~ Excerpted from a talk by Master Hsing Yun
The
Buddhist Perspective on Magic and the
Supernatural
A. Magic Is Not the Ultimate
According to scriptures, even though two thousand years have
passed, several of the Buddha’s disciples still live amongst us.
Mahakyasyapa, one of the Buddha’s top disciples, is guarding the
Buddha’s robe and in deep meditation inside Kukkutapada mountain.
He is waiting for the birth of Maitreya Buddha fifty-six trillion
and seven hundred million years from now. He will present the robe,
which represents the correct Dharma of the previous Buddha, to
Maitreya Buddha for the continuous spread of the teachings. Decades
ago, there was a story about a French explorer who actually met
Mahakasyapa in India.
Venerable Pindolabharadvaja is another of Buddha’s disciples still
living amongst us. He is one of the sixteen disciples named in The
Amitabha Sutra. He has attained the holy fruit of Arhat. Why would
an arhat remain here and not enter Nirvana? It is because once he
showed off his magic in front of the faithful. Once when in a
jubilant mood, he said to the faithful, "Do you think flying in the
sky is magical? I will show you some spectacular acts."
He then jumped up into the sky and performed many miraculous acts.
The faithful were all impressed and praised him without ceasing.
The Buddha was very displeased upon learning of this incident. He
asked the Venerable to come forth and admonished him, "My teaching
uses morality to change others and compassion to save living
beings. It does not use magic to impress and confuse people. You
have misused magic today. As punishment, I order you to stay in
this world, to work for more merits and to repent for this
misbehavior before entering Nirvana."
Because the Venerable misused magic, he still has to live and
suffer amongst us. Magic cannot increase our virtue or eradicate
defilements. Careless use will only build more obstacles to
emancipation. It is obvious that magic is not the solution for
cycles of rebirth. Only practicing virtue is the sure and steady
approach toward the Buddha Path.
B. Magic Cannot Mitigate the Force of Karma
The strongest force in this world is not magic. It is the force of
deeds, or karma. In Chinese history, there once was an uprising and
millions of people were slaughtered. There was a saying, "Rebel
Huang will kill eight million. If you are in that number and it is
your turn, you can never escape." The legend held that this rebel
did kill eight million people before he was suppressed. Regardless
of whether this story is factual or mythical, we will talk about
the phrase "your number and your turn." What does it mean? It means
that none can escape karma. Those citizens during that uprising
shared common karma which had to be repaid with blood. Magic cannot
overcome the hindrance of karma. We must reap what we have sown.
There is no escape.
Once, King Virudhaka of Kosala was attacking the Buddha’s
motherland, Kapilavastu. Maudgalyayana, foremost in magic among the
Buddha’s disciples, volunteered to save the Sakya clan. The Buddha
replied sadly, "Maudgalyayana, this is the Sakya clan’s karma and
they have not repented for it. Today they will have to pay for
their deeds. Although they are my family, even my magic cannot
spare them."
Maudgalyayana did not believe the Buddha’s words. He flew into the
city, which was completely surrounded by troops. He picked five
hundred Sakya clansmen and magically put them in his almsbowl. He
flew out of the city and happily came before the Buddha. He said,
"Lord Buddha. Look! I have saved a group of your clansmen."
However, looking into the bowl, he was shocked. The clansmen had
turned into a pool of blood. Even Maudgalyayana himself, who was
renowned for his magic, could not overcome the force of karma. He
could fly freely into the heaven and had ventured into hell to save
his mother. Yet, he was eventually killed by a stone thrown by
heretics. How can a venerable with such great magic be so easily
killed by a stone? Many of the Buddha’s disciples were perturbed
and angry. The Buddha spoke to the disciples, "Magic cannot
mitigate the force of karma. It is Maudgalyayana’s karma to be
killed by the stone thrown by heretics. You should not doubt the
limit of magic. It is more important to diligently purify your
action, speech, and thought."
There is a saying, "A boxer is killed by a fist. A swimmer drowns
in water." Magic is not all powerful. One must not think that magic
will make one fearless. The force of prior karma cannot be
influenced by magic. If we only rely on magic, we can worsen our
situation and may even lose our lives.
C. Magic Is Inferior to Virtues
Beginning students in Buddhism are most attracted to magic. When
they learn about someone who has had a supernatural experience,
they flock to see this person. They usually overlook the
cultivation of virtue in daily living. Wisdom is only developed
through deep mental concentration from meditation, and meditation
success relies on upholding precepts in daily living. If all of us
here are serious students of Buddhism, we must start from the
foundation of morality, not magic.
Do you really think magic will make your life happier? As long as
we cannot read minds, even though people may hate us and curse us,
we do not know it and everything is okay. If we could read minds,
then we would know that this person is totally immoral, that one is
hateful, and the other one is full of devious ideas. We would feel
uncomfortable among these people. Even when we wished to be spared,
we would still have the information anyway. Every day would be a
long day. Suppose that we were about to die tomorrow but we did not
know that, then today still would be a joyful day. If we had the
power of knowing the future and we found out that death awaited us
in twenty years, from this day on we would live our lives anxiously
under the shadow of death. If we had celestial vision and found our
loved ones having an affair, we would be consumed by jealousy and
life would be miserable. If we do not know, we may live happily as
ever. If we had celestial hearing, we might find our most trusted
friends reviling us behind our backs, and we would certainly be
enraged. Without celestial hearing, we may enjoy more peace and
quietness.
Magic would not necessarily make life better. Morality and virtue
are the true inexhaustible treasures. Before we are accomplished in
high virtue and morality, we should not have magical powers. A life
of virtue is superior to that of magic.
D. Magic Cannot Surpass Emptiness
Magic is in the realm of phenomena. The prajna wisdom of Buddhism
is in the realm of emptiness which is everywhere, not bounded by
anything. When there is experience in life, experience is magic.
When there is wisdom in life, wisdom is magic. When we have
different capabilities in life, those capabilities are magic. There
is the truth of emptiness in life; the truth of emptiness is also
magic. The wisdom of emptiness is very profound. It is not void or
annihilation as most people commonly believe. Emptiness allows
existence. It is the source of all phenomena. For example, because
of the empty space in this lecture hall, it can accommodate us and
make this lecture series possible. When our hearts are as broad as
the universe, we too can have the capacity for everything.
Emptiness is the most powerful force. Magic cannot compare with its
boundlessness and inexhaustibility.
Once, the Ch’an master Venerable Tao Shu settled next to a Taoist
temple. The Taoist priests were very irate at his presence and used
every kind of magic and tricks to scare him away. Almost all the
residents were frightened away. However, the Ch’an master remained
unmoving as ever. After twenty years, the Taoist priests gave up.
People asked, "What magic did you use to beat those Taoist
priests?"
The Ch’an master replied, "Oh, nothing. I used emptiness to beat
them. Taoist priests have magic and tricks. ‘Having’ is being
finite, being exhaustible, being bounded, being measurable. I do
not have any magic. ‘Not having’ means being infinite, being
inexhaustible, being boundless, being immeasurable. Therefore,
emptiness (not having) can overcome magic (having) by being
broader, greater, higher, superior."
Buddhism uses emptiness as existence. It is much more powerful than
magic. The wisdom of emptiness is much more advanced than magic. We
will be much better off attaining the truth of emptiness than the
power of magic. The truth of emptiness will be far more essential
and valuable.
