Omniscience and the Cultivation of Supernormal Powers
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Omniscience and the Cultivation of Supernormal Powers
The meaning of Omniscience
Omniscience can mean;
>Infinite knowledge or understanding which would be considered as Total Omniscience.
>A very great, or seemingly infinite knowledge or Inherent Omniscience.
The first meaning would mean that there is no freewill and everything would be predestined. The Buddha said that no being, human or divine, could be all-knowing. He denied that God is omniscient for if he was, religion would become meaningless. If God knows everything, he must know how we are going to act long before we do, which means that we have no freedom to act otherwise. And if we have no freedom to choose how we are going to act, what is the point of teaching people to be good and to avoid evil?
However, the Blessed One did say He was 'one who knows the worlds'. He asserts that he possesses the Three Direct Knowledge, that is:
>He is able to recollect His Manifold Past Lives;
>He is able - with His Divine Eye - to see the passing away and reappearing of beings and He understands how beings pass on according to their actions;
>And finally, having the knowledge capable of eradicating defilements.
Besides the Three Direct Knowledge mentioned above, the Visuddhimagga also describe three other forms of Direct Knowledge that can also be cultivated through Concentration Meditation, they are;
>Having been one, He can becomes many, and being many, He becomes one; He appears and disappears; He passes through fences, walls, and mountains unhindered as if through air; He sinks into the ground and emerges from it as if it were water; He walks on the water
without breaking the surface as if on land; He flies cross-legged through the air like a bird with wings……>The knowledge of the Divine Ear, where He hears both kind of sounds, the divine and the human, those that are far as well as near.
>And the knowledge of Penetration of Minds; i.e., understanding the ways of others’ thought.
We can conclude that the Blessed One would have such insight, such wisdom, that it seemed as though He knew everything, as though His knowledge was drawn from a bottomless well.
Buddhist Logic on Omniscience
All our constructed concepts and knowledge of this world are limited by the condition of our sense faculties; i.e., our eyes, ears, nose, tongue, and body sensation. If we would possess another intuition, an intelligible, non sensuous intuition, we would know everything directly and would be omniscient. But we cognized only the first moment of a thing directly, thereafter our Understanding takes over and constructs the image of the object based on our intelligences, bias, personal dispositions, memories and experiences. All images are thus constructed concepts and are transcendental illusions, they are not ultimate realities.
Real sense perception, or cognition by our senses, is only the first moment of perception. In the following moments, when the attention is aroused, it is no more pure sense perception. In normal human, a moment of Intelligible Intuition is admitted to be involved in every perception; the moment following on the first pure sensation. After this moment of intelligible Intuition, the Understanding takes over and tries to explain the first pure sensation of a thing in vague and general image or concept.
We can imagine beings which are free from the limitation of our senses of eyes, ears, nose, tongue, and body sensation. Their cognition will not consist in a collaboration of two heterogeneous sources; the dissimilar pure sensation and the concept form thereafter. They will have no need to cognize reality by a circuit of dialectical concepts, example; red from all other colors that are not red, soft as compare with hard, etc. They will have only one method of cognition – Direct Intuition.
If we would possess this Direct Intuition, we would understand reality as directly as we feel it in the first moment of sensation. Our knowledge would be infinite and it would be Direct Knowledge of Reality. We would know the remote as the near, the past just as the present. Free from this illusion is only the Intelligible Intuition of the saint.
Brief Outline on the Cultivation of Supernormal Powers
The foundation for the cultivation of the supernormal powers are the eight Kasina of Earth, Water, Fire, Air, Blue, Yellow, Red and White colors. When the fourth Jhana stage have been attained using any one of this Kasina, the end result is a pure sensation which is formless and colorless, void of all thought construction.
In this heightened state of pure consciousness, the Intellect is adverted to the memory for the recollection of pass events in this present existence, right up to the point of birth; this been the method for the cultivation for the Recollection of Past Life.
It is at the point on the recollection of our previous last life, starting from the moment of death that Direct Intuition come into play.
We shall take a brief look on the cultivation method for the Recollection of Past Life as describe in the Visuddhimagga;
“So a bhikkhu who is a beginner and want to recollect in this way should go into solitary retreat. Then he should attain the four jhanas in succession and emerge from the fourth jhana as the basis for direct-knowledge. He should then advert to his most recent act of sitting down, next to the preparation of the seat, to the entry into the lodging, to the putting away of the bowl and outer robe, to the time of eating; the adverting would entails the complete memory of all minute details of events that was done on the first day. And so, in reverse order too, he should advert to the things done on the second, third, fourth, and in the ten days, and in the fortnight, and as far back as a year. When by these means he adverts to ten, twenty years and so on as far back as his own rebirth-linking in this existence.
From here the difficulties of adverting to the mentality-materiality occurring at the moment of death in the preceding existence is mentioned. We are told not to give up the task, once we managed to get passed the adverting to the death moment of the previous life, the knowledge that arises, together with that consciousness is what is called ‘knowledge of recollection of pass life’. It is with the memory associated with that knowledge that he ‘recollects his manifold past life, that is to say one birth, two births and so on……”
Other instructions on the methods to cultivate the Knowledge on the Penetration of Minds, Divine Eye, Divine Ear and power of becoming Many, are also explained in the Visuddhimagga
Conclusion
It is also stated in the Visuddhimagga that it is difficult, and only one out of a hundred or a thousand practitioners can attain to each stage of the Jhana, and the various stages of cultivation of the supernormal power. The practice of Meditation should be a way of life for all Buddhists. The thought of Supernormal Power cultivation should add impetus and motivations to our daily meditation practices. As it is considered a more advanced development of Concentration, it will also aid in our cultivation of Insight meditation. The total concentration attained will heightened our mindfulness and alertness, and without distraction from random thoughts to interfere with the investigation on the three Marks of Existence, we will certainly progress at a much faster rate in gaining a greater and deeper Insight and Understanding of the subjects and be freed from the bondage of this world.
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This article seems to link the development of supernatural powers with the experience of pure consciousness.
However, in my understanding and experience, you can experience pure consciousness without the development of supernatural powers, and you can develope supernatural powers even without the experience of pure consciousness.
To me those are two different matters.
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Agree you can experience pure consciousness without the development of supernormal power, but the development of supernormal power without being in the state of pure conciousness? It would be nice if you can share some info. and experience on it with all of us.
I believe some feel that you have to come out of the Jhana state before you can start the practice of the cultivation of the supernormal power.
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Originally posted by Aik TC:
Agree you can experience pure consciousness without the development of supernormal power, but the development of supernormal power without being in the state of pure conciousness? It would be nice if you can share some info. and experience on it with all of us.
I believe some feel that you have to come out of the Jhana state before you can start the practice of the cultivation of the supernormal power.
Very strong concentration and absorption... don't think 'pure consciousness' is necessary. I have some experience with jhanas, and wouldn't exactly relate the jhanas with 'pure consciousness'. 'Pure Consciousness' - pure sensate clarity without any sense of self or subject-object division is a different kind of experience.
Anyway, here's a very interesting discussion by dharma teacher Daniel M. Ingram on powers:
Buddhist Geeks episode 61: Buddhist Magic: What is Possible with the Powers?
Episode 61: Buddhist Magic: What is Possible with the Powers?
0diggsdiggHave you ever considered what it would be like to cultivate, what in the Buddhist tradition are called the siddhis or magical powers? Buddhist magic is an endlessly fascinating topic, and in this episode we speak with Daniel Ingram, one of our favorite guests here on Buddhist Geeks, about the powers.
We cover their historical treatment by some of the major traditions, including the Zen, Tibetan, and Theravada. Daniel also gives us his first-hand experience having explored the powers, and considers the implications of doing public magic, and whether or not this kind of magic is "objectively real". We also discuss the ethical issues involved in using magic and issues of reproducibility.
Finally, we take a look at the ancient text, The Fruits of the Homeless Life, and explore what was said in that text about the powers, especially about the greatest power of all, the power of insight.
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There's a part in the interview that reminded me of what Thusness said many years ago. Thusness said that at one point, one should develope/have some experience with the powers and siddhis, because it will help in realising the non-local/interdependent nature of reality. (that is the only occasion where he encouraged the cultivation of 'psychic' phenomena but he calls them 'non-local phenomena' such as seeing and hearing without the limitations of boundaries etc - for the improvement of insight)
Daniel said the same thing in 3:30:
...If you get your concentration strong enough, you start to notice all kinds of things like the connections between phenomena, and if you start to actually even interact in a purely sort magical way, like let's say you're trying to influence something, or project out into something, or whatever powers you are trying to manifest, or move some objects, or (?) around the candle flame, or visualize something: it's nearly impossible to get into that realm and not start noticing the interconnectedness of things, and by noticing the interconnectedness and interdependence of things, that in and of itself is insight because you're noticing cause and effect, you're noticing that the boundaries that arbitrarily that seem to separate thought, and body, and world all from each other, obviously extremely arbitrary, flexible, illusory, not so straight forward, etc, and so even just doing pure powersy things it's nearly impossible not to run into some of the classic insights that have to do with insight practice...
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My believe is that any form of cultivations, be it Supernormal Powers, Insight or Understanding, can be started at different level of Concentration achieved. It is just that without attaining to the fourth Jhana state as described by Buddhaghosa in the Visuddhimagga, our progress in these cultivations may be impeded, slowed or even fail totally due to the the ten Fetters that could arise repeatedly at anytime to interfere in the process of our cultivation.
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Shamatha jhana practice helps provide a stable concentration ground to aid the practice of insight meditation (vipassana), however I do not think it is necessary to cultivate until the 4th jhana before you start practicing Vipassana. Many have not done that and equally attained to the stages of enlightenment.
As for the ten fetters: strictly speaking the fetters only serve as obstruction to insight practice if you get lost in the stories/contents of the fetters (desires, anger, etc) - but if when those fetters arise you directly penetrate and investigate the 3 characteristics (impermanence, unsatisfactoriness and non-self) of the thoughts, feelings and sensations that make up the fetters, you are actively deconstructing the fetters even when they arise - and then even fetters become used as part of your insight meditation to produce insights into the nature of reality.
Fetters can and will continue to arise before full enlightenment and as such, there is no way one can 'block out all fetters' permanently prior to that full enlightenment of the sravaka path (the fourth stage of enlightenment, aka Arhantship), so we might as well work with/investigate the fetters as and when they arise in our experience. The point of vipassana/insight meditation is not in blocking out certain mind states, but rather the deconstructing and investigating of the nature of all mind states and sensations as they arise.
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Thanks for the points on the fetters in aid on Insight meditation.