Page 136 - Popular Deities of Chinese Buddhism (Illustrated) and Symbols

that he was ever seeking to help deliver beings into his Pure

Land.

As the people got to know him better they soon discovered that

he was also extremely good at reading their fortune and pre-

dicting the weather. Even by his daily actions they were able to

guess the outcome of the weather conditions for whenever he

was seen hurrying around in wet sandals, rain was sure to follow,

and whenever he was seen wearing shoes and relaxing here and

there, bright and sunny days would prevail. He also had many

other peculiarities some of which bore similarities with those of

another famous monk C K of the Sung Dynasty. Pu Tai

was often seen to be sleeping very comfortably on the snow dur-

ing the cold winters and at the same time resisted taking a bath

during the hot summers. He died in a sitting posture at the cor-

ridor of a temple and left behind a verse which said:

“Maitreya is a real Maitreya, who manifests

uncountable transformed bodies.

Constantly he manifests before living beings

who are not able to recognise them.”

rough this verse, people later began to accept him as an incar-

nation of the Maitreya Buddha which also explains the accepted

appearance of the current day’s depiction of him.

In his many other recorded incarnations in China, he frequently

appeared as great and learned persons whose lives have been re-

corded in many books. e followers of the Tien Tao Movement,

