Abhijmi was on the board last week. Okay. So this week we'll talk about these six, these five. Actually, in the sutra it says... In the sutra it says that these bodhisattvas have five superknowledges. And there is a sixth, which they do not have, which is the...

[01:04]

or the pure Abhijani. They don't have that one. Only the Buddha has that one, or certain ones have that. It's called anasrava abhijña or asrava kshaya, jnana.

[02:07]

In other words, the knowledge, the jnana of the kshaya, the cutting, the extinction of the asrava, asrava, the outflows. Usually bodhisattvas won't have this because they haven't extinguished their outflows. But they have the other five. Let's see now, where should we start? I guess I'll start with reading what this Mr. says here. When he's talking about these Riddhis in this book, in one, in the Bodhisattva Bhumi, Bodhisattva Bhumi is a Mahayana Buddhist text.

[03:17]

In the Bodhisattva Bhumi they list 18 different forms that this Riddhi can take. And he said this was the high-water mark of wonder-mongering in Buddhism. This development is easily explained by the natural tendencies of the uneducated masses in India and the Indian thinkers ingrained love for exaggeration. the biographies of Christian and Muslim saints also abound in incredible miracles which are supposed to indicate spiritual sanctity. It is possible that some genuine psychic phenomena were observed and superstition erected a vast superstructure of marvels on this slender basis. The authentic testimony of reliable scientific investigators seems to show that thought reading, levitation and other strange phenomena can be witnessed on rare occasions in India and other countries.

[04:28]

However that may be, the accounts of these vritti wonders, as given in the Buddhist treatises, add a ton of sensationalism to an ounce of truth. The final outcome is a systematic catalogue of miracles in the Bodhisattva Bhumi. which is reproduced below. I don't know who Mr., I don't know what kind of a person Mr. Hardal was, but anyway, this book is somewhat useful, but this point of view is, is, not exactly the point of view of the Bodhisattva. These supernatural powers and particularly these Riddhi are not so much... I don't want to say that they don't happen or do happen, but rather that they're part of Buddhist teaching.

[05:47]

fact that they have these characteristics is a teaching. The fact that we say that they have these characteristics is a teaching and if they do have those characteristics that would be a teaching too. So there's two levels of teaching at least. One is that these sutras say they have them. That's one thing. The next thing is if they do have them then what does that mean? What would that mean? How would that make sense to us? If the sutra says it and they don't have it, then what? But the sutra says they do have it, so then either they do or they don't. And in either case, these bodhisattvas who do or do not have this thing that the sutra says they have, these bodhisattvas have a dharani by which they would not be hurt by themselves having it or themselves not having it.

[06:59]

It is typical in Mahayana Buddha's sutras to start with miracles. And the miracles often tell you either the whole story of the sutra or the main teaching of the sutra. In this sutra we have bodhisattvas whose description tells us the whole sutra and also we'll have a little drama of a number of miracles right after the description we have this ten-act miraculous drama. The intention is to, in a graphic form, give the whole teaching. In a non-intellectual way, give the whole teaching.

[08:12]

I'm going to get attention. It draws your attention. And that's when he died also. He said this, you know, talk sort of compassionate. In fact, he sort of laid the ground for his talking and attention about the truth. He sort of walked me in and softened. And then he was able to sort of, you know, keep it all. So another aspect of this type of presentation is that in order to go on, you have to sort of loosen up a little bit because it's inconceivable usually. So if you're going to read it, either you're going to say, what's this silly business here at the beginning and then sort of go on from there with a kind of stiff attitude and the rest of it's going to be also not very attractive or useful to you or you're going to let this if you're going to sort of get into this thing and if you do your mind is really becoming soft and open and in fact that which makes your mind soft and open is the teaching too

[09:48]

So it's two ways to talk about it. One way is that in order to go on, you must accept this. So we say avon, and we should say avon to these characteristics too. And so there's this funny thing, you know, the same kind of thing happens with talking about reincarnation. In Zen, we don't emphasize it so much, but we also don't say that it doesn't happen. We don't get stuck in some antagonistic position towards reincarnation and towards these powers, too. We don't so much emphasize them, but we don't get in an antagonistic position towards them. People want to say, well, do you actually transmigrate through these lives? Do you actually become these animals and so on?

[10:49]

People want to sort of pin it down. But some people are kind of happy if you say, well, it doesn't really happen that way. Because if it happens that way, they sort of have to walk off. They think it must be superstition. So it's a matter of skillfulness whether or not you're going to bring certain topics up, like these powers or reincarnation or certain things, in such a way that people with certain background will have to leave the assembly. They won't be able to stomach it. If everybody's open, then you could talk like there really is such a thing as reincarnation. And you really do become frogs and kings and magicians and monks. You could talk like that. As long as people had sort of blown the walls out of their minds then you could talk about this stuff because they wouldn't, then they could take it seriously, you know, really believe it.

[11:54]

And yet without, without some kind of a vessel to contain it, you know, it wouldn't, this stuff wouldn't bump into any walls. You know what I mean? In other words, when you, when you have no, no limitations on the way you're approaching something, then you can take it seriously. But if you're coming at it really strictly, then you have to take it not seriously. So if people have already reopened up and they don't have any kind of arms and legs or walls, then they can go right up and grab this stuff like reincarnation and say, yeah, let's go through these trips. Let's get into that. Let's think about that. Because they won't grab it, in other words. And it'll never bump into anything. And there'll be no problem. But if people are still thinking in a tighter way with definitions and limitations and strictures, then we should talk about reincarnation in a way we should talk about it more psychologically.

[13:07]

We should talk about it in a way that will not bend any of the definitions and concepts that they're not constrained by. And you can talk about it that way too. So it will depend on where the people are who are hearing this, which way we talk about it. And if people are coming up in a constrained way and they say, you know, does that really happen? I mean, you're really talking about thousands of lives and changing into other things. Is that really the way you're talking? Or with a person like that, depending on how well you know them, you might say, well, no, not exactly. You don't want to necessarily say no, but try to come around in a way that they can accept now. And then, maybe by talking about it in a way that they can accept, little by little, they'll be able to drop their guard, so to speak. And then you may be able to fly off into tropical lands and former existences and that kind of talk.

[14:12]

Because former existences is a way, a way to get at inconceivability. To talk about you say, why do I do this? Why do I keep smoking dope? Or why do I be my uncle? A Zen teacher might say, because of your past lives. In other words, think about that. It depends on the person. Some people might just say, what? But someone else might say, hmm. And it might really hit In other words, how does that hit you? Does that make sense to you? Does that mean you're supposed to look in your past lives with the answer of why you do it? Some people would anyway think the message is inconceivable. The reason why you do it is inconceivable.

[15:12]

So that's one way to talk about inconceivability is to say it's due to your past lives. Or it's because you were a nun. with such and such a Buddha, and you did this. You were a nun with such and such a Buddha, and you didn't wear your clothes nicely, or you bossed people around. You talked to them in such a way that they always felt like you were ordering. Therefore, now you do this. So the point is now whether scientific people can verify these feats or not. We might start with, usually the one that's listed first is this Riddhi.

[16:20]

And it has, it's of three kinds according to one source and two kinds according to another source. According to the Dodger de Lund, there's three kinds already. According to the 40-stop of women, there's two counts. Of the three kinds, the first, this gamona is literally displacement.

[17:52]

And nirmana is a creation. And aria, you know, is pure or noble. And the other set is the parinamiki. Parinamiki means transformation form. Transformation. And the other one you can see is like it. It's creation. In this book, this Har Dayal book, he gives 16 kinds of this second type over here, 16 kinds of transformations are listed in the Bodhisattva Bhumi.

[19:26]

And they're things like they can shake things. They can shake the room, the monastery, etc. They can shake the whole, you know, towns, cities, mountains, and so on. Another thing they can do is they can illuminate lands for people. They can show, they can illuminate.

[19:59]

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