MAITREYA BUDDHA
As the people got to know him bet er 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 fol ow,
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 CHI KUNG 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 sit ing 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 fol owers of the Tien Tao Movement,
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