erect and upright
21.   Full, round shoulders
22.   Forty teeth
23.   Teeth white, even, and close
24.   Four canine teeth pure white
25.   Jaw like a lion
26.   Saliva that improves the taste of all food
27.   Tongue long and broad
28.   Voice deep and resonant
29.   Eyes deep blue
30.   Eyelashes like a royal bull
31.   White urn a curl that emits light between eyebrows
32.   Fleshy protuberance on the crown of the head

[buddhalovely]

In another Lianhe Zaobao commentary published on July 6, Chinese Buddhism studies researcher and lecturer Wan Bingyan cited religious and historical texts supporting the popular belief that only two of Buddha's teeth are left in this world.

They are now believed to be at the Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic in Kandy, Sri Lanka, and the Ling Guang Monastery in Beijing, China.

When a third surfaced in 1998 after a Tibetan monk smuggled it out and handed it to Taiwan's Venerable Master Hsing Yun of Fo Guang Shan Temple, it was fingered by Chinese officials as a fake.Buddha's relics are venerated by Buddhists worldwide and held up as national treasures in Sri Lanka and China.

China had allowed its Buddha tooth relic to go on tour to Thailand, Hong Kong and thrice to Myanmar at the government's invitation.

Two tooth relic pagodas were later built in Yangon and Mandalay, one housing an ivory replica tooth and the other, donated religious items.Mr Kyaw Swe Tint, counsellor at the Myanmar Embassy here, said that as far as he knows, there has been no evidence of genuine tooth relics in his country.

'This (the one believed to be housed here) could very well be a fake,' he said.

But Venerable Shi Fazhao said Venerable Cakkapala had given him the tooth; it was a private matter between two people and not between two countries. 'Don't politicise it,' he said.

Would he let an expert examine the tooth in Singapore? He replied: 'It's mine, why should I let you examine it? Why don't you go examine what's in Sri Lanka and China first?'

Venerable B. Dhammaratana, religious adviser of the Buddhist Research Society, explains that different Buddhist societies would subscribe to different versions of Buddha's legends.

'You can't say which is right or which is wrong.'

[fruven]

I like the story very much.

This is also about the power of truth. Buddha's gave many teachings, one of them is impermanent, the impermanence in things, events and so on. This is not only one truth Buddha has taught but there are many others.

Therefore if one has faith in Buddha then one also faith in the truth of his teachings and advice. Of course Buddha has also advice that we don't take what he said without checking and validation but we must not use it to detrimental of losing faith and become very one-sided black and white on his words.

[maricisun]

Totally agree with Wisdombeing.

All it takes is simple faith. If you believe it is real or genuine then it is real even though it may be fake.
Even if it is real but nobody believes in it then the power is not there. All it takes is to believe in it and have faith in it.

[Kim Hyun Jae]

Whether the tooth in the temple in Singapore is fake or not, this depends on the faithful and loyal practitioners who goes there. Did they make offerings in the temple with good motivation and sincerity? If they did and believed the tooth relic in Singapore was "real" to them, then it is real.

I am sure the Government of Singapore wouldn't endorse such a temple location near China Town to hold "fake" tooth in it. And if the government did, then they would be faking the whole spiritual practice of the temple and of Singapore's image too.