Please tell the story of Maitreya on earth.

Maitreya Buddha is a widely believed and popular Buddha in China. "Maitreya" is the transliteration abbreviation of Sanskrit Maitreya, which means "cishi". It is said that this Buddha is always merciful. Kui Ji explained in the Amitabha Sutra: "Or Maitreya, this is cishi. He cultivates compassion and kindness, so cishi who cultivates kindness is the best, and his name can't win. " His name is Ayudo, which means "invincible". According to Buddhist scriptures, Maitreya was born in a Brahmin family in Borneo, ancient India, and was contemporary with Sakyamuni. Later he became a monk with Sakyamuni and became a disciple of the Buddha. He died before Sakyamuni became extinct. It is said that Sakyamuni predicted that after he left this world, he would lead his upper class to live in the Heavenly Palace, where he would tell Buddhism to the sky. It was not until 5.66 billion years after the extinction of Sakyamuni that he led his inferior life to the world. According to the Buddhist scriptures produced under Maitreya, by that time, Jambu-Di^pa, the world of women (that is, the world of all beings we live in), had a winged city and a famous king. Maitreya Buddha was born in the home of a minister named Xiufanmo in this city, and became a monk, saying that his experience was just like that of Sakyamuni Buddha. After Maitreya becomes a Buddha, it will be told three times under the Longhua tree in Hualin Garden, covering all sentient beings.

Maitreya belief is also very popular in China. In the Western Qin Dynasty, Maitreya Buddha was painted, such as the Bingling Temple Grottoes in Gansu. Maitreya statues before the Five Dynasties and the Song Dynasty are mainly divided into two categories: bodhisattva shape and Tathagata shape, which are created according to Maitreya's upper sutra and Maitreya's lower sutra respectively. Maitreya Buddha Bodhisattva mainly shows the Maitreya Buddha statue when the heavenly palace is called the heavens. At this time, Maitreya is like a bodhisattva, sitting cross-legged, or with his left foot hanging down and his right hand holding his chin, which means that Maitreya is waiting to be born in the Heavenly Palace, while the Buddha-shaped Maitreya is the image of the Buddha after its birth, which is not much different from siddhattha gotama. Since the Northern Wei Dynasty, the belief in Maitreya's next life gradually became popular in China, and at the same time, Maitreya statues in Buddhist costumes began to appear.

As the future Buddha, Maitreya holds a very lofty position in the hearts of believers, so there are still some giant statues of Maitreya. The largest wood-carved Maitreya Buddha statue is in Wanfuge (also known as the Giant Buddha Pagoda) in Yonghe Palace, Beijing. The Buddha statue is18m high, with a buried part of 8m and a total length of 26m. It is carved from a complete piece of white sandalwood. The largest stone statue of Maitreya is Lingyun Buddha in Sichuan, which stands on Lingyun Mountain on the east bank of Minjiang River in Leshan City, Sichuan Province. Built on a cliff, the Giant Buddha is called "Leshan Giant Buddha" in the world. With a height of 7 1 m and a shoulder width of 28 meters, the statue is solemn, well-proportioned and magnificent, sitting on the river, and it is also the first stone statue sitting on a Buddha in the world. Tibet secretly worships Maitreya, and the largest bronze Maitreya is the Qiangba Buddha in Tashilhunpo Temple in Tibet.

About five generations later, smiling Maitreya statues began to appear in temples in Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces. In fact, it is based on the image of a monk named Chechi. According to the Biography of Song Monks and other records, people from Mingzhou (now Ningbo, Zhejiang Province) in the Qi and Five Dynasties were also called Changting Zi. He often walks in and out of villages and towns, wandering around Jiangsu and Zhejiang with a cloth bag hanging on his staff. He is short and fat, with a big belly and uncertain speech, sitting and lying around. Can predict sunny and rainy days, "it will rain in the sky, that is, wearing wet cloth shoes;" Drought means dragging clogs. Residents use this as a test. Talking about good luck or bad luck with people is very fulfilling. Because he always carries a cloth bag, he is called a "cloth bag monk". He often pours all the things in his bag on the ground and shouts to the onlookers, "Look! Look! " He once wrote a song: "Only by being a Buddha with one heart, the ten sides are the most spiritual things in the world. It's not as real as the heart ... What's the difference between the heart and the brain? Why bother to seek justice? " (Biography of Song Monks, Volume 21) In the second year of Liang Zhenming (9 16), this deed sat on a rock under Lin Yue Temple in Mingzhou. Before he died, he left a poem: "Maitreya Buddha is really Maitreya Buddha. There are thousands of people in the two places, and they always show people for a while, and people don't know. "So later generations thought that he was the reincarnation of Maitreya Buddha and built a tower for him to support. In the third year of Song Chongning (1 104), Tan Zhen, the abbot of Lin Yue Temple, built a pavilion for it. Since then, a statue of Maitreya, with a bare stomach and a smiling face, has gradually become popular in Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces according to the image of a "cloth-bag monk". He was placed in the Tianwang Temple, which made people feel happy as soon as they entered the gate and was deeply loved by the world. Later, this arrangement of "Maitreya Buddha with a big belly" became the custom of temples.

Among all kinds of Buddhist statues carved on Feilai Peak in front of Lingyin Temple in Hangzhou during the Five Dynasties, Song and Yuan Dynasties, there is such a statue of Maitreya. The statue of Maitreya sits on the cliff, with his bald head hanging down his shoulders and his face full of smiles and smiles. Dressed in cassock, bare-chested, with a big pocket in one hand and a string of beads in the other, I looked at the people who came to play and make pilgrimages happily. When people see this image, they are often infected by his frank smile and forget their troubles. Many temples have such a couplet in the Maitreya Hall: "A big belly can accommodate things that are difficult in the world; Open your mouth and laugh at the ridiculous people in the world. "

See: c. gov. cn/datalib/2003/ religious knowledge/dl/dl-200312191665438/