Today we went to 百歲宮. Here houses 無瑕和尚's undecayed body. The story of Master Wu Xia is another amazing one. He came to Jiu Hua at the age of 26 and cultivated in a cave for 100 years exactly before entering stillness at the age of 126 in the full lotus position in 1623. Many years later, a temple was built over his cave unknowingly and the monks realized a strange light issuing from the temple that seems to react to the light of 金地藏菩薩's body in the neighbouring peak. Suspecting that there might also be a 肉身僧 around the vicinity, they dug around the temple grounds and finally found his body undecayed after many years.
There was a big fire one day at Mt Jiu Hua that threatened to burn to temple down. The disciples tried to move the master's body but they could not lift it. Then they thought that it must be the master's intention to let his body disappear with the fire, so all ten of them sat around his body and decided to leave with the master. At that moment, even though Master Wu Xia had entered stillness for a long time, his two hands rose up slowly and crossed over his chest and suddenly a storm occurred that drowned the fire.
During the cultural revolution, the master's body was placed in a wooden box and buried in the ground for 10 years. After the revolution, everyone thought that this time, the master's body is done for. But when they went back to the spot, they found the wooden box totally decomposed but the master's body was just as it was with his hands still crossed over the chest. They then gilded him with gold and placed him in the main hall for all to come and get his blessings.
百歲宮 was our last destination at Mt Jiu Hua. And so i took a slow walk down the few thousand steps to the bottom with Mr Zhou, while the rest of the group took the cable car. After lunch, we headed for Nanjing. Visited the Confucius temple there, which had been turned into a shopping street. Then we headed to the hotel early.
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