Maitreya Buddha is a widely familiar religious image. Statues of him and Guanyin Bodhisattva often appear in various large and small temples. Mi Fu, the great calligrapher of the Song Dynasty, wrote in "Jiu Qijiu": "The marrow of Tathagata, the bone of Sakyamuni. Unknown to people, Maitreya Buddha." And this legendary future Buddha, in the modern Internet era, is not only in the Receiving donations in temples also makes people "popular" in another way.
In the major modern Internet platforms, Internet celebrities have become a mature industry, and there are highly representative "Internet celebrities" in all walks of life. Although everyone is accustomed to Internet celebrities, in 2018, a very special Internet celebrity appeared on the Internet - he does not need to live broadcast shopping, singing, dancing or eating like other Internet celebrities. He only needs to sit there quietly and smile, and he will attract everyone's attention. He is a "real-life Maitreya Buddha".
▲Photos of the real-life version of "Maitreya Buddha"
01
To resemble Maitreya Buddha in appearance, he must be a fat man. Although the earliest image of Maitreya Bodhisattva was not fat, after the Budai monk became the incarnation of Maitreya Buddha, many people thought that Maitreya Buddha was a fat man with a smile. Because this Internet celebrity looks and looks like Maitreya Buddha, his video quickly became popular when it was posted on the Internet, and he can be regarded as a traffic Internet celebrity.
This man is wide and fat, with a shaved head that makes his face even rounder. When he smiles, his eyes are bent into slits. In addition, he is wearing Zen clothes and Buddhist beads. From the appearance, he looks like It is 80-90% similar to the Maitreya Buddha statue in the temple. It is for this reason that videos about him spread quickly on the Internet.
▲Golden Statue of Maitreya Buddha
As we all know, Maitreya Buddha is a Buddha that is loved by the public. There is a very important reason why everyone likes him, that is because his appearance looks rich and festive, and Maitreya Buddha also represents peace and tolerance. So it’s not surprising that a person who claims to be the “real-life version of Maitreya Buddha” appears and quickly becomes popular.
02
After a rich woman saw a video about this "live version of Maitreya Buddha" on the Internet, she suddenly had an idea and had some other ideas. She took a fancy to the traffic brought by this internet celebrity and the commercial value represented by this image. So the rich woman contacted the "Maitreya Buddha" specifically. She offered a high price and claimed that she would take the "real-life Maitreya Buddha" home and "support" it.
▲ Photos of "Maitreya Buddha" meditating
However, the rich woman's way of making offerings is also very modern. She specially hired a packaging team to recreate the Internet celebrity image of "Maitreya Buddha" . Since then, "Maitreya Buddha" often appeared in various commercial activities and banquets. On these occasions, inviting a "Maitreya Buddha" to the stage to meditate and chant sutras became a form of performance. This is also considered very auspicious to many businessmen, so "Maitreya Buddha" was once highly sought after.
This was originally a good thing for this Internet celebrity. It can be said that he got a higher-paying job. But in order to maintain his appearance closer to Maitreya Buddha, he had to eat a lot of food to stay in shape. It can also be seen from the picture that the weight of this "real-life Maitreya Buddha" has long exceeded the standard and is in an unhealthy state of obesity. But in order to maintain this appearance, he not only cannot lose weight, but also needs to keep gaining weight, so his health is also worrying.
▲The "Maitreya Buddha" guy participated in the event
03
And such an "Internet celebrity" with no technical content and only appearing based on appearance, originally Nor can it remain popular for long. Once someone newer and more unique appears, then as Du Fu wrote in "Beauty": "When you see the new people smile, you never hear the old people cry." So soon, the popularity of "Real Maitreya Buddha" became more and more popular. The lower he gets, the less and less people pay attention to him.
After all, the "real Maitreya Buddha" is not the real Maitreya Buddha, so the rich woman who hired him at a high price was not so much a "support" as a hire.
Since it is employment, when he cannot produce value, he will naturally be fired. After the contract was terminated, the "real-life Maitreya Buddha" naturally gradually faded out of people's sight, and no one paid too much attention to it. After all, there is never a shortage of Internet celebrities.
▲Photos of Internet celebrity anchors
So, he returned to his previous ordinary life, and his previous experience as an Internet celebrity also made him a lot of money. However, the health problems caused by excessive obesity require more time to treat and repair. After all, if you want a better life, if you don’t have health, no amount of money will help.
Conclusion
In fact, it is very normal for "real Maitreya Buddha" to become popular and disappear. Marketing companies will continue to create different Internet celebrities one after another, which can really stay with people for a long time. The ones in sight are not the Internet celebrities whose appearance attracts new attention. Although this kind of short-term traffic Internet celebrities disappear quickly, it is not a bad thing for marketing companies. They also get profits from it, and the Internet celebrities themselves also earn wages, and netizens also get fun from it. Everyone It can be regarded as everyone getting what he needs.