The Seba library treats Relics in 8 passages, across 8 authors (including Jung, Carl Gustav, Rohde, Erwin, Hakuin Ekaku).
The stupas are tombs or containers of relics, hemispherical in shape, like two gigantic rice bowls placed one on top of the other (concavity upon concavity), according to the prescripts of the Buddha himself
Jung defines stupas architecturally as relic-containers and records a powerful emotional response to them, implicitly linking the veneration of sacred remains to unconscious processes of psychic circumambulation and individuation.
, Memories, Dreams, Reflections, 1963thesis
the transference of the bones of Orestes from Tegea to Sparta … the removal of the bones of Hektor from Ilion to Thebes … of Arkas from Mainalos to Mantinea
Rohde catalogues the systematic Greek practice of translating heroic bones between city-states, demonstrating that relics functioned as politically and religiously potent objects capable of conferring power and protection on their new possessors.
, Psyche: The Cult of Souls and the Belief in Immortality among the Greeks, 1894thesis
a great many relics were found among the ashes. . . . They resembled precious blue gems—the true fruits of the master’s life of medit
Hakuin’s hagiography presents post-cremation relics as gemlike crystallisations of meditative attainment, interpreting physical remains as material evidence of spiritual realisation.
, Wild Ivy: The Spiritual Autobiography of Zen Master Hakuin, 1999thesis
Dōgen brought Myōzen’s relics back to Japan and buried them at Kennin-ji. In the Record of the Transmission of the Relics, Dōgen briefly describes Myōzen’s life.
Dōgen’s act of transporting and interring his teacher’s relics, and composing a formal record of their transmission, situates relics within Zen lineage practice as a physical seal of Dharma succession.
, Shōbōgenzō Zuimonki, 1234thesis
The bleeding stigmata and the bleeding heart and the relics associated with the blood stir the most profound emotions of Christianity.
Hillman reads Christian blood-relics as archetypal expressions of the puer’s essential woundedness, interpreting their numinous emotional charge as evidence of an underlying psychological structure rather than merely religious sentiment.
, Senex & Puer, 2015thesis
relics of, 200
Zimmer’s index entry situates the Buddha’s relics within a broader symbolic survey of Indian art, confirming their canonical status as objects of theological and iconographic significance.
, Myths and Symbols in Indian Art and Civilization, 1946supporting
The ceremony may be a relic of the ritual blood sacrifice believed in antiquity to release the souls of the dead for a limited period.
Alexiou uses ‘relic’ in the sense of a surviving ritual vestige, framing contemporary Greek funerary practices as archaic remnants of sacrificial logic intended to liberate the souls of the dead.
, The Ritual Lament in Greek Tradition, 1974supporting
In churches, temples, and shrines the world over, religious statues are still being carved, painted, and prayed to.
Jaynes notes the enduring presence of sacred material objects in religious life as part of his broader argument about idolatry and the vestiges of bicameral consciousness, providing adjacent context for understanding the psychological function of venerated objects including relics.
, The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind, 1976aside