Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Updated: May 10, 2025
When lists of attainments are given, iddhi does not receive the first place and it may be possessed by bad men: Devadatta for instance was proficient in it. It is even denounced in the story of Pindola Bhâradvâja and in the Kevaddha sutta . In this curious dialogue the Buddha is asked to authorize the performance of miracles as an advertisement of the true faith.
Iddhi, like the power of evoking a mental image, seems to be connected with hypnotic phenomena. It means literally power, but is used in the special sense of magical or supernatural gifts such as ability to walk on water, fly in the air, or pass through a wall . Some of these sensations are familiar in dreams and are probably easily attainable as subjective results in trances.
They are iddhi, or the wondrous gift: the heavenly ear which hears heavenly music : the knowledge of others' thoughts: the power of remembering one's own previous births: the divine eye, which sees the previous births of others . It would appear that the order of these states is not important and that they do not depend on one another.
He refuses categorically, saying there are three sorts of wonders namely iddhi, that is flying through the air, etc. the wonder of manifestation which is thought-reading: and the wonder of education. Of the first two he says "I see danger in their practice and therefore I loathe, abhor and am ashamed of them."
Thus Moggallâna, second only to Sâriputta among his disciples, was called the master of iddhi , and it is mentioned as a creditable and enjoyable accomplishment . But it is made equally plain that such magical or hypnotic practices are not essential to the attainment of the Buddha's ideal.
And though we have no warrant for doubting that he believed in the reality of the powers known as iddhi, it is equally certain that he did not consider them essential or even important for religion. Somewhat similar is the attitude of early Buddhism to the spirit world—the hosts of deities and demons who people this and other spheres.
Of iddhi we are told that a monk can practise it, just as a potter can make anything he likes out of prepared clay, which is a way of saying that he who has his mind perfectly controlled can treat himself to any mental pleasure he chooses.
Word Of The Day
Others Looking