Body, the original meaning is the flesh and blood of parents. The so-called "flesh body" in Buddhism refers to "a person who is born with bodhisattva realm, great wisdom and great compassion." The body is a "whole-body relic", and Xuan Ying's Sound and Meaning was published for six years: "The relic is different from the whole body and the broken body." The whole body relic is a monk or a great sage. After his knowledge was silent, his body did not decay and fester after a long time and space changes, and always remained original and lifelike. Broken relics refer to the remains after burning. Guangjin Mingjing: "Those are cultural relics, all of which were fumigated and repaired by Jiedinghui. It is hard to get, and it is the best in Futian. " Only monks and nuns who practice to a very advanced level can form flesh.
For a long time, the phenomenon that Buddhists become flesh relics after death has been talked about. It is believed that this phenomenon is mainly caused by people's spiritual cultivation.
In fact, there are many rumors about this problem, and few people actually report scientific research. But we can also see clues from the only remaining scales. For example, it is recorded that some monks drink herbs every day before they become physical relics, in order to empty some impurities or bacteria in their bodies, block their seven orifices and anus after death, and so on. There seems to be a whole process, mainly through some technical means to achieve the purpose of not rotting after death.
A monk who is determined to become a Buddhist relic has to complete three steps. The first stage is about three years, and the main content of this stage is active hunger. As we know, monks are vegetarians. However, monks who are determined to become physical relics can't even eat whole grains. In this first stage, they can only eat pine needles and nuts and seeds that grow naturally in the forest. Maybe pine nuts are still delicious, but eating them all in more than three years is also a daunting thing. At this stage, ascetics must also exercise every day. Both of them have the same purpose, which is to consume a lot of fat in the body and minimize muscle.
The second stage also lasted for more than three years. At this stage, even pine nuts and needles can't be eaten, only pine bark and pine roots can be eaten. I wonder who can stand it. At this stage, the ascetic replaced exercise with long-term meditation. The purpose is to minimize the body's metabolism and reduce energy consumption, so as to adapt to foods with almost no nutrition such as pine bark and roots. This kind of penance has made almost everyone thin. In fact, this is a kind of chronic suicide, which is different from hunger strike. Fasting can lead to sudden death, but long-term hunger penance gradually increases the degree of hunger, creating a prerequisite for becoming a flesh relic in the future. Minimizing muscle and fat is equivalent to reducing the possibility of corpse decay after death.
The third stage is more complicated. The ascetic monks are dying, but they have some special experiences before they die. For example, they want to drink tea made of sumac juice. This kind of thing is almost like poison. It can cause sweating, vomiting and urination. For some people, it can cause serious allergic reactions. This result caused a great loss of water in the body of the ascetic monk. Moreover, some components of sumac tea remain in the body, which can also prevent maggots, ants and other creatures from swallowing after death.
Determined to become an ascetic monk with relics, he finally really set foot on the road to death. They entered a small catacombs, only enough for one person to meditate cross-legged. At first, a tube was left in the tomb to communicate with the outside world, so that the monks inside could breathe and not die immediately. The monk will have a bell in his hand, and tell the people outside whether he is still alive with the sound of the bell. After a few days or more, the bell is gone, confirming that the monk is dead. People outside removed the pipe and completely closed the grave. It will be closed for about three years. The three stages add up to ten years, and then the grave is dug. It is true that some monks have become relics of the body in this way, while more people have rotted. Even if you practice for ten years, any link will fall short.
In today's view, this process of becoming a corpse relic is completely a skilled chronic suicide, and its final stage is voluntary burial alive. With the establishment of modern legal system in Japan, assisting others to commit suicide is also defined as a crime. Therefore, the penance method of becoming a physical relic is no longer allowed by law.
Those monks who became physical relics began a series of complicated preparations for death when they were alive, and their purpose of living seemed to be death. The purpose of death is to become a mummy. The processing of Egyptian mummies after their death was applied to them when they were alive. People's worship of these material relics has nothing to do with whether they have attained the Tao or not. However, these people do have super perseverance that ordinary people don't have.
Because this series of strange dharma relic cultivation methods created by master Kong Hai have obvious local characteristics in Japan, I don't know how many of them are from Chinese studies. Although I have seen some places with physical relics in China, I haven't seen the research report on the formation mechanism of such physical relics. Therefore, I can't judge the similarities and differences between Japanese Shinrikyo's practice method and China's material relic. However, a person lives to die, which is an unacceptable concept in China.
Some techniques may be lost during this period, but it is believed that the so-called physical relic has nothing to do with Buddhist practice, but another form of mummy leads to the same purpose. As long as you can endure years of exercise and eat and live in such a cruel way, no one can rot after death.