Howdy, Stranger!

It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!

Examples: Monday, today, last week, Mar 26, 3/26/04
Welcome home! Please contact lincoln@icrontic.com if you have any difficulty logging in or using the site. New registrations must be manually approved which may take several days. Can't log in? Try clearing your browser's cookies.

Psychic Powers !

13»

Comments

  • VictoriousVictorious Grim Veteran

    Seems logical to me.

  • SarahTSarahT Time ... space ... joy South Coast, UK Veteran

    @‌federica
    Sharing a cup of tea with you!

    The power of propoganda ...

    a.jpg 31.2K
  • federicafederica Seeker of the clear blue sky... Its better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than to speak out and remove all doubt Moderator

    That's nice dear.... Don't mind if I do!! :D .

  • JeffreyJeffrey Veteran
    edited July 2014

    @Victorious, I don't have a book or website with the information about Buddha energies. I found a dharma talk of my teacher Shenpen Hookham. One is about the Buddha energies but it doesn't have like each one as a topic, rather the talk is about them, but it doesn't have them as like sequential topics. Rather it is talking about mind and then maybe occasionally identifying which of the Buddha energies she is talking about. But it could be problematic as she had already given materials out as a background introduction to the Buddha energies, so which quality she is talking about is not always mentioned. I forgot where the handout showing like the specs of each energy went. It has like what colors and what element correspond to it. And what the enlightened quality of the energy along with the distorted qualities.

    Another talk is about the nature of thought and there might be some hints into understanding thouhts om gemeral. I think it is really good.

    I could send you these thoughts on google drive if you give me your e-mail address. If you want to pubnlish them on a blog or something let me ask my Lamas permission if it could be an issue.

    I could e-mail you that talk if you give me your e-mail address.

    On the other hand this http://www.shambhalasun.com/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=1658 would satisfy your curiousity and it is also practical and might avoid having a guru involved.

  • VictoriousVictorious Grim Veteran
    edited July 2014

    Thanks.Email sent in PM. I have a vauge recollection of this...

  • VictoriousVictorious Grim Veteran
    edited July 2014

    @SarahT said:
    @‌federica
    Sharing a cup of tea with you!

    The power of propoganda ...

    Sorry for budging in but that is one of the most brittish things I have ever seen. :thumbsup: .

    I'll tap on wood not to break the charm.

    SarahT
  • BuddhadragonBuddhadragon Ehipassiko & Carpe Diem Samsara Veteran
    edited July 2014

    We've gotten so badly sidetracked on the thread that one tends to forget what the original question was.
    Psychic powers? Mmmm. Well, to start with, the Buddha forbade his monks (yes, the term in the sutta was "I forbid you") to perform miracles.
    In the case that supernatural powers were within the range of their possibilities, I surmise.

    We have all had our dose of premonitory dreams, déjà-vu situations and synchronicity un-coincidences. I for one have, and since I'm your average human being, I therefore infer that we all have experienced strange occurrences of the sort.

    So what? Have these events positively changed our lives? Are we better persons for it? Are we special for it?
    My reasoning is, even stopping to consider the issue is deeper entanglement in our ego traps. In the end, who cares?
    I would like to be granted special powers only in the event that these powers could effectively improve the lives of the people I come into contact with.
    Otherwise, I have a life, and a practice, or both, to get on with...

    lobsterJeffrey
  • gracklegrackle Veteran

    Physic powers? Not exactly. If you become established in bare awareness, bare attention and ekagrata then from that comes an awareness that some like to see as powers. If we understand and know ourselves we can understand and know others so to speak. Hopefully this will result in good.

  • VictoriousVictorious Grim Veteran

    @dharmamom said:
    We've gotten so badly sidetracked on the thread that one tends to forget what the original question was.
    Psychic powers? Mmmm. Well, to start with, the Buddha forbade his monks (yes, the term in the sutta was "I forbid you") to perform miracles.

    Can I ask what sutta please? I tried searching but couldn't find it.

    Thanks
    Victor

  • Woah93Woah93 Veteran
    edited July 2014

    @Victorious‌
    It holds no basis in what reality? In THE reality? Do we know what it is? Until we do whether it holds basis is merely speculation IMO.

    I'll just say that in MY current reality this is all real. This is not a belief I contemplate when I visit a church on sunday only to resume ordinary life afterwards.

  • DavidDavid A human residing in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. Ancestral territory of the Erie, Haudenosaunee, Huron-Wendat, Mississauga and Neutral First Nations Veteran

    I think it could help to put the word "miracle" under scrutiny here. To me the word seems to be used for something happening that cannot be explained according to our current understanding of how things work.

    If somebody was explaining how they achieve such a feat and it's something we all could do with proper guidance and practice then could it be rightly called a miracle?

  • federicafederica Seeker of the clear blue sky... Its better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than to speak out and remove all doubt Moderator

    Moderator note:

    @Woah93, @Victorious suggested you continue your discussion via PM, in order to not further derail the thread...
    I have abbreviated your post, above, but the post in its entirety is in your PM box.
    Take it from there, many thanks.

    Moderator note ends.

  • Woah93Woah93 Veteran

    Cheers :) I still think this little vid applys :) Nice "psychic" experiment of human emotion affecting other systems! Really interesting

    Shoshin
  • ShoshinShoshin No one in particular Nowhere Special Veteran

    @Woah93 said:
    Cheers :) I still think this little vid applys :) Nice "psychic" experiment of human emotion affecting other systems! Really interesting

    Kia Ora,

    Quite interesting.....

    So if this is truly the case, can you imagine what is happening to the food already in our digestive system...

    You are what you eat.....Eat well ! You are what you think...Think well !

    Metta Shoshin . :) ..

    Woah93DavidBuddhadragon
  • BuddhadragonBuddhadragon Ehipassiko & Carpe Diem Samsara Veteran

    @Victorious said:

    The episode where the Buddha forbids his disciples to attempt to perform miracles is mentioned in Paul Carus's "The Gospel of the Buddha" in the chapter "Miracles forbidden."
    His sources are W. W. Rockhill's translation of "The life of the Buddha from Tibetan Works," T. W. Rhys Davids' "Buddhism" and P. Bigandet's "The life or legend of Gautama."
    Davids takes Spence Hardy as the source for the anecdote, but none of them mentions in which sutta the episode is found.
    I have Hardy's book downstairs and hubby already activated the alarm, so I'll check in the morning to see if Hardy mentions which is the original sutta.

  • ShoshinShoshin No one in particular Nowhere Special Veteran

    Kia Ora,

    My rational (non superstitious) mind likes to think the only miracle the Buddha performed (and knew to be true) was the miracle of change, and how he had the ability to change people's lives in such a profound way, and is still doing so...

    Now that's what I call a true miracle....

    Metta Shoshin . :) ..

    ownerof1000oddsocksBuddhadragonJeffrey
  • Woah93Woah93 Veteran

    Nice! Seeing objectively where you could use improvement is openness in itself :)
    Curiosity does wonders for being both simultaneously (although I think you don't view me as a skeptic I guess haha). Just see things which seem absurd and, even only for entertainment and inquisitive nature, see what it is about, instead of seeing if it's true or valid, mindfulness meditation also helped me a lot because non-judgement and an inquisitive nature is required to capture each moment.

    Usual I sit in my garden and see an empty space and nothing is happening, but if I use mindfulness I will notice the insects crawling and moving their way through the environment, the wind and the sound of the wind which echoes from far, children going home from school, I notice that while I find spiders and snails generally unappealing, after really looking at them in that moment they are actually quite cute. So really it can turn the most run of the mill, humdrum experience into an adventure! It's really great, be open to experience!

    Psychic powers are seen as mysterious but isn't EVERYTHING about this life mysterious? I mean think about it, how weird really is this reality we live in. Trees, flowers, animals, hands, the sun, water. Look closely, further than the word or label we generally slap on them to skip actually observing them and they are all miracles by just existing.

    “There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.”
    Albert Einstein

    ToraldrisJeffreylobsterSarahT
  • lobsterlobster Crusty Veteran

    @AldrisTorvalds said:
    For all I know, some day I'll understand and directly experience things that today I can't fathom believing, but only on that day. ;) It's hard to be both open and skeptical simultaneously, and it's the openness that I have to work at (the skepticism being my natural mode).

    The dharma dervishes have a saying: 'Trust in Cod but tie your camel first'. What this means in part, is attend to the conventional lore but watch out for the impossible. It is really the difference between gnosis/knowing and denying the 'impossible'. Don't try and move mountains, they sure are stubborn but salute the sun that rises behind them. What I am suggesting is to be open to skeptical being and knowing metta. I luvs your scepticism it sounds healthy. It is as you say only part of you . . .

    "At the bottom of great doubt lies great awakening. If you doubt fully, you will awaken fully"
    Hakuin

    Toraldris
  • VictoriousVictorious Grim Veteran
    edited July 2014

    @dharmamom said:

    Thanks. I would be much obliged. Without being a sutta snob the Gospel I do not really consider a reliable text.

    I am pretty sure Buddha forbade unnecessary displays of powers for monks. For instance he did not want people becoming converted because they expected to learn powers. And developmnet was discouraged since they are only one more thing that binds you to samsara.

    But the Buddha himself and his disciples used powers according to the suttas on numerous occasions.

    And if he explicitly forbade it in the same suttas that would constitute a contradiction.
    So the more I think about it the less probable it seems.

    /Victor

  • VictoriousVictorious Grim Veteran
    edited July 2014

    Hey dudes and dudettes. Lets get our hands dirty.

    Lets try out the yoghurt experiment. And see if it is for real? @Woah93‌ do you know how it was set up? What was measured really?

    I am game.

    /Victor

    Woah93
  • Woah93Woah93 Veteran

    I'm in :D I'm not sure it's featured in the documentairy I Am by tom shadyack (creator of ace ventura, bruce allmighty etc). I'll check out what specifics they mention about it. But good idea! Seems doable to replicate at home right?

  • lobsterlobster Crusty Veteran
    edited July 2014

    Go for yogurt science . . .

    Electon drift (basically where people's bioelectromagnetic field effects the small distances in CPU to cause anomalies) is taken into account when designing computer chips . . .
    http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bioelectromagnetics

    Quantum biology investigates more bizarre phenomena such as quantum tunnelling . . .
    http://Tmxxine.tumblr.com/quantumbiology

    Personally I find a 'calm being', means I do not spook animals, who seem particularly aware of people's emotional state, probably by the ability to sense the bio-electromagnetic field . . . experienced soldiers seem to develop this 'hair standing up on ones neck' facility in the face of unseen danger. There is probably some research on this, somewhere . . .

    Victorious
  • SarahTSarahT Time ... space ... joy South Coast, UK Veteran

    @Woah93 said:
    “There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.”
    Albert Einstein

    I choose everything :D I certainly find it miraculous that I found this site when I was looking for guidance on abstaining from frivolous speech and that, somehow along the way, I had acquired a book by Sangharakshita that pointed me in this direction. I am happy with perceiving things this way rather than taking them for granted. Thanks, all, for being here!

    Woah93
  • Woah93Woah93 Veteran
    edited July 2014

    @Lobster But nothing beats experiments being done by yourself, witnessed by yourself to actually work and really though things which can be tested and applied by general public is what I find most interesting when it comes to the scientific field, reading it from books is way less exciting :D

    I haven't delved deep in quantum but it doesn't interest me as much as from what I have seen it's just way too far out there in theory, so much so to the sense that I can't really see how it applies in reality :/ I don't know maybe I'm not grasping something about it. But just as in the theory of multiple universes I have not seen any true indication for it other then the math, and that just doesn't strike me as applicable to reality at all. I'm not a scientist though. Just the way it strikes me!

    Bioelectrical fields are actually useful though if they are indication of psychic powers as we think of them, sharing good, positive vibes just by thought alone is a pretty awesome thing :)

  • BuddhadragonBuddhadragon Ehipassiko & Carpe Diem Samsara Veteran

    @Victorious said:
    Thanks. I would be much obliged. Without being a sutta snob the Gospel I do not really consider a reliable text.

    I am pretty sure Buddha forbade unnecessary displays of powers for monks. For instance he did not want people becoming converted because they expected to learn powers. And developmnet was discouraged since they are only one more thing that binds you to samsara.

    I'll have to owe you this one @Victorious. Have checked Spence Hardy and the index does not list miracles nor magic, so I'd have to go through all 566 pages in order to find the reference cited on the other books. My edition is from 1880 and quite tattered.

    But today again, in Max Müller's translation on the Dhammapada (my edition is 1872), at the footnote of Chapter XVIII, line 254, he explains:
    "We know how Buddha himself protested against his disciples being called upon to perform vulgar miracles."
    He quotes Burnouf as transcribing:
    "I command my disciples not to work miracles, but to hide their good deeds, and to show their sins."
    Again, no reference as to on which sutta we can find these admonitions.
    Very humbly, I have to add that Paul Carus' Gospel is still around and no matter how far we have tread in Buddhist revisionism, Rhys-Davids, Müller, Burnouf and Spence Hardy have been heavy-weights in the subject. If they all agree on the existence of this assertion, something's got to be.

    I have googled these references as to what seems to be a sort of accepted view on miracles in Buddhism:

    http://www.buddhanet.net/e-learning/buddhism/lifebuddha/2_26lbud.htm

    http://secularbuddhism.org/2012/10/22/the-buddhas-manifesto-on-miracles-and-revelation/

    In Phra Prayudh Payutto's fantastic book "Buddhadhamma," on pages 153-155, he quotes different suttas which admonish against believing in visions, dreams, signs, astrology and auspicious days.

  • VictoriousVictorious Grim Veteran

    @Woah93 said:
    I'm in :D I'm not sure it's featured in the documentairy I Am by tom shadyack (creator of ace ventura, bruce allmighty etc). I'll check out what specifics they mention about it. But good idea! Seems doable to replicate at home right?

    Ok, I'll look into it too.

    Some nobrainer tips.

    1. You ought to be alone when doing this since according to the theory somebody elses energy might affect the result too.

    2. When you have found a though that arouses the yoghurt metrics then try some random times of thinking of something else that does not excite the culture. To make it more probable!

    3. Try different types of yoghurt.

    4. Try same thing with water for an reference sample.

    Something else?

    Anybody else onboard? The more the merrier.

    /Victor

  • VictoriousVictorious Grim Veteran

    @dharmamom said:
    In Phra Prayudh Payutto's fantastic book "Buddhadhamma," on pages 153-155, he quotes different suttas which admonish against believing in visions, dreams, signs, astrology and auspicious days.

    The one about superstitiousness I have read (if its the same one). (But it is about not using them as a means of earning bread.) But never a one that categorically prohibits supernormal powers. (which is another thing)

    Very humbly, I have to add that Paul Carus' Gospel is still around and no matter how far we have tread in Buddhist revisionism, Rhys-Davids, Müller, Burnouf and Spence Hardy have been heavy-weights in the subject. If they all agree on the existence of this assertion, something's got to be.

    Hmm maybe. I will let you know if I find something. Thanks for your effort!

    /Victor

  • VictoriousVictorious Grim Veteran
    edited July 2014

    @Shoshin said:

    Ye all probably knew but.

    http://www.elementsbehavioralhealth.com/mental-health/yogurt-can-affect-brain-function/

    Oh yeah and this. http://www.wired.com/2011/09/the-psychology-of-yogurt/

    Sorry. Will get back on track now. Exciting the yoghurt not the other way around.

  • federicafederica Seeker of the clear blue sky... Its better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than to speak out and remove all doubt Moderator

    Is that a euphemism...? :eek: .

    Victorious
  • VictoriousVictorious Grim Veteran
    edited July 2014

    @Victorious said:

    Interesting... considering the experiment...
    http://weilerpsiblog.wordpress.com/2010/05/07/consciousness-at-the-cellular-level-the-experiments-of-cleve-backster/

    I think I have covered what we need to think about in the points above.

    /Victor

    EDIT: This experiment

    http://www.wired.com/2011/09/the-psychology-of-yogurt/

    seems to suggest that there is no Psychic connection but that the connection is rather physical. Considering who is in the yoghurt experiment it is most likely bogus. :). But heck I am game anyway... unfortunately I have found nothing on what was exactly measured.

  • EarthninjaEarthninja Wanderer West Australia Veteran

    @Woah93‌ well that escalated quickly. Psychic powers to subliminal messages on TV to resurrecting Osiris!

    Hahaha brilliant. I'm sure there is some truth but my biggest grievance is not all this. It's the ego! Get rid of this first I say

    Toraldris
  • Woah93Woah93 Veteran

    :)

  • ShoshinShoshin No one in particular Nowhere Special Veteran

    @Victorious said:
    Sorry. Will get back on track now. Exciting the yoghurt not the other way around.

    Kia Ora,

    Just out of interest...Are the makers of yogurt called yogis ? . :D ..

    Metta Shoshin .:) ..

    lobsterEarthninjaSarahT
  • VictoriousVictorious Grim Veteran

    They are! Lol!

    Unfortunately the experiment seems to require a polygraph. Or at least a sensor to measure skin/sweat conductivity. I do not think my voltmeter suffices. But I will rig it anyway.

    /Victor

  • lobsterlobster Crusty Veteran

    If you like yogurt culture pseudo science a radionic device is easy to construct
    en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radionics

    He who has the most dials wins . . .

  • @Shoshin said:
    Kia Ora,

    Tis said that meditation 'could' lead to the meditator obtaining psychic powers/abilities...

    When it comes to the paranormal, I have an open mind (be it not so open that my brain falls out) but open nevertheless...

    However when it comes to psychic powers "I" can't see the need for them in my everyday life...Ok, they might go down well for a party trick .

    I tend to view psychic phenomena as the flowing and interaction of energies in one form or other, and a person having or developing a special connection to certain energy flows...Tuning in so to speak....

    Some no doubt, might enter into the practice of meditation in order to gain psychic powers...

    I don't 'mind' being a psychonaut ie, riding the waves of consciousness through meditative means, (for me personally it's been very beneficial), but I don't need psychic powers....

    After all....People think that I'm psycho enough as it is . :D ..

    How about you ? Does the thought of obtaining psychic powers psyche you up ?

    Metta Shoshin . :) .. :

    Iddhis or Siddhis, often translated as ' psychic powers ' can, and fairly frequently do, arise as a result of meditation practices.

    I know of no Theravada teacher that recommends actually focussing on them to develop them.
    Instead the general advice is to note them and let them go, no different in other words to the attitude to be cultivated to all conditioned phenomena.

    Shoshin
  • Woah93Woah93 Veteran
    edited July 2014

    Meditation is actually a way of developing them, perhaps the ONLY valid way. :)

    Anyhow an interesting video on mind interference with quantom phenomena

  • VictoriousVictorious Grim Veteran

    @mettanando said:
    Instead the general advice is to note them and let them go, no different in other words to the attitude to be cultivated to all conditioned phenomena.

    The powers themselves may be redundant. But not the basis of the same.
    Without the "basis of power" effort on the path will probably fall short.

    /Victor

  • VictoriousVictorious Grim Veteran
    edited July 2014

    @Woah93 said:
    Meditation is actually a way of developing them, perhaps the ONLY valid way. :)

    Anyhow an interesting video on mind interference with quantom phenomena

    Not really mind. The observer does not need to be a mind. It is the interference of the observing apparatus that is key to the changed behaviour.

    Correct me if I am wrong.

    /Victor.

    I believe this thread is sinking.

    I will start a new one...

  • @lobster said:
    Buddha Babes

    LOL! Nice phrase!

Sign In or Register to comment.