The Buddhist Catechism Part 17

A. _Manomaya Iddhi_.

354. Q. _Were the illusionary copies of the Arhat's person material?

Were they composed of substance and could they have been felt and handled by the messenger?_

A. No; they were pictures impressed by his thought and trained will-power upon the messenger's mind.

355. Q. _To what would you compare them?_

A. To a man's reflection in a mirror, being exactly like him yet without solidity.

356. Q. _To make such an illusion on the messenger's mind, what was necessary?_

A. That Chullapanthaka should clearly conceive in his own mind his exact appearance, and then impress that, with as many duplicates or repet.i.tions as he chose, upon the sensitive brain of the messenger.

357. Q. _What is this process now called?_

A. Hypnotic suggestion.

358. Q. _Could any third party have also seen these illusionary figures?_

A. That would depend on the will of the Arhat or hypnotiser.

359. Q. _What do you mean?_

A. Supposing that fifty or five hundred persons were there, instead of one, the Arhat could will that the illusion should be seen by all alike; or, if he chose, he could will that the messenger should be the only one to see them.

360. Q. _Is this branch of science well known in our day?_

A. Very well known; it is familiar to all students of mesmerism and hypnotism.

361. Q. _In what does our modern scientific belief support the theory of Karma, as taught in Buddhism?_

A. Modern scientists teach that every generation of men is heir to the consequences of the virtues and the vices of the preceding generation, not in the ma.s.s, as such, but in every individual case. Every one of us, according to Buddhism, gets a birth which represents the causes generated by him in an antecedent birth. This is the idea of Karma.

362. Q. _What say the Vasettha Sutta about the causation in Nature?_

A. It says: "The world exists by cause; all things exist by cause, all beings are bound by cause."

363. Q. _Does Buddhism teach the unchangeableness of the visible universe; our earth, the sun, the moon, the stars, the mineral, vegetable, animal and human kingdoms?_

A. No. It teaches that all are constantly changing, and all must disappear in course of time.

364. Q. _Never to reappear?_

A. Not so: the principle of evolution, guided by Karma, individual and collective, will evolve another universe with its contents, as our universe was evolved out of the Akasha.

365. Q. _Does Buddhism admit that man has in his nature any latent powers for the production of phenomena commonly called "miracles"?_

A. Yes; but they are natural, not supernatural. They may be developed by a certain system which is laid down in our sacred books, the Visuddhi Marga for instance.

366. Q. _What is this branch of science called?_

A. The Pali name is Iddhi-vidhanana.

367. Q. _How many kinds are there?_

A. Two: _Bahira_, _i.e._, one in which the phenomena-working power may be temporarily obtained by ascetic practices and also by resort to drugs, the recitation of _mantras_ (charms), or other extraneous aids; and _Sasaniks_, that in which the power in question is acquired by interior self-development, and covers all and more than the phenomena of _Laukika Iddhi_.

368. Q. _What cla.s.s of men enjoy these powers?_

A. They gradually develop in one which pursues a certain course of ascetic practice called _Dhyana_.

369. Q. Can this Iddhi power be lost?[1]

A. The _Bahira_ can be lost, but the _Sasanika_ never, when once acquired. _Lokottara_ knowledge once obtained is never lost, and it is by this knowledge _only_ that the absolute condition of Nirvana is known by the Arhat. And this knowledge can be got by following the n.o.ble life of the Eightfold Path.

370. Q. _Had Buddha the Lokottara Iddhi?_

A. Yes, in perfection.

371. Q. _And his disciples also had it?_

A. Yes, some but not all equally; the capacity for acquiring these occult powers varies with the individual.

372. Q. _Give examples?_

A. Of all the disciples of the Buddha, Mogallana was possessed of the most extraordinary powers for making phenomena, while Ananda could develop none during the twenty-five years in which he was the personal and intimate disciple of the Buddha himself. Later he did, as the Buddha had foretold he would.

373. Q. _Does a man acquire these powers suddenly or gradually?_

A. Normally, they gradually develop themselves as the disciple progressively gains control over his lower nature in a series of births.[2]

374. Q. _Does Buddhism pretend that the miracle of raising those who are dead is possible?_

A. No. The Buddha teaches the contrary, in that beautiful story of Kisa Gotami and the mustard-seed. But when a person only seems to be dead but is not actually so, resuscitation is possible.

375. Q. _Give me an idea of these successive stages of the Lokottara development in Iddhi?_

A. There are six degrees attainable by Arhats; what is higher than them is to be reached only by a Buddha.

376. Q. _Describe the six stages or degrees?_

A. We may divide them into two groups, of three each. The first to include (1) Progressive retrospection, _viz._, a gradually acquired power to look backward in time towards the origin of things; (2) Progressive foresight, or power of prophecy; (3) Gradual extinction of desires and attachments to material things.

377. Q. _What would the second group include?_

A. The same faculties, but inimitably developed. Thus, the full Arhat possesses perfect retrospection, perfect foresight, and has absolutely extinguished the last trace of desire and selfish attractions.

378. Q. _What are the four means for obtaining Iddhi?_