The well-known bodhisattva: the story of Maitreya Buddha

He is generous and broad-minded, and can live in peace with his enemies, and even become a Buddha from this, and can get six degrees. That's how the image of Maitreya came about, plus a typical Maitreya, with a big smile, a short figure, a big belly, a wrinkled nose and a smile. This issue of Buddhist Culture will introduce the story of Maitreya Buddha to you.

Maitreya, the name of the Bodhisattva, translated into cishi in Sanskrit, lives in the inner court of Doulu Tiannei, and is a Bodhisattva who has achieved positive results. In the future, when his life span is reduced to 80,000 years, he will be born in this world and become the fifth Buddha robbed by the sages after Sakyamuni Buddha.

According to Buddhist scriptures, Maitreya Buddha is a future Buddha born after Sakyamuni, which symbolizes the brightness and happiness of the future world. When Maitreya was born, the land was flat, the seven treasures were full, the flowers were many, the fruit was sweet, the land was rich, people were kind, and people could live long. Maitreya was born in a noble family. After birth, I meditated under the Longhua tree and became a monk.

In Buddhism, Maitreya Buddha came from India, and after it was introduced to China, it evolved into a "cloth bag monk" in Fenghua at the end of the Tang Dynasty.

The legend of Maitreya Buddha

It is said that one morning in the late Tang Dynasty, the water in the river in front of Changting Village in Fenghua was loud and rough. The rolling river is like a dragon with its teeth bared, roaring and rushing into the distance, unstoppable.

Villager Zhang Zhongtian is working in the field. He has lived by the river for half his life and is used to watching the flood peaks and turbid waves in spring flood season. However, to his surprise, there seems to be a wisp of Yue Xian floating from the depths of the vast universe, echoing among the waves ... What surprises Zhang Tianzhong even more is that a lotus flower that he has never seen before is floating in the deep and muddy river! Huge and golden, it seems to emit wonderful light and faint fragrance, not downstream, but slowly upstream. ...

Zhang Zhongtian didn't believe his eyes, closed them hard and then opened them again. Although the trollius chinensis disappeared, he saw a bundle of firewood where the trollius chinensis disappeared, and a naked boy was lying on the firewood! In the face of disaster, the little boy didn't know it, but he slept like he was lying comfortably in the cradle, intoxicated with sweet dreams. Zhang didn't think much. He quickly pulled the bundle of firewood to the front with a long-handled hoe and picked up the little boy. Incredibly, as soon as he picked up the child, the bundle of firewood was scattered and disappeared, and the child in his arms seemed to have known this would happen. When I brought him home, I discussed it with my wife Dou Shi and thought that the child would be blessed if he survived, so I decided to adopt him. Later, he was named "Qi Zhe" by the idle Zen master of Lin Yue Temple in Changting Village across the stream.

Xiaoqi is not only rich, but also a lucky star. He is naive and lively, playful and active, which brings endless joy to the Zhang couple. What's even more amazing is that since the adoption of Qi, Dou, who has not been pregnant for many years, has a woman and a man happily. Of course, this is also the result of Zhang and Dou's good deeds.

Since childhood, Qi often went to the temple to worship Buddha with his parents, and he was also very close to the Buddha statues in the temple. A little longer, he and his village friends often go to the temple to play. This story seems to have a strong attraction to the tall buildings, magnificent Buddhist temples and towering Buddha statues of Lin Yue Temple, and at the same time, it was imperceptibly worshipped by his parents, making him a Buddhist monk.

After he became a monk in Lin Yue Temple, perhaps it was a profound realization after his soul was tortured, or a great sleep beyond the world of mortals, and there were often some actions that made the world feel interesting. The most striking thing is that he carries a big cloth bag everywhere he goes. Someone asked him his law number, and he replied in verse: "I have a cloth bag, and vanity does not hinder me;" All over the country, I feel comfortable when I enter the time. " Since then, in the name of sticks and cloth bags, they have been called "cloth bag monks".

His cloth bag is really curious. All its utensils, whether it's water bottles and bowls, wooden fish beads, rags and sandals, are stored in the bag. It seems that everything can never be used up. Cloth-bag monks usually pick up the rubbish discarded by people and put it in bags. Some people laugh at their cloth bags as garbage bags and say with a smile, "Sometimes, when you are ready, what is useless becomes useful."

He has a distinctive appearance, a wrinkled nose, a big belly and a short body. His behavior is also very strange. When the weather is dry, he wears high-toothed clogs, and when the weather is waterlogged, he wears wet sandals, so that people can know the weather. And he lay everywhere, lying in the snow in winter, and his body didn't move at all. 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 laughs at everyone. His words are impermanent, but they are effective. In a few years, people will know him. He often bares his chest and abdomen, likes to laugh and curse, and will tease children to chase after him. At the same time, he also distributed the dessert dried fruit in the bag to the children around him. He was talented since childhood, became a monk and became close to the people. He also had rich life experience and a large vocabulary, so he often expressed complex thoughts and profound philosophies in his poems.

In the third year of Zhenming (9 17), he sat on a rock in Lin Yue Temple and read a poem in his mouth: Maitreya is really Maitreya. Give him hundreds of billions. Show it to the world all the time, but the world knows nothing. Say that finish, he left with a smile. After this death, it caused a sensation in Buddhism, and people suddenly realized that he was the incarnation of Maitreya, but "unknown to the world." As a result, when many monasteries are shaping Maitreya, they all shape Maitreya in his image. "A big belly can accommodate things that are difficult to accommodate in the world; Laugh often and laugh at the ridiculous people in the world. " This couplet is a true portrayal of him.

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 wrote a song, which emphasized 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 who love this world. 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.

Later generations took this as the prototype, coupled with the characteristics of frequent smiles, thus forming a typical image of Maitreya, with a short stature, a big belly and a wrinkled nose and a smile; There are also bald monks with ears and shoulders, all smiles and bright smiles. Dressed in cassock, shirtless and bare-bellied, with a big pocket in one hand and a string of beads in the other, they looked at the pregnant Maitreya Buddha statue happily.

People are often infected by his generous smile and forget their troubles. The potbellied statue of Maitreya Buddha makes people feel very happy at first sight and is deeply loved by the world. Later, this arrangement of "Maitreya Buddha with a big belly" became the custom of temples.