Why is it called Maitreya?

Maitreya, a transliteration of Sanskrit Maitreya, is a free translation of cishi, whose surname is Aydo. Maitreya, a disciple of the Buddha, lived in the Heavenly Palace in the Six Desires and lectured there. Because Sakyamuni Buddha recorded in advance that he would be born after the end of his life in heaven, he is also called the Buddha who can be reborn, that is, the bodhisattva who can replace him in the next life. Because it will become a Buddha in the future, it is also called Maitreya Buddha.

The name of Maitreya appeared in the early Agama. In Agama, Maitreya Buddha is the future Buddha born after Sakyamuni. When Maitreya Buddha was born, the ground was full of seven treasures, with many flowers, sweet fruit, rich land and kind people. She lived for 84,000 years and married at the age of 500. Maitreya's father's name is Xiu Mo Fan, a minister, and his mother's name is Fan Moyue, a princess, which shows that he is of noble birth. After Maitreya was born, he meditated under the Longhua tree and became a monk. He also set up three meetings to eliminate all sentient beings, including 960 million people at the beginning, 9.4 billion people at the second meeting and 9.2 billion people at the third meeting.

On the one hand, the image of Maitreya may have historical figures as prototypes, on the other hand, it also expresses people's dissatisfaction with the emptiness of the object of belief after the death of Sakyamuni Buddha and their expectations for a better future. Maitreya belief was introduced into China with Buddhism. The Mahayana Prajna Sutra translated from the Eastern Han Dynasty to the Jin Dynasty, such as Dao Xing Prajna Sutra, Guang Guang Prajna Sutra, Maha Prajna Sutra and Vimalakīrti Sutra, all contain Maitreya belief. Others, such as the Prajna Sutra asked by Maitreya Bodhisattva in the Western Jin Dynasty, the Prajna Sutra asked with heart, and the thoughts of Zhu Buddha in the former Qin Dynasty, were all translated by Zhu Fahu. The contents of the belief in Maitreya are concentrated in three parts, namely, the Sutra of Maitreya's Birth translated by Zhu Fahu, the Sutra of Maitreya's Becoming a Buddhist Sutra translated by Kumarajiva, and the Sutra of Watching Maitreya's Living Rate translated by Ju Qu Jingsheng, which are collectively called the "Three Sutras of Maitreya".

Maitreya belief mainly includes two kinds: belief in the previous life and belief in the next life. Viewing the living rate sutra of Maitreya Bodhisattva expresses the belief of living. Maitreya Bodhisattva was originally a disciple of Sakyamuni Buddha and was highly valued by the Buddha, but he did not live long and died before Sakyamuni's death. Before Maitreya died, the Buddha gave him a record, predicting that he would be born after his death and lead the heavenly palace. Buddhism divides the world into three realms: the realm of desire, the realm of color and the realm of achromatic. There are six days of desire, from bottom to top: four days, thirty-three days, flaming skyscrapers, occupying the sky, turning lotte into freedom. This is a paradise envied by the world, with gorgeous golden walls, blooming lotus flowers, Yue Xian playing and a fairy-like girl dancing around it. However, Maitreya Bodhisattva lives in the inner court of the Heavenly Palace, solemn and clean, and has no desire for pleasure, which is different from the outer court where the immortals live. It is also called Maitreya Pure Land. As long as the world practices meditation, accumulates virtue, or recites the name of Maitreya, it can go to the pure land of Maitreya after death. Entering the pure land of Maitreya can not only avoid reincarnation, but also often listen to Maitreya's lectures, and in the future, you can live with Maitreya and get rid of the Tao. The belief in the upper life is mainly the belief in Maitreya Bodhisattva, and it is also the goal that can be achieved in the near future (you can live after death), but this is only the intermediate link or transit point of liberation, not the final destination.

The belief in the next life can be found in Maitreya's Next Life Sutra and Maitreya's Buddhist Sutra. According to Buddhist scriptures, Maitreya lived for 4,000 years, which is 5.6 billion years in adult life. After his death, he became a Buddha on earth. After the birth of Maitreya, people not only live happily, but also have the opportunity to get rid of it, which is not attractive to people living in the dark world. Although the Buddhist scriptures clearly stipulate that Maitreya will not be born until 5.6 billion years later, people who are suffering are eager for Maitreya's early arrival, so the belief in afterlife quickly replaced the early popular belief in shangsheng and became the mainstream of Maitreya's belief.

Maitreya belief has experienced the process of secularization and nationalization in China. The original belief in Maitreya was basically copied from Indian Buddhism, especially the belief in Shang Sheng, which was basically based on Indian Buddhist classics, with little innovation. Its followers were mainly monks and great virtues with firm beliefs and high cultural level. Since Maitreya is still a bodhisattva at this time, the belief in Shang Sheng is the belief in Maitreya Bodhisattva and Maitreya Pure Land. In terms of statues, the original Maitreya Buddha was mostly dressed as a bodhisattva, wearing a crown and a garland, with a basic cross-legged posture and a strong Indian style. Later, the image of Maitreya appeared. Many giant buddhas in China are related to Maitreya Buddha, such as Xinchang Buddha in Zhejiang, Qixia Mountain Buddha in Nanjing, Xunxian Buddha in Henan, Leshan Buddha in Sichuan, Rongxian Buddha in Ningxumi Mountain and Yuanguang Temple Buddha. The early Maitreya statues were made in strict accordance with the requirements of Buddhist scriptures, such as thirty-two statues and eighty statues, which can be said to be a kind of "golden Maitreya Buddha", from which there are not many traces of China.

The Chinese nation is good at absorbing and digesting foreign cultures, especially in the acceptance and transformation of Buddhism, and Maitreya belief is no exception. With the gradual popularity of Maitreya's belief in the afterlife, the transformation of Maitreya's image is also quietly operating. Because people are eager for the early birth of Maitreya Buddha, this religious enthusiasm is often used by people. Many people instigated the uprising under the banner of "Maitreya Buddha was born", and the situation was more complicated. There were peasant uprisings, people with ulterior motives bewitched the masses, people who took the opportunity to rebel, and people who took the opportunity to collect money and cheat. From the Southern and Northern Dynasties to the Sui and Tang Dynasties, some insurgents often pretended to be Maitreya, appearing in the image of long hair in white, indicating that "long hair in white" became the new image of Maitreya recognized by the society at that time, which could be called "Maitreya in white".

Maitreya in white means the localization and secularization of Maitreya image. Although Maitreya in white cannot be said to have no classical basis at all, as a standard image of Maitreya, it has never appeared in India. White clothes not only contain the meaning of being white, but also represent the identity of believers in the family, that is, laity. Long hair can fully show this feature. The layman in white can also be regarded as the incarnation of Maitreya Buddha, which started in China in the Southern and Northern Dynasties.

Shi, with the word Fu Hong and the name Fu Ming, was a famous Buddhist in the Liang Dynasty. He calls himself "a good man and a wise man under the double forest tree", that is, the incarnation of Maitreya Buddha, who often performs strange tricks and changes his mind. Even Liang Wudi was puzzled by him, which had a great influence at that time. However, he used redemption as an excuse to let many disciples set themselves on fire on his behalf, which was neither a monk nor a vulgar, and it seemed neither fish nor fowl.

At present, it is not known whether the image of Maitreya Buddha with long white hair has been influenced by stones. However, whether they are mysterious stones or evil thieves disguised as insurrection, they are no longer solemn images of Maitreya in golden body, but laymen with feelings and desires, all of whom are China people in this world, which shows that the image of Maitreya has moved towards localization, secularization and folk.

Although Maitreya in white is a product of native Buddhism in China, its image is strange and its behavior is surly, which neither meets the requirements of orthodox Buddhism nor receives official support. It can only be circulated in secret among the people, and cannot represent the interests and demands of the broad masses of the people, so it has no impact for the time being, and after all, it cannot become a universally accepted image of Maitreya. After the Late Tang Dynasty and the Five Dynasties, Maitreya with a big belly, which was based on a monk traveler, became popular and became a popular Maitreya with a long history in China.

Qi, a native of Fenghua County, Mingzhou (now Fenghua, Ningbo), lived in the late Tang Dynasty and the Five Dynasties. He is a lower-class traveling monk, because he is often carried with a cloth bag, so he is also called a cloth bag monk. He has a distinctive appearance, a wrinkled nose, a big belly and a fat body. His behavior is also very strange. Wear high-toothed clogs when the weather is dry, and wet sandals when the weather is waterlogged, so that people can know the weather and lie everywhere. In winter, they lie in the snow and their bodies are completely motionless. He has no fixed place and often goes to the market to beg for food. No matter whether the meat is good or bad, he always eats it in his mouth and puts it in a cloth bag little by little. What's more strange is that the business in the place where he begs is particularly good. He usually doesn't talk much. In the second year of Liang (9 16), he disappeared under the east gallery of Lin Yue Temple in Fenghua. Before he died, he said, "Maitreya Buddha is really Maitreya Buddha, and it is a place of 100 billion at once." When it is always obvious, people don't know "four sentences, and people know that he is the embodiment of Maitreya Buddha.

As a traveling monk, this is very close to the people, so it is very popular with ordinary people. His image is affable, although not as solemn as Maitreya in golden body, but it adds a kind of affinity. Although he showed his magical powers, he only hinted at others, not for his own benefit. Until his death, he hinted that he was the incarnation of Maitreya, which was in sharp contrast to Shi's public declaration that he was the incarnation of Maitreya, which shocked the ruling and opposition parties and made him rich and famous. It is also completely different from those fake white-haired Maitreya Buddhas who confuse the masses and incite rebellion.

This is very important, not only because of its peculiar image, but also because of its ideological detachment. There are not many poems left by him, but they are all very distinctive. He has a poem: "A bowl of rice, walking alone in Wan Li. There are few witnesses and ask for directions. " This poem reflects the life of the monks who traveled there at that time, and this sentence by Mu Qing uses the allusion of Ji Kang's blue eyes to treat his confidants and laymen, which shows his unknown loneliness. He also wrote a song, emphasizing that only the heart is the most real thing, and it is "the most spiritual thing in the world of ten sides". Monks only need to be comfortable and idle, not different, not obsessed with Confucian classics, which is consistent with the style of Zen.

The big belly and cloth bags here have become a symbol of generosity and tolerance. He has one thing:

There are too many people in this world who hate and love each other, so I think carefully about what I can do.

If you are broad-minded, you must bear the burden of humiliation and be willing to follow him.

When you meet a bosom friend, you should score points, and when you meet an enemy, you should make up.

If you can do this, you will naturally get six polo.

He stressed the need to be generous and tolerant, not to care about the right and wrong in the world, to be "broad-minded" and "open-minded and happy". As long as we are magnanimous and broad-minded, we can live in peace with the enemy, and even become a Buddha and get six degrees.

Taking this as the prototype, later generations added the feature of smiling frequently, thus forming a typical image of Maitreya Buddha with short stature, paunchy belly and frowning nose and smiling face. The potbellied Maitreya Buddha is a combination of magic and simplicity, beauty and ugliness, solemnity and humor, compassion and metaphor, which represents the spirit of tolerance, kindness, wisdom, humor and happiness of the Chinese nation. It has not only become the image ambassador of Buddhism in China, but also the image representative of the Chinese nation.

The potbellied Maitreya Buddha has attracted more and more attention from the world. In June 2000, the Maitreya Cultural Festival was held in Fenghua, Zhejiang, the hometown of Maitreya, and an academic seminar on Maitreya culture was held in the ruined Lin Yue Temple. Experts and eminent monks at the meeting called for the Maitreya Dojo, Lin Yueshan, to be regarded as the fifth famous Buddhist mountain in China, to promote the culture and spirit of Maitreya, to push it to the world and to contribute to world peace and development.