Dialogues - Philosophy

Question 1

Quotes on Buddhist miracles

Answer 1

• I see danger in miraculous displays and am troubled, ashamed and disgusted by them : Buddha in Kenyatta sutra
• ‘don’t perform therm to convert people, expulsion if you claim to have powers you don’t; expulsion if you show off the powers you do have’
• ‘miracle is something unexpected’ Dalai Lama
• ‘I think the real miracle is not to walk either on water or in thin air, but to walk on earth’ TNH
  -twin miracle —> shoots fire and water from opposite sides of his body in response to someone saying he did not have supernatural powers

Question 2

Fruits of a contemplative life

Answer 2

• outlines powers Buddha gained from going through the 4 jhanas
• miracles are presented as realist —> they did or did not happen
• enlightenment seen as a miracle
• ‘he walks on water without sinking as if it were dry land’
• ‘with his hand he touches and strokes even the sun and moon’ —> break in natural law
• clairaudience, clairvoyance
• ‘awareness of other beings’ —> telepathy
• ‘many aeons of cosmic contraction and expansion’ Knowledge of past lives giving him authority
• fruits of experience = knowledge, and mythological powers

Question 3

Angulimala and break in natural law

Answer 3

• Buddha sees through meditative vision that serial killer angu will kill his mother without Buddha’s intervention
  -causes serial killer to chase him instead
• Buddha uses powers to, even though angu is running as fast as he can, B cannot catch up with Buddha who is walking calmly
• Buddha uses powers to contract and expand earth, thus keeping distance with angu

Question 4

Kevatta sutra and 3 miracles

Answer 4

• Buddha asked to display his supernatural powers like Jesus tempted in the wilderness —> not a valid measure of spiritual development because they can be falsified through the use of charms and spells
• opposes ehipassiko: come and see

1. Miracle of psychic power
   - ‘kevatta I feel horrified, humiliated and disgusted with the miracle of psychic power’
   - link with Hume and how faith feels bad as reason has prevailed
   - if basis of being a Buddhist was due to faith, it allows attacks from reason, which undermines the dharma
2. Miracle of telepathy
   - ‘there is a charm called the Manika charm by which the monk can read minds…of other beings’
   - can be attacked by opposing evidence
3. Miracle of instruction
   - ‘he teaches the dharma admirable in the beginning, admirable in its middle, admirable in its end’
   - primary miracle is the dharma —> like wiles and the primary miracle being creation
   - allows him to use upaya and become a skilful teacher —> deer park sermon, kiss gotami

Question 5

Venerable pindola bharadvaja

Answer 5

• ‘Do you think flying in the sky is magical, I will show you some spectacular acts’
• Buddha unimpressed —> ‘my teaching uses morality to change others and compassion to save living beings. It does not use magic to impress and confuse people’
• ‘you will not be allowed to enter Nirvana. Instead you must stay here and be a field of blessedness for living beings’

Question 6

Buddhas miracles in Tibetan B

Answer 6

• 15 consecutive days of miracles performed by SB
• toothpick into ground and tree emerged from the soil with branches extended far and wide over —> blossoming flowers, fruits, multi coloured glimmering gems of every kind
• spat mouthful of water into ground upon which a large lake with even types of precious gem covering bottom was found
• 15th day: Buddha created feast with foods of hundred types of delicacy shared amongst king Bimbisaras congregation —> like Jesus and feeding 5000
• B contradicts himself to not do miracles arbitrarily

Question 7

Philosophy and B agreement with miracles

Answer 7

• Hume: transgression of a law of nature, realist understanding
• wiles: can undermine god and dharma, B against using miracles to convert in VP
• Tillich and sign event with miracle of instruction

Question 8

Philosophy and B in conflict over miracles

Answer 8

• volition of a deity vs enlightenment as a source of miracles (Hume)
• anti realist and relies on faith —> Hollands coincidences

Question 9

what is seen as a part of a religious experience in buddhism

Answer 9

• the archetype is enlightenment, buddha found his experience to be ineffable (‘beyond the scope of conjecture’) and had an intellectual, imaginative vision
• visions of maras daughters under bodhi tree
• B achieved the 4 jhanas
• not external to the self
• nirvana likened to the numinous
• fruits of experience seen as experiential wisdom
• Buddhas birth –> queen maya had an imaginative vision
• nature mysticism likened to interbeing and TNH
• interior castle and TofA likened to meditation
• ganz andere: incompatible with Anatta as everything is connected, and there is no separate thing
• evidence of Nirvana = Q of KM and arhats

Question 10

source of a religious experience

Answer 10

• ehipassiko: come and see for yourself –> should not base following off of other tesimonies (swinburne)
• M: meditate on bodhisattvas –> mysticism
• practices for laity to develop merit; chanting prayer, soka gakai
• devotion: taking refuge in three jewels
• self mortification as a source and buddhas asceticism

Question 11

ultimate and conventional understandings of RE

Answer 11

• on an ultimate level they are in conflict, as Nirvana is not understood the same way God is –> theravadin practice does not worship buddha to access him etc
• conventional level there is coherence: wheel of life, vision of elephant for maya, M devotion to bodhisattvas –> leads to same understandings of RE

Question 12

belief in religious experience is reasonable

Answer 12

1. WJ and fruits
   - king M and arhats as proof
   - superpowers of the B
2. Swin and PoT
   - FP and no intoxicants: more reliable source
   - arhats with perfect memory
3. Swin and PoC
4. pluralism and hick
   - vision of maya and marys annunciation

Question 13

belief in miracles is unreasonable

Answer 13

1. drugs, God H and TLE
   - scientific scans of meditation
2. freud and need for father figure
   - unconscious desire
   - sambogakaya, B did not die and a constant in MB
   - however TB do not believe
3. multiple claims argument, hume –>
   - nirvana = numinous
   - M and L likely to exaggerate status of the B due to rolemodel aspect
4. ignorant and barbarous nations
   - 3 fires extinguished, no ignorance