not convinced that the bone remains of an Arahant, who passes
away shortly after his attainment, do become relics, since his body
elements were not subject to the same lengthy cleansing process
mentioned above.
An Arahant classified as dandhãbhiññãis one who attains
enlightenment slowly and gradually. He may well reach the
Anãgãmï level, and then be stuck there for a long time before he
finally reaches the level of Arahant. He must spend a lot of time
investigating back and forth between arahattamagga and arahat-
taphala before the citta develops sufficient strength and skill to
pass beyond. This process of investigating arahattamagga for the
sake of attaining arahattaphala is in fact an effective means of
cleansing the body elements. Having finally attained the level
of Arahant, his bones may well become relics after he passes
away. On the other hand, I am not at all sure that the bones of
an Arahant, who attains enlightenment quickly – that is, khippã-
bhiññã – and then passes away shortly afterward, will necessarily
become relics, since his purified citta would have very little time
to cleanse his body elements. As for the ordinary citta of the aver-
age person, producing a transformation from bone to relic is well
beyond its capability.
NOT ONLY WERE Ãcariya Mun’s bone remains clearly transformed
into relics, but some of these relics then underwent some amazing
changes of their own. As I have already mentioned, someone who
had two relics made a solemn wish that they become three and
was rewarded with an extra one. Someone with two wished for a
third and ended up with only one instead. Although it seems vir-