February 2000 Guide

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2/4 Zen and God
11am Rev. Vajra Karuna, Thich Tam-Thi

2/11 Let’s Build A Raft
11am Rev. Nagacitta Kaeuna, Thich Tam-Hue

2/18
11am Ven. Dr. Karuna Dharma

2/25 Hakuin Zenji
11am Bro. Jñana Karuna Vajra

Classes at IBMC

Mon Certificate in Buddhist Studies
6:30 Dr. Siri Warnisurya, college office

Tues Diamond Sutra, Hui Neng Platform Sutra
7:00 Ven. Dr. Karuna Dharma, library

Wed Applied Buddhism
7:00 Rev. Kusalsa Ratna Karuna, Zendo

6:30 Basic Buddhism
Dr. Siri Warnisuriya, College office

Thu History of Zen
6:30 Rev. Vajra Karuna

TBA Pali Chanting
Elementary Pali
Elementary Sanskrit

Special Events

2/4 108 Bows Ceremony,
9:30 Bro. Sunya
11:00 Dana Ceremony in honor of Tet
12 noon Sunday service
1 pm Garden luncheon

2/17 Seminar on the Third Patriarch
9:30 Ven. Dr. Karuna Dharma

Meditation times

Tuesday, Thursday, Friday 7-8 am

Mon, Thurs, Sun evenings from 6-9 pm, led by Rev. Sakya Bodhi

Wed evening: 7-9 pm, led by Rev. Kusala
Fri evening: 7:30-9 pm, led by Rev. Kusala

News Items in Detail

IBMC is Updating its Mailing List

If you want to remain on our mailing list, you must inform us either by a
phone call, fax, email, or by returning the envelope we sent last month,
indicating you want to receive our 2001 Monthly Guide. If you do not, you
probably will not receive your March Guide. So, please either call or write
us today while you are thinking about it.

As you know, last month we sent you a donation envelope which we hope you
will use to send us a donation. If you have not done so yet, we urge you to.
IBMC is a non-profit organization and every donation you make is tax
deductible.

Tet, Vietnamese New Year’s
Ceremony, honors IBMC’s monks, February 4

This year Chinese, or Vietnamese, New Year falls on January 24. The New Year
is very important to people of Chinese culture, for that is the time when
everyone becomes one year older. It is also time to honor their superiors:
parents, ancestors, teachers, bosses, etc. and to thank them for everything
they have given them in the past year.

This is the time of year for parades, firecrackers and a lot of merriment.
It is also the time when houses are scrubbed completely to invite the
Kitchen God to take a good report back to the Gods and the family
ancestors in heaven (Confucian belief). Firecrackers scare away evil spirits
and invite the good spirits to bless the people.

The people hand out red packets with money in them to their children,
nieces, nephews and grandchildren. The monks also give small gifts to the
children who come to the temple, and the children perform the intricate lion
dances to gain fruits, drinks, goodies and money. The faithful flock to the
temples to pray and to honor the monks, thanking them for teaching the
Buddha Dharma.

This year we will honor our monks on February 4. We will begin with a formal
dana ceremony where we will offer food to them at 11 am. This will be
followed by Sunday service at 12 noon. You can join us by bringing food or
small gifts to our six fully ordained monastics or by donating money either
directly to them or to the office by February 1. We will take the money and
spend it to buy gifts for our monks. This ceremony is important since our
monastics devote themselves totally to the Buddha Dharma and have no other
source of income aside from the small stipend provided by the Center.The
monks will repay the laypeople by giving a special blessing. Following
service we will eat in the Zendo garden. So, bring either a vegetarian dish
or drinks to share.

Tax Preparation

Rev. Sakya Bodhi is a certified tax preparer. He will take 10% off his bill
for IBMC members and friends. 50% of the total fee will be contributed for
the IBMC Renovations. And it is tax deductible. This project will be in
existence through April 2001.

Tai Chi Ch’uan, Anyone?

Are you interested in de-stressing, building health and using gentle
movements with a highly evolved system of self-defense to achieve balance
and harmony in your life? If so, read on!

Ara Elian is offering a series of Tai Chi Ch’uan seminars at IBMC to a small
group (maximum of ten) of students interested in an updated ancient practice
which, once learned, can be completed in 20 to 25 minutes. His intention is
to make the system accessible to Western satudents. Therefore, after his
training in the lineage of Master Chang Ni, with his son Mao Shing, in 1987
he began to teach the essence of Tai Chi Ch’uan in 108 movements.

The seminars will take place in Ananda Hall and will teach the entire short
Yang form. For more information, call Amrit as soon as possible at the
office(213 384-0850) so we can set up a schedule.

Seminar on the Third Patriarch

Ven. Dr. Karuna Dharma is opffering a seminar on the Third Patriarch’s
writing, the Hsing Hsing Ming on Saturday, February 17 from 9:30 to 4. Fee
for the seminar is $25 and includes a delicious vegetarian lunch. The
seminar/retreat will consist of sittings interspersed with study and
discussion. Please send a check to IBMC by February 12 if you are
interested.


Guest Speaker, February 11

Rev. Thich tam-Hue, Daniel Buckley, known as Rev, Nagacitta to people at
IBMC,will be talking on the topic, Let’s Build a Raft on February 11. Dan
did his training at IBMC and took full Dharma teacher precepts December 10,
1994. He has worked as a Health Care Professional Counselor at California
State Mental Hospital in Norwalk .Following his final ordination, he left
IBMC and joined Ven. Thich An-Giao at the Desert Zen Center until few
months ago. Among things that ocupy his time after he retired from work is
spending several weeks each year working among the Hopis and Navajos in
Arizona. He also is quite active in prison work at Lancaster, California,
where he visits and teaches meditation several times a week. I hope all of
you will come to hear this guest speaker

2001 Schedule of Events

This is a tentative schedule; there will be changes made during
the year, so check each Guide for possible changes that month.

January
1/7 108 Bows ceremony, Ven. Dr. Karuna Dharma, 9:30 am
1/15 Classes of the College of B uddhist Studies begin
1/28 Seminar with Rev. Sakya Bodhi

February
2/4 108 Bows Ceremony, Bro. Sunya, 9:30 am
2/4 Tet Ceremony honoring IBMC monks, 11 am
Garden Luncheon,1 pm
2/17 Seminar on the Sutra of the Third Patriarch,
9:30-4:30 Ven. Karuna Dharma

March
3/5 108 Bows Ceremony, Bro. Ksanti, 9:30 am
3/30 Classes of College of Buddhist Studies end

April
4/1 108 Bows Ceremony, Bro. Sraddha, 9:30 am
4/8 Hanamatsuri Celebration, 11 am,
Garden Luncheon, noon
4/9 College of Buddhist Studies classes begin
4/21 Meditation Retreat, Rev. Vajra
4/22 Ven. Karuna’s birthday celebration in the garden
4/29 Morning of Chanting & Meditation, Ven. Karuna Dharma

May
5/6 108 Bows Ceremony, Sr. Abhaya Hanasi, 9 am
5/13 Honoring Mothers, Sr. Suvarna Upeksa Sarika
5/15 Marking the Sima, 7 pm; Monks’ training class begins
5/18-20Vaisaka, 3 day Weekend Retreat, 7 pm- 12 noon
5/20 Adoration of the Buddha relics, Ven. Shanti

June
every Sunday morning at 9 am
108 Bows Ceremony, Rev. Kusala Karuna
6/9 Seminar on Basic Buddhism & 8 fold Path, Rev.
Kusala Ratna Karuna, 9-5
6/17 Honoring Fathers, Bro. Sraddha, 11 am

July
every Sunday morning at 9 am
108 Bows Ceremony, various monks
7/14 Lotus Festival at Echo Park, 10:30 am
7/15 Kwan Yin Observances; Kwan Yin meditation &
Chanting, 2 - 5
7/21 Zen Meditation Retreat, Rev.Vajra Karuna
7/29 Morning of Chanting & Meditation, Rev. Thich Tam-
Thien, Rev. Kusala Ratna Karuna

August
every Sunday morning 9 am
108 Bows Ceremony,Various monks
8/24-26 Ullumbana Retreat, 7:30 Friday-Sunday Noon
8/26 Ordination of monks

September
9/1 Ullumbana Service for the Dead; garden luncheon
9/1 108 Bows Ceremony, 9 am, Rev. Sakya Bodhi
9/7 Visit to Dr. Thien-An’s Crypt
9/8 Founder Day’s Garden Luncheon
9/14 Retreat & Seminar on Basic Buddhism, Rev. Kusala
9/16 Fall classes begin at College of Buddhist Studies

October
10/7 108 Bows Ceremony, 9:30 am
10/13 Seminar on Buddhist Art, 9-5, Rev. Sunya Karuna

November
11/4 108 Bows Ceremony, 9:30 am
11/10 Retreat/Seminar Ven. Karuna Dharma
11/18 Patriarch’s Memorial Day Garden Luncheon

December
12/7 College of Buddhist Studies classes end
12/2 108 Bows Ceremony, 9:30 am
12/8 Enlightenment Day observance, 11 - 4:30
12/30 Morning of Chanting & Meditation
12/31 New Year’s Eve Sitting, 10 pm-midnight

Talks at Sunday services

The Zen Patriarchal Lineage
Rev.Vajra Karuna, Thich Tam-Thi

When anyone is introduced to Zen one subject that they will very soon
encounter is talk about the patriarchal lineage. Indeed, on Sundays we burn
incense before the lineage altar and we mention the Indian patriarchs,
Chinese patriarchs and Vietnamese patriarchs. This lineage is said to have
started with the Buddha himself and to have continued unbroken for the past
two and a half thousand years. Theoretically the importance of this lineage
in Zen is that it has been the main vehicle for the transmission of the
authentic teachings of the Buddha.

Zen considers itself to be based on four principles. 1) a special
transmission outside of the scriptures; 2) no dependency on words and
letters; 3) direct pointing to the mind/heart of man; and 4) seeing into
one’s own nature and realizing Buddhahood. The root of the Zen lineage
concept is found in the first of these four principles, a special
transmission outside of the scriptures.

According to Zen legend one day the Buddha was standing before an assembly
of monks who were expecting to hear a dharma talk. Instead of saying
anything the Buddha held up a flower. All of the monks, with the exception
of one, Maha-kas’yapa, were perplexed by this act. Mahakas’yapa however,
demonstrated his understanding by simply smiling. Zen legend says that
through this flower-raising act the Buddha transmitted wordlessly the Zen
teachings to Mahakas’yapa. This wordless mind-to-mind transmission of Zen
teaching is believed to be repeated every time a Zen master acknowledges his
dharma successor (although minus the flower).

A major problem with the concept of the Buddha as having established any
kind of single “apostolic” succession is that it is not known to the
Theravada Buddhists in Sri Lanka. This must mean that either such a
succession was not a universally accepted one prior to the Buddhist
missionizing of Sri Lanka in the middle the third century B.C.E. or that it
was entirely a post third century invention.

Most of the pre-Mahayana and Mahayana sects that accepted the idea of
anapostolic lineage succession were in general agreement on the first four
or five patriarchs.These were Mahakas’yapa, Ananda, Madhyantika , Shanavasa
(sometimes called Shanakavasin), and Upagupta. After these names the names
of those who succeeded them varies from sect to sect. While the Ch’an
tradition eventually adopted the version of the Indian Mulasarvastivada
sect, there is no good reason for believing that this version was any more
authentic than any of the competing versions. Moreover, considering the
periodic destructive foreign invasions of India, the numerous intra-Indian
wars, the occasional persecutions of Buddhism, the normal dangers of disease
and sudden accidental deaths it would require a major miracle for the
legendary lineage to have survived intact for nearly a thousand years, or
through twenty seven generations, before being transferred to China.

Even if we could accept that somehow such a lineage had managed to survive
through all these dangers we are still left with the fact that such a
lineage would have in fact had no real function in the Buddhist homeland. In
India every local community of monks (sangha) existed more or less
independently of every other community. Sanghic leadership here was based
almost entirely on ordination seniority and even then it was essentially
collective and largely democratic. The only truly legitimate leader of the
whole sangha was always regarded as the Buddha, and despite the above
patriarchal scheme, no living person was ever unanimously thought to be
qualified to take his place. It was not even until the reign of king As’oka
that any real attempt at establishing a more unified and hierarchical
structure for the sangha occurred, and even this was a very unsuccessful
venture. Therefore, it must be concluded that at least the Indian part of
the Ch’an lineage is little more than a sacred myth.

Moving from the Indian patriarchal lineage to the Chinese one we are on
somewhat more secure grounds, but only somewhat. The Zen lineage legend
says that the twenty-seventh Indian patriarch, Prajñatara, for some
unexplained reason decided that the lineage should be relocated to China.
For this purpose he told his successor, a monk by the name of Bodhidharma,
to travel to China. There are a number of legends connected to Bodhi-dharma.
Unfortunately, they do not all agree with one another. What became the
officially established version says that Bodhidharma was the third son of a
south Indian king of Brahmin origin. The problem with this story is that it
is not the earliest one we have about Bodhidharma’s origin. The earliest one
in fact says he was a Persian. The various traditions about Bodhidharma do
not even agree on the date of his arrival in China. One source would have
him arriving about 527 CE while another source implies that he must have
arrived before 479 CE. To complicate things further one early Zen author
does not even consider Bodhidharma to be the first Chinese patriarch.
Instead, he gives this title to another monk, Gunabhadra.

All of the sources on Bodhidharma do agree that he had a dharma heir by the
name of Hui k’o (487-593), who, in the orthodox Zen lineage, became the
second Chinese patriarch. But even here we have a problem. The earliest
record concerning Hui k’o states that he had no eminent dharma heirs. If
this is true it would mean that the Chinese branch of the lineage became
extinct. However, a slightly later source gives Hui k’o a dharma heir by
the name of Seng-ts’an. This official third Chinese patriarch is truly a
mystery. He seems to have come out of nowhere and other than his name, no
biographical information is supplied for him until a suspiciously late time.
This is to say, at a time when the Zen movement was becoming politically
powerful enough to need an uninterrupted lineage. Seng-ts’an was eventually
credited with having authored the famous poem “On the Believing Mind”. Yet,
earlier sources state he left no writings. Thus, even if we accept the
existence of this third patriarch we must be very skeptical about his
authorship of the poem. The poem’s significance lies in its subtle merging
of Taoist and Buddhist ideas, which would become the hallmark of Zen
teachings. Seng-ts’an’s rather phantom presence in the lineage is further
eroded by the story that he, longing to retire to his birthplace, handed
over the patriarchy to his successor, Tao-hsin (580-651), and disappeared.

With the fourth Patriarch we are on solid historical ground. Tao-hsin
established the first real Zen community and, if we were to completely
question his predecessor’s existence, we would have to say that the
discontinuity between Hui k’o and Tao-hsin would make the latter the true
founder of the Chinese Zen lineage. That the legend of Mahakas’yapa is
essentially myth can be further suggested by the fact that the entire legend
of the flower story is not even found in the earliest Zen tradition. It is
not until some five hundred years into Zen history, which is to say the 11th
century of the Common Era, that this story was first recorded. Even then it
did not become unchallenged doctrine until around the 13th century.

While on the one hand, we must consider this primal transmission story
historically as nothing but a sacred myth, on the other hand we need to see
it as pointing to a significant and very valid aspect of Zen teachings. This
aspect deals with the danger Zen perceives in any dependency on
long-established written words, in short, scriptures, as unquestioned
sources of truth or vehicles of enlightenment.

Zen is securely based on the Mahayana teaching that human language forces us
into thinking in such dualities as subject-object, of absolute good and
absolute evil, of good me versus bad others, or even of good me versus bad
me. These dual distinctions, according to Zen, are the very things that make
and keep us attached to and prisoners of that suffering state of
consciousness called samsara. Zen does not deny that Buddhist scriptures,
or even non-Buddhist scriptures, contain great wisdom. In fact, the second
Zen slogan does not say to abandon scriptures, it says not to depend on
them. In the Zen tradition when you accept any scripture as the
unquestionable source of truth you are merely feeding on or parasitizing the
minds of dead authors. This is religious fundamentalism.

Life is a perpetual process of change and so what may have been relevant
eachings in the past may or may not be as relevant today. Zen, therefore,
teaches that truth must be at least partially rediscovered in every
generation. But this creates a problem. If we are not to depend wholly on
the wisdom of the past, on what are we to depend? The Zen answer is the
present day representors of the Zen lineage The Zen lineage repre-sentors
are not ordinary teachers. They are ones who have inherited the wisdom of
the past, including that of the scriptures, but at the same time understand
that the present also offers wisdom of its own and that this present wisdom
must be employed to update that of the past. This is what makes for a living
rather than for a fossilized teaching.It is for this reason that it can be
said that it is the lineage more than the scriptures that determines Zen
teachings. It is also partially what Zen means when it speaks of living
words versus dead words.

In summary we can say that the truthfulness of the Zen lineage as a purely
historical phenomenon can certainly be challenged, but as a bulwark against
scriptural fundamentalism the lineage can be seen as an unchallenagable
bearer of truth. And it is for this reason, more than any other, that we
must acknowledge the value of the Zen lineage concept.

Miracles in Buddhism
by Bro. Jñana Karuna Vajra

Our dharma talk today is on the extraordinary subject of miracles in
Buddhism. This topic may be peripheral to our ordinary dharma study and
practice, but it provides some surprisingly fertile ground for consideration
in a Sunday talk.

What constitutes a miracle within each of the world’s religious traditions
isdetermined to a great extent by the tradition itself, as miracles tend to
define themselves. That is, a miracle is usually an act or event that in
some way repeats or echoes previous miracles within the same tradition. The
foundational miracle stories of each religion are followed by the miracles
of the great saints, sages and spiritual masters of that religion, all the
while accompanying the spread of that religion. Buddhism is no exception
here, as the Buddha’s disciples repeat the miracles of the master as they
progress along the path to enlightenment. As Buddhism developed into
different schools and sects miracles took on a differing form or prominence
with each new system.

In each of the major world religions one key theme runs through the
materiamiracula, namely that, with some very late exceptions, miracles are
never to be sought or performed for their own sakes. The Buddha, in
particular is quite explicit on this point. He knows well that with
spiritual discipline (asceticism and meditation) a monk can eventually fly
in the air, make his body invisible to others, and otherwise manifest
themiraculous powers (called siddhi) that accompany advancement toward
liberation from the cycle of rebirth. But he forbids his monks from
exhibiting these powers before the laity. To do so is a manifestation of
vanity and therefore a sign of retrogression in the struggle to achieve
liberation from attachments to a spurious self.

Rather than concerning ourselves with the inevitable, but unanswerable,
questions about miracles, such as, did they really happen, it is much more
useful to focus on the question of what do they mean. To approach
understanding of the meaning of a miracle one must know the tradition out of
which the miracle story comes. One must also know what earlier tradition is
being challenged or superseded. In Buddhist miracle stories, the miracle
worker is a figure in whom the truth that is the dharma breaks through the
mundaneworld, saturating it with meaning. Put another way, miracles disclose
the whole of reality to those who can see only a part. To read a miracle
story literally is-inevitably-to miss thepoint Yet, to ignore the literal
meaning is to fail to understand why the miracle story was told in the first
place.

Most of our time this morning will largely be taken up with considering some
of the more interesting miracles stories in the Buddhist tradition, from
both a conceptual and a narrative perspective. The text of my talk is
largely excerpted from a new book by Kenneth L. Woodward entitled The Book
of Miracles which focuses on the meaning of the miracle stories in each of
the five great world religions.

The logical starting place, of course, is with miracles concerning the
Buddha himself. Not surprisingly, the miracles of the Buddha are not only
awe-inspiring; they are also signs of his more-than-human stature and
examples of his supernatural powers. The Buddha’s miracle stories center
around his conception and birth, around his youth and years spent seeking
enlightenment, and those he worked following his great awakening.

An Indian sutra preserved in the Tibetan canon, the Lalitavistara, in the
form of an autobiographical account of the Buddha, provides the most
striking account of the nativity miracles, from the point at which the
bodhisattva has determined the time and conditions of his rebirth, his
conception and the moment of the actual birth. In this regard, the initial
example of the Buddha’s many cosmic miracles comes with his purification of
the earthly environs of the royal residence of his mother-to-be, Queen Maya,
prior to his final conception and re-birth, as quoted in The Book of
Miracles:

“First, the grounds became clear of weeds, dead tree trunks, brambles,
gravel,and sand; all was well watered, filled with flowers and swept clean
of dust, dirt, and debris; all flies, wasps, mosquitoes, moths, and
poisonous snakes disappeared; and the grounds became smooth as the palm of
the hand. This was the first precursory sign. “

Other marvelous signs appeared as well: “flocks of swans, peacocks, parrots,
and all sorts of birds appear on the palace grounds; trees and bushes bloom
out of season; lotus blossoms the size of chariot wheels emerge in the royal
pools; jars of honey, oil and sugar multiply miraculously; all manner of
musical instruments begin playing without the touch of human hands; chests
of gems open of their own accord, and a light more brilliant than the sun
illuminates the place, calming its inhabitants.”

Next the Buddha’s mother, Queen Maya, engages in a process of physical and
spiritual purification. The Buddha is to be conceived in the womb of a
mother who is without defilement and in a manner that does not require
sexual intercourse. As the bodhisattva prepares to descend to Earth for his
re-birth he is described in metaphors of kingship over the gods who surround
him and pay homage to him, including the Vedic god Indra and Brahma, the
Hindu Creator deity. Dramatic images of light infusing all corners of
multiple universes herald the bodhisattva’s descent, manifesting that the
light is the wisdom of the Buddha and in its glow all sentient being are
able to recognize themselves and others for what they really are. The light
of his wisdom he is coming to impart will be the means of liberation for all
sentient beings.

Queen Maya experienced the conception of the future Buddha in a dream, in
which a small white elephant with six tusks entered her womb. The sutra
tells us that the Buddha was already the size, at this point, of a six-month
old child. Moreover, he is encased in a ratnavyuha, or jeweled sanctum,
where he sits on a miniature throne, inside his mother’s womb. The
ratnavyuha is no mere embellishment; it is a necessary enclosure protecting
the Buddha from the impurities and moral corruption that Indian culture
identified with normal fetal development in the mother’s womb. Upon his
emergence from his mother, the future Buddha is received, not byhis parents,
but by the gods....

“At that very instant, O monks, Shakra, lord of the gods, and Brahma, lord
of the Saha worlds, stood before the Bodhi-sattva....Filled with profound
reverence, they remembered and recognized him; full of respect for the
tender form of his body, they wrapped the Bodhisattva in a silken garment
woven with gold and silver threads and took him in their arms....The
Bodhisattva had been touched by no human being; the gods themselves had
received him.”

As soon as he was born the Bodhisattva immediately manifested his
supernatural powers, especially the “divine eye”. This is one of the
important siddhi, or miraculous powers, that Indian yogins identified with
spiritual attainment; however in Gautama they were present at birth. This
is evident in the newborn’s declaration of his mission....

The Bodhisattva took seven steps to the south and stated:¨I will be worthy
of the offerings of both gods and men.“ Taking seven steps to the west, like
a lion well-satisfied, he pronounced these words:"I am the finest in the
world, for this is my final birth; I shall put an end to birth, old age,
sickness, and death!“ He took seven steps to the north and said: “I will be
unequaled among all beings.“ Taking seven more steps, he faced below and
stated: “I will destroy Mara and his army. I will extinguish the fires of
hell with rain from the great cloud of the Dharma, filling beings in the
hell realms with joy.“ Taking seven final steps, he faced upward and
stated: “It is on high that I shall be visible to all beings. In short, the
Dharma the Buddha brings is the realization of truth born of direct, not
derived, knowledge achieved over the course of many lives.

Following this miraculous introduction of the new born Bodhisattva, let us
nowturn briefly to a story involving the very young Prince Sid-dhartha.
While still a toddler, his father, King Suddhodana, presents his heir at
the temple to offer homage to the gods. With great royal ceremony and proud
display, King Suddhodana led the Prince into the temple of the gods. As
soon as the Bodhisattva set his right foot in the temple, the statues of the
gods, including Shiva, Skanda, Narayana, Kubera, Candara, Surya, Vaisranava,
Sakra, Brahma, the Guardians of the World, and others, rose from their
places and bowed at the feet of the Bodhisattva.In this account the message
could not be clearer. With the advent of the Buddha, the old gods are not
deposed, but they are put in their proper place. There is a new
dispensation.

We will pass over the Buddha’s period of extreme asceticism and the well
known story of Mara and his minions as Gautama meditated under the bo tree
until his complete awakening, his greatest miracle of all, and turn to the
Buddha’s post-enlightenment period. The miracles worked by the Buddha after
he achieved enlightenment differ from those of his birth and youth in that
they are the fruit of a perfected being--a Tathagata. Moreover, they are
directed, in most cases, toward winning converts. In other words, the
miracles are evidence of his power as a Buddha. We will consider two well
known accounts, one involving a snake king, the other an elephant.

The snake king miracle story is a key element in a larger account of the
Buddha’s ultimately successful efforts at converting the Jatilas, a
community of one thousand extreme ascetics, dwelling in the forest, who
worshiped the gods through standard Vedic sacrificial fires. The Buddha
begins by taking on the Jatilas’ local deity, a fearsome snake king, or
magical naga, which the Jatilas keep in their fire room. The point of the
episode is to show the Buddha’s power over local deities-a Buddhist theme
that will be repeated many times over by Buddhist saints. The Buddha
surprised the Jatilas by asking permission of their leader, Kassapa, to
spend the night in the fire room with the deadly venomous serpent.

“When the chief of serpents saw that the Sage had entered, he became
irritated, and sent forth a cloud of smoke. Then the chief of men, joyful
and unperplexed, also sent forth a cloud of smoke. Unable to master his
rage, the chief of serpents sent forth flames like a burning fire. Then the
chief of men, the perfect master of the element of fire, also sent forth
flames. When they shone forth both with their flames, the Jatilas looked at
the fire room [saying]: ‘Truly the countenance of the great recluse is
beautiful, but the Naga will do harm to him’. And when that night had
elapsed, the flames of the Naga were extinguished but the various-colored
flames of him who is possessed of magical powers remained. Having put the
chief of serpents into his alms-bowl, he showed him to the Brahman [saying]:
‘Here you see the Naga, Kassapa; his fire has been conquered by my fire.’ “

The elephant miracle story involves the actions of Devadatta, the Buddha’s
firs cousin, critic and rival. In the story, Devadatta bribes the owner of a
fierce elephant named Nalagiri to set the animal free when he sees the
Buddha approaching the town of Rajagaha. When the elephant appears, trunk
uplifted with tail and ears erect, the Buddha’s companions urge him to flee.
But the Buddha assures them: ҬThis, monks, is an impossible thing, and one
that cannot occur, that one should deprive a Tathagata o f life by violence.
The Tathagatas, monks, are extinguished in due and natural course.”

In other words, a Buddha is in control of his own final destiny. The
confrontation quickly turns into a contrast between believers and
unbelievers, between those who see his life in peril and those who have
confidence in his powers. The Buddha then exercises his mastery over the
charging elephant:

"And the Blessed One caused the sense of his love to pervade the elephant
Nalagiri, and the elephant, touched by the sense of his love, put down his
trunk, and went up to the place where the Blessed One was, and stood still
before him. And the Blessed One, stroking the elephant’s forehead with his
right hand, addressed him in these stanzas:
"Touch not, O elephant, the elephant of men,
for sad, O elephant, is such attack,
For no bliss is there, O elephant, when he is passed
from hence, for him who strikes the elephant of men.
Be not then mad, and neither be thou careless,
for the careless enter not int oa state of bliss,
Rather do thou thyself so act, that to a state of bliss
thou mayest go."

And Nalagiri , the elephant, took up with his trunk the dust from off the
feet of the Blessed One, and sprinkled it over his head, and retired, bowing
backwards the while it gazed upon the Blessed One.
In the interests of time we will pass over stories of the Buddha’s
parinirvana and the post-parinirvana miracles. However, even with the
Buddha’s final decease he remains available to his followers, as his
existence transcends his parinirvana. He is available not only through the
Dharma but through his relics and the stupas which contain them. But he is
also available through the Buddhist saints, to whose miracles and stories we
now turn, focusing first on their shared characteristics and context.

As is the case in the other major religious traditions, Buddhism has
produced numerous saints for veneration and, in some cases, imitation. Chief
among these is the Buddha himself. Though he is, as teacher and embodiment
of the Dharma, much more than this, he is also a saint. And as such he is
the paradigm for all other Buddhist saints. Moreover, just as there are
diverse traditions within Buddhism, so there are diverse models of
sainthood, each embodying the ideals, philosophy and goals of different
traditions. All Buddhist saints share three essential characteristics: in
one form or another, they all renounce the world, they all practice
asceticism, and they all work miracles. As one who emulates the Buddha, the
saint can expect--at the appropriate stage in his spiritual development--to
acquire the Buddha’s supernatural powers. He can also expect the cosmos to
respond with miraculous phenomena at key points i n his ascent t o
perfec enlightenment.

As an Indian religion, Buddhism inherited the idea of siddhi, or psychic
powers, from the yogic tradition. But Buddhism system-atized these powers in
a way that Hinduism has never done. In the Buddhist scheme, they are often
called “superknowledges” and are directly related to the development of
spiritual insight. Five principal powers are generally acknowledged:

First: the power to perform physical or °mundane“ miracles. These are among
the classic siddhi of Indian tradition. They are the most spectacular
physical powers but in terms of spiritual progression the least significant.
They include the ability to assume multiple forms, to appear and disappear,
to walk through walls and mountains, to walk on water, to fly through the
air, to touch the sun and the moon, and to go physically to the realm of the
gods. Second: the “divine ear “-- the ability to hear sounds at a distance,
both those emanating from this world and those from other spheres. Third:
the power to penetrate the minds of others. Fourth: the power to remember
past lives over incalculable aeons of time. Fifth: the “divine eye“, or the
power to see how beings fare according to their deeds or, in other words,
the ability to discern the workings of karma.

The five powers, as marvelous as they are, are merely the opening stages on
the path to enlightenment and must be understood in relation to the
development of consciousness. Each power is the fruit of meditation or
concentration as the aspirant to enlightenment progresses through the eight
levels of consciousness until the adept realizes that all that exists are
manifestations of consciousness that must be transcended if full enlightment
is to be achieved. Once enlightened, consciousness can play all sorts of
games with phenomenal forms because all phenomena are ultimately products o
f consciousness.

The arhats who were the Buddha’ disciples were all well advanced in the
exercise of the supernormal powers, chief among them Sariputta, Anuruddha
and especially, Moggallana. The miracles of the arhats are all performed in
the service othe Dharma or the sangha. Here is but one example of
Moggallana’s numerous supernatural powers:

Once on an Uposatha [fasting] day, the Buddha sat silently in front of the
assembly of monks. At each watch of the night Ananda requested him to recite
the code of monastic discipline, the Pratimoksa, but the Buddha remained
silent. Finally, when the dawn came, he only said: “This assembly is impure.
Thereupon Moggallana surveyed with his mind the entire assembly and saw that
one monk sitting there who was “immoral, wicked, of impure and suspect
behavior...rotten within, lustful and corrupt”. He went up to him and told
him to leave three times. When the monk did not move even after a third
request, Moggallana took him by the arm and led him out of the hall, and
bolted the door. Then he begged the Exalted One to recite the Pratimoksa as
the assembly was now pure again.

Monastics were not the only early disciples of the Buddha to become so
accomplished as to exhibit miraculous powers in support of the Dharma.
Among the Buddha’s earliest followers were Pratyeka buddhas, independent
forest dwellers in the traditional Indian mold who achieved enlightenment
without living in a monastic community. In both the Theravada and the
Mahayana traditions, the Pratyeka Buddha is considered higher than an arhat
but lower than a Buddha. These enlightened individuals advanced the dharma,
not only through teaching but through display of miraculous powers to the
laity. In doing so, they were clearly outside the monastic tradition, which
discouraged the display of their superknowledges before the laity. Such
displays by the Pratyeka Buddhas however, were employed to win people to
acceptance of the Dharma.

Conversion through miracles is most dramatically represented by one account
of the conversion of King Asoka. Here is an abbreviated version of this
story. The ascetic Samudra arrived in Asoka’s capital city and mistakenly
entered the gate to the king’s hellish prison. The prison’s inflexible
guard, Candagirika, told Samudra that the king had given him the right to
execute anyone who entered the prison. On the last night of his seven
nights in prison prior to his scheduled execution, facing death Samudra
appliedhimself to the teachings of the Buddha and broke through the bonds of
sensate existence and achieved the liberation of an arhat.

When Candagirika came for him the next morning he had no realiza-tion that
the prisoner he was leading to his supposed death had attained sainthood,
with its accompanying supernatural powers. Then ensued this account of the
attempt to execute Samudra and Asoka’s accompanying conversion:

“Thereupon, that unmerciful monster, feeling no pity in his heart and
indifferent to the other world, threw Samudra into an iron cauldron full of
water, human blood,marrow, urine, and excrement. He lit a great fire
underneath, but even after much firewood had been consumed, the cauldron did
not get hot. Once more, he tried to light the fire, but again it would not
blaze. He became puzzled, and looking into the pot, he saw the monk seated
there, cross-legged on a lotus. Straight away, he sent word to King Asoka.
Asoka came to witness this marvel, and thousands of people gathered, and
Samudra, seated in the cauldron, realized that the time for Asoka’s
conversion was at hand.

He began to generate his supernatural powers. In the presence of the crowd
of onlookers, he flew up to the firmament, and, wet from the water like a
swan, he started to display various magical feats.
As it is said:
From half of his body, water poured down;
from the other half, fire blazed forth.
Raining and flaming, he shone in the sky
like a mountain, whose streams flowed down
from the midst of fiery herbs.

The astonished king’s response to this display is recorded as:
“I have something I wish to ask you, friend:
your form is like that of a man
but your magical powers are not human;
therefore I cannot decide what to call you,
O Mighty One, O Pure one, or what your nature is.
Please enlighten me now on this matter,
so that I may understand your power, and act as your disciple, coming
toknow the might and qualities of your Dharma,
in so far as I am able”

Samudra goes on to explain the Dharma, and the king converts on the spot.

Let us move on now to a third category of Buddhist saints, who are the
Bodhisattvas, represented for our purposes by Vimalakirti. Vi-malakirti is
a Bodhisattva so advanced that he is in almost all re-spects equal to the
Buddha himself. The main point of Vimalakirti’s teachings is to bring his
audiences to the realiza tion of voidness and to a state of “tolerance of
the ultimate birthlessness of all things”.

It is against this doctrinal background that the function of miracles in
the Mahayana tradition must be understood. If voidness is all and matter
merely relative, then the bodhisattva is free to create, destroy, and
transform at will. Indeed, the bodhisattva can, like the Buddha, create
manifold Buddha worlds, or inter-penetrating parallel universes in which
other sentient beings can be brought to higher spiritual states. If all this
is inconceivable to the Western mind, that is the point: liberation itself
is, strictly speaking,beyond concepts. It must be experienced to be
understood. Thus the pro-duction of dazzling alternative universes in the
miracle stories has as its pedagogical purpose the teaching that voidness
and the relativity of universes are equivalent.

Let us consider a final miracle story from the Vimalakirti sutra. In this
narrative the Buddha Sakyamuni is holding court for thirty-two thousand
Bodhisattvas and a host of other celestial beings from numerous other
universes plus a community of monks, nuns,and laity. In one portion of the
story, Sariputra wonders to himself where such a vast assembly of disciples
and Bodhisattvas will sit, since there are no chairs. Reading his thoughts,
Vimalakirti asks,“Rev-erend Sariputra, did you come here for the sake of the
Dharma? Or did you come here for the sake of a chair?” After some further
discourse with Sariputra, Vimalakirti proceeds with a demonstration of his
miraculous powers: he procures chairs. Not just any chairs, but thrones
thirty-two thousand leagues high imported from a distant universe. Here is a
portion of the detailed fescription:

“At that moment, the Licchavi Vimalakirti, having focused himself in
concentration, performed a miraculous feat such that the Lord Tathagata
Merupradiparja, in the universe Merudhvaja, sent to this universe thirty-two
hundred thousand thrones. These thrones were so tall, spacious, and
beautiful that the Bodhisattvas, great disciples, Sakras, Brahmas,
Lokapalas, and other gods had never before seen the like. The thrones
de-scended from the sky and came to rest in he house of the Licchavi
Vimalakirti. The thirty-two hundred thousand thrones arranged themselves
without crowding and the house seemed to enlarge itself accordingly. The
great city of Vaisali did not become obscured; neither did the land of
Jambudvipa [India] nor did the world of four continents. Everything else
appeared just as it was before....

Then, those bodhisattvas who had attained the superknowledges transformed
their bodies to a height of forty-two hundred thousand leagues and sat upon
the thrones. The account in the sutra continues but this excerpt suffices as
evidence of the miraculous powers o f th e Bodhisattva Vimalakirti.

Time does not permit us to consider examples of the miracles of a fourth
category of Buddhist saints, the Mahasiddhas of tantric Buddhism, the most
significant of which, of course, is Padma-sambhava.

In conclusion, it is hopefully clear by now that Buddhist miracles unction
as signs of spiritual progrss and insight on the part of the Buddha or of a
Buddhist saint. They also function as a means of impressing others and
leading them to acceptance of the Dharma. In Mahayana Buddhism, especially,
the supernatural powers of a Buddha or a Bodhisattva in this world are
manifest chiefly by those miracles in which the illusory character of all
forms is demonstrated by their transformation into other forms. What looks
like magic is in fact a demonstration of the emptiness of all things.