< Irdhi-Pada (continued from page 3-79) >
Now, it seems worth noting how many of the above recited phenomena resemble what is claimed to be affected by or through medial or clairvoyant sensitives to-day. How, for example, the last-named gift recalls that most wonderful and well-attested power of Heinrich Zschokke, by which passages in the lives of others, with whom lie was in company, often perfect strangers, were suddenly brought before his eyes, with all minute accompaniaments of place, surroundings, and personages, passages too often very embarrassing.
It may be that these mysterious powers and attributes have in different ages been manifested in different ways, and under varying conditions. The Buddhists held that the power of Irdhi, was exceedingly difficult to acquire, even after the exercise of all the Kasinas ; indeed, hardly to be attained unless they had been also practised in former lives.
“To him who has not exercised Kasina in former ages, its accomplishment is exceedingly difficult. Among those who have not exercised it, scarcely-one succeeds in its acquisition out of a hundred or a thousand who may attempt it. Even to those who have accomplished the exercises, the acquirement of the nimitta-illumination is most difficult ; scarcely one in a thousand is successful, and even after that is acquired, it is equally difficult to attain the power of Irdhi.”
At the present day there is little idea of acquiring mediumistic or clairvoyant powers : they appear to be conferred in a strangely, random way, not coming with observation, but like a wind that blows whither it listeth ; nor is it certain how far they are susceptible of development by personal will or striving.
In the extract just given from the Melinda Prasna, an allusion may be noticed to exercising the rites in former ages or states of existence. This may give occasion for a few words on reincarnation as held by Buddhism. It is almost needless to observe that this most ancient theory is the substratum and rationale of the great Indian systems. Buddha declared that from existence and its inevitable incidents was produced “the complete body of sorrow.” Sentient beings have run, and will continue to run, through endless phases of existence. The Jatakas record nearly five hundred particular states of existence, varying from a deity, a monarch, ascetic and artisan, to an elephant, serpent, fish and frog, in which Gotama Bodhisakwa himself, appeared before attaining the supreme Buddhahood. The “cleaving to existing objects,” is a property inherent in all sentient beings, and cannot be shaken off, except by Rahats. When by the dissolution of the elements death supervenes upon one state of being, “the cleaving to existence” still exists, must exert its power, and another being must necessarily be produced ; but the manner and degree of the new existence, is controlled by a mysterious and intricate property termed kadma[2], literally “action,” the aggregate result of all previous acts, in unbroken succession, from the beginning of existence, through the countless births of past ages. This, through a mere abstraction, is as inseparable from existence as shadow from substance, and though sometimes inactive is ever potentially present, like fruit on a tree. No one can tell in what state the Kadma that rules him will appoint his next birth. He may be now and till death a very virtuous man, but in his kadma there may be some crime committed in a birth ages ago, and the punishment for that crime may have to be endured. Contrariwise, a bad life and evil deeds at present may be healed in a new birth, by the influence of good actions done in a former state of being. But the way of kadma is intricate and uncertain none can forecast its operation, or what deeds in long past births may influence the new birth. The sage Mogalan was the principal disciple of Buddha, and the chief of those who possessed the power of Irdhi ; yet he was once assaulted by thieves, who broke several of his bones ; and this was explained by Buddha as the result of kadma, because in a far distant birth he had caused the death of one of his parents. The only escape from “the sorrow of existence”—the sole perfect rest—is the attainment of Nirwana, the goal and hope of all Buddhists. Whoso has entered some of the Four Paths at last “sees Nirwana,” and becomes a Rahak[3] ; “He can receive no further birth ; the path of successive existence is destroyed ; all cleaving to existence is cut off ; the principle of evil desire is eradicated ; all connection with the world is completed and done.” Europeans regard Nirwana with horror, as mere blank annihilation ; in Buddhist eyes it is the one absolute deliverance and rest: the only outlet whereby at last
Even the weariest river |
When it is considered that by a continued repetition of birth and death, the sentient being may be subject to constant suffering, being liable to be hurried from one scale of existence to another, and flung down, perhaps, from the condition of a sage or king to that of a leper or a reptile, it is intelligible how existence can be regarded as the worst of evils, and its utter extinction the greatest gain. A Buddhist would find in Kadma a key to all the puzzles of heredity and the possession of medial powers by otherwise unspiritual persons ; such in former lives may have attained the higher communion, been flung down from it by the Kadma of previous or subsequent lapses, and now survivals and half awakenings of long lost powers and faculties, may, in the kaleidoscopic revolution of good and evil, revisit the present existence
Like glimpses of forgotten dreams, |
Before quitting this pale and cheerless philosophy that distrusts and hates alike both life and death, and in which the great doctrine of progressive evolution finds no place, it may be remarked, that its experience of Irdhi-levitation is not peculiar, but occurs in every religious system. El Islam, especially in its ecstatic aspects, knows it well. The flights of Mohammed to Paradise are well known. It is recorded by a contemporary of the famous Jellal-al-din, the founder of the order of whirling Dervishes, born A. D. 1207, that when he was five years old he had manifestations from the invisible world, sights of angels and genii within domes of glory. Once when a boy, playing with other children on the flat house-tops, one of them suggested that they should jump from one house-top to another. Jellal-al-din replied that such sport was only fit for dogs or cats, but that human beings, if they felt any power in their souls, ought to fly heavenwards, with him. Saying so he disappeared from their sight, on which they raised a cry of lamentation ; whereupon he shortly reappeared amongst them with the hue of his countenance changed, and his eyes altered, and said:
“As I spoke to you I suddenly saw a company of persons dressed in green raiment, who took me up and showed me the miracles of the upper world, but when your wailings ascended they again deposited me here.”
St. Philip Neri, Ignatius Loyola, Teresa, Dominie, Dunstan, Cajetan, and many other saints are declared by contemporary evidence to have been raised from the ground during devotions. The Abbe Movillot reports of the Esquimaux in Greenland, that their angakoks, or priests, sometimes rise from the ground and pass through the roofs above them. All the phenomena of modern seances appear to be familiar to this remote and barbarous people.
Editor's notes