Their have been many teachers and religious practitioners all over the world who have claimed to have mystical powers and some of them are quite impressive but what do they really teach us?
I've read the bible and the other holy books and the stories in them I remember are the magical ones not the teachings but the tricks - to give them another name - I know of Saint Patrick but I remember the miracles attributed to him more than the love he had for the Irish, I also know of Saints from India but nothing about them other than the magic; the magic is I think remembered more than the teachings of love, compassion and the good they do or had done.
Their was a Dhamma Teacher giving a talk to a room some years ago and one of the people assembled there to listen was a student of another teacher who had decided to challenge, and thus discredit, this teacher in the eyes of the congregated assembly. The student stood up towards the end and asked "show me a miracle, as my teacher can walk on water, write his name in the air and it will materialise on paper held on the other side of the stream, and bring people back from the dead, show me what you can teach me to do?" the Dhamma Teacher said "If your teacher can do these things then let him show you, all I can teach you to do is to eat when eating, walk when walking, and how to live while you are alive."
In Buddhism magic abilities are seen as nothing special regarding Enlightenment or a trick to entertain, not as a special significant mark of ones spiritual ability, the Dhamma Teacher or Practitioner should understand how to live in the moment, what use would there be for magic if there is an acceptance of life as it is? At the end of the day living one life wholly is better than practising that which can not change anything. if you bring someone back from being dead they are still going to die again.
When we use such magic tricks it takes meaning away from everything else we say, and do. I remember a film I watched some years ago but not the name, about a priest who could heel the sick and bring the dead back to life, obviously the media was all over him and soon he had a TV show where he done this healing, but before the first show he lost his power to heal because he was distracting people from the real message of god, although he got his powers back when he stopped trying to preform and just lived what was important.
At the end of the day I may be right, I may be wrong, but I share this hoping I am one or the other.
I've read the bible and the other holy books and the stories in them I remember are the magical ones not the teachings but the tricks - to give them another name - I know of Saint Patrick but I remember the miracles attributed to him more than the love he had for the Irish, I also know of Saints from India but nothing about them other than the magic; the magic is I think remembered more than the teachings of love, compassion and the good they do or had done.
Their was a Dhamma Teacher giving a talk to a room some years ago and one of the people assembled there to listen was a student of another teacher who had decided to challenge, and thus discredit, this teacher in the eyes of the congregated assembly. The student stood up towards the end and asked "show me a miracle, as my teacher can walk on water, write his name in the air and it will materialise on paper held on the other side of the stream, and bring people back from the dead, show me what you can teach me to do?" the Dhamma Teacher said "If your teacher can do these things then let him show you, all I can teach you to do is to eat when eating, walk when walking, and how to live while you are alive."
In Buddhism magic abilities are seen as nothing special regarding Enlightenment or a trick to entertain, not as a special significant mark of ones spiritual ability, the Dhamma Teacher or Practitioner should understand how to live in the moment, what use would there be for magic if there is an acceptance of life as it is? At the end of the day living one life wholly is better than practising that which can not change anything. if you bring someone back from being dead they are still going to die again.
When we use such magic tricks it takes meaning away from everything else we say, and do. I remember a film I watched some years ago but not the name, about a priest who could heel the sick and bring the dead back to life, obviously the media was all over him and soon he had a TV show where he done this healing, but before the first show he lost his power to heal because he was distracting people from the real message of god, although he got his powers back when he stopped trying to preform and just lived what was important.
At the end of the day I may be right, I may be wrong, but I share this hoping I am one or the other.
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