Is it a miracle? Monk who prays so much he has left footprints ingrained in the FLOOR

I think this story is absolutely beautiful.

The photos on the link below are stunning. Is this possible?

Text of story below

Interested to hear thoughts.

www.dailymail.co.uk...

There are few people who have made their mark on life quite like monk Hua Chi.

He has knelt to pray so many times that his footprints remain deeply, perfectly ingrained on his temple's wooden floor.

Hua, who is about 70, has been performing a strict daily ritual at the site in the monastery town of Tongren, in Qinghai province, China, for nearly 20 years.

Every day before sunrise, he arrives at the temple steps, places his feet in his footprints and bends down to pray a few thousand times before walking around the temple.

The footprints are 1.2 inches deep where the balls of his feet have pressed into the wood.

But the years are beginning to make their own mark on his body.

'During the first years I would pray 2,000 to 3,000 times a day.

'But I have grown older, so in recent years I have only done around 1,000 each day,' he said, adding sheepishly that he could sometimes only manage around 500 in the cold of winter.
hua chi

On a good day Hua Chi manages 1,000 prayers. On a bad one he can only stretch to 500

Hua, who is also a doctor of traditional medicine, hopes his dedication will take him closer to his goal - a smooth transition to the afterlife.

'I reconstructed this temple and have prayed and walked around the temple all these times so that after my death my spirit will not suffer,' he said.

Hua's devotion has not gone unnoticed by younger monks at the temple, which lies within the Rongwo Gonchen Gompa, Tongren's main Tibetan monastery.

The monastery, which dates from 1301, is home to hundreds of youngsters studying Buddhist scriptures.

Twenty-nine-year-old Genden Darji says he spent many days admiring Hua's efforts before finding the courage to step into his footprints.

As he carefully repeats Hua's movements, the young monk says he plans to carry on the ritual when the older monk stops.

'Every day I come here and every day I look at the piece of wood, and it has inspired me to continue to make the footprints myself,' he said.

ENDS
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Stunning, but makes no mention of the imprints of knees or hands, like I would expect.

reply to post by annefran


No, it is not a miracle.

It is called erosion.

Could be true, or another disclosure, but I also heard Monk's train their bodies to pinpoint where our adrenaline comings from and be able to release it anytime, its like a steroid made by our bodies to save us, From what I know about personal experience is like when you get into a fist fight and time seems to slow down... slow enough that nothing matters except that moment. Feels like that weird irie feeling when you get a deja vu relapse.

Like, yeah...can understand that concept...have been on the planet long enough to pick that one up...wow, erosion...hadnt thought of that. Inspired.

I am confused by the perfect foot shape (if it was made by the balls of his feet, then why are the heels so clear).

Also...why are there no hand and knee marks (or no mention of them)?



If not, then stunning carving and a very beautiful story..true or not..

reply to post by annefran

Like, yeah...can understand that concept...have been on the planet long enough to pick that one up...wow, erosion...hadnt thought of that. Inspired.

Well, you're the one that asks if it is a miracle.

At least that's what the title says.

It's amazing what the threat of suffering in the afterlife can do to people. Good ol' blackmail eh?

I wonder what he could have achieved if he was blackmailed into curing cancer?

[edit on 28-2-2009 by dodgygeeza]

i think it's really depressing actually, this poor guy has wasted almost every single day of his life because of an obsessive compulsive disorder. If only he had been able to learn how to enjoy the world and do something positive with his dedication such as farming, science or art then maybe he would have helped other people in the world.

FAR too much time has been wasted asking some invisible force to fix everything, look where it got the Buddhist monks in china and soon to be annexed lands! Look at the good all those churches did in Ireland during the troubles, in Italy during Mussalini, In Spain for Franko and thats before you even start to consider how awful it was when Religion was in control! The witch burnings, the book burnings ('if it's not in the bible then it's not worth knowing, if it is in the bible then we all ready know it -burn The Great Library!!!), Crusades and Inqusitions.

It's time to accept that we're responsible for our life, it might be the only one we get or it might not -that doesn't matter we're going to be here a while we might as well do our best to make it as good as possible. This whole globe and all it's beauty was made for us to enjoy, it's out duty to enjoy it but also to protect it and keep it healthy. Do you think that all our grandparents stretching right back into the sea fought to survive, fought to bring up children and to make the best of the world that lived in would be happy to know that we had stopped? that everyone now just spends their days chaste and preying?

Of course it could never happen that EVERYONE did this because people are different, some people think only of themselves while others are good, caring people who want to do positive things. Which camp do you think our monk falls into? I think the latter, but he acts like he's one of the former group - A REAL hero would try to understand the world and then put his force into doing good, maybe a George Orwell who with Road To Wigan Pier, Down and Out in Paris and London and of course 1984 he gave the whole world a heads up on compassion, he alerted us to problems we might face and those we already do -plus he offered solutions. So no, standing and doing nothing isn't a miracle -far from it.

If all the good people stood and preyed all day then the world we be free rein for the bad guys, so no he isn't inspirational -he's a mentally ill person or a very confused guy, someone should have talked to him.