Encyclopedia of India–China Cultural Contacts v1.c6.s2.t3.78

v1.c6.s2.t3.78

craftsmen from the Trayastrimśa heaven. Jīva possesses untrammelled, magical characteristics and biblical arts of healing, and has been involved in two medical affairs in China. One affair is about Teng Yongwen who was the governor of Hengyang County and was lodged in Manshui Temple. Teng was affected by some tough disease which twisted his legs and affected his ability of walking. Jīva sprayed some conjured water with a willow vimen, on Teng’s leg and his disability healed. Another affair is about a dying patient who had been affected by heatstroke. Jīva placed an empty bottle on the belly of the patient and covered the bottle with a white cloth. Then, Jīva cast thousands of spells and forced disgustingly smelly foul materials hidden in the patient’s stomach into the bottle and saved the patient’s life. As for *dharma* dissemination, instead of those profound philosophies and ideas, Jīva advocated to act more and speak less. Most stories about Jīva are quite singular, it is said that he could form double-gangers to perform *dharma* dissemination and was capable of many other mysterious skills. Some people believe that Jīva was performing some magic of forbidden willow spell and such kind of magic actually originated from an ancient philosophy in the Western Regions but not in India and they took fine willow vimen found in a tome along the south path of the Silk Road as proof for such opinion. Methods involving spraying water with willow vimen were actually rarely seen in documents about Indian Esoteric Buddhism. In Jīva’s story, willow vimen was just applied as a tool for healing magic while the key for the magic was the conjured water. Therefore, it is not necessary to identify Jīva’s healing method as a kind of ancient witchcraft belief from Western Regions.