Spiritual traditions have long been the source of misunderstandings about Enlightenment. The personality the tradition is based on may have been awake but far too often his/her teaching has been distorted by those trying to gain some spiritual authority and personal power.
Case in point: Not long ago two friends came to visit me and we had dinner. While chatting over our meal, this one fellow said he was going to a retreat at a Tibetan Buddhist monastery not too far from here. He said this lineage of Buddhist's built Stupas, sort of shrines to wisdom, etc. I have heard of this and was sent a letter asking me to donate to the building of one, which I declined to do. My new friend pointed out that it is best if these stupas contain some hair, fingernails, or a tooth of an Enlightened person; it is supposed to give it more power.
This is all well and good if you live in Disneyland, but if you are at all perceptive and have even a little understanding of what it means to be Enlightened, then it is seen as pure nonsense. I seriously doubt if the Buddha supported such ideas. If he did, then he was not really awake.
It has often been said that there is no difference between the awakened and those still dreaming. Even the Buddha said, as best as I can remember, "From pure, unexcelled Enlightenment, I gained nothing except a subtle sense of joy and a certain tacit understanding." This statement alone convinces me that he was indeed awake. How you take the leap from this to the power of a symbol, in this case a stupa, is difficult to see. It is Moon Buddha’s who dream up this sort of distortion. No real Buddha would promote such ideas.
Beliefs such as this, and a million others, is one of the reasons one needs to leave religion behind if you really want to understand what is real.
An awakened toenail or tooth is just a toenail and tooth. They carry no special power, it won't save the world from madness, and it won't free anyone. The belief in such things will only keep you bound to the ego dream.
However, if you insist on collecting such nonsense, I have some extra toenails, fingernails and locks of hair I'll happily sell you. I could use some extra income and my hair and nails grow fast. It would make a great gift for the person who has everything.
