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.