舍利在佛教發展傳播中占有重要地位，但釋迦時代舍利似乎并未成爲教團的重點關注對象，舍利崇拜是釋迦涅槃以後纔流行起來的。早期的崇拜者并不局限於在家信徒，一些出家僧人很早就加入了崇拜舍利的行列，同時也有一部分僧人反對舍利崇拜而更注重佛法戒律。佛經中出現了所謂持舍利比丘和説正法比丘，但這并不意味著教團由此分裂爲完全對立的兩部分。一部分博學多聞的法師也會供養舍利，這與法舍利的出現一樣，都是舍利與佛法相互融合的表現。 śarīra have played an important role in the development and spread of Buddhism.However,they were not paid much attention by Buddha himself śarīra worship became popular only after Buddha’s nirvana.The early worshippers included not only laymen but also some monks,while other monks looked down on śarīra and devoted themselves to Buddhist dharma,śarīra-carrying monks and dharma-teaching monks occurred in some sutras,but it didn’t mean Buddhists split into opponent factions,since we can also find some elite dharmabhanakas made offerings to śarīra.Similar to the rising of dharmakaya śarīra it reflected the mergence of śarīra and dharma.
