superstition in Theravada: power of metta to protect from fire, sacci kiriyaya power of truth

Re: How did uttara stop the hot water from burning her?

Post by frank k » Mon Aug 08, 2022 2:55 am

Bhikkhu Pesala wrote: ↑Fri Aug 05, 2022 11:35 amAccording to the Commentary on the Aṅguttaranikāya it was boiling oil, not hot water. Uttarā was unscathed due to the protective power of loving-kindness or compassion.

The eleven benefits of loving-kindness are enumerated in the Mettānisaṃsā Suttaṃ.

The benefits of meditation on compassion (karuṇā) would be similar.

Does Vism. or the commentaries describe how powers of metta or sacchi kiryiya actually work, in protecting the reciter from fatal harm?

Sounds like total BS.
The power of metta could indirectly work as protection if one has powerful deva friends who intervene to stop fire from burning the reciter.
But the actual protection is coming from supernormal powers of the deva, not the reciter.
If Uttara herself had supernormal powers, then that could be a reason, but then, it's the supernormal powers then that is the protection, and not the metta.

Sacci Kiryiya powers also sounds like total BS.
If it actually worked that way, wouldn't you think arahants during the Buddha's time would have invoked that power to do things like, "If the Dhamma is genuine and efficacious, may true Dhamma never die and become infected with corrupted forms of Buddhism with superstitions, wrong views and corruption for the entire world aeon?"

Comments

Lucid24.org: What's new?

Link to lucid24.org home page : 4👑☸ Remember, you may have to click the refresh button on your web browser navigation bar at to get updated website. 2024 9-17 Lots of new stuff in the last 2 and a half years. Too many to list. Main one justifying new blog entry, is redesign of home page. Before, it was designed to please me, super dense with everything in one master control panel. I've redesigned it to be friendly to newbies and everyone really. Clear structure, more use of space. At someone's request, I added a lucid24.org google site search at top of home page. 2022 4-14 Major update to lucid24.org, easy navigation of suttas, quicklink: the ramifications 4-2 new feature lucid24.org sutta quick link 3-28 A new translation of SN 38.16, and first jhāna is a lot easier than you think 🔗📝notes related to Jhāna force and J.A.S.I. effect AN 9.36, MN 64, MN 111: How does Ajahn Brahm and Sujato's "Jhāna" work here? 3-13 Added to EBPedia J.A.S.I. ('Jazzy...

AN 9.36, MN 64, MN 111: How does Ajahn Brahm and Sujato's "Jhāna" work here?

What these 3 suttas have in common, AN 9.36, MN 64, MN 111, is the very interesting feature of explicitly describing doing vipassana, while one is in the jhāna and the first 3 formless attainments. LBT (late buddhist text) apologists, as well as Sujato, Brahm, claim that the suttas describe a jhāna where one enters a disembodied, frozen state, where vipassana is impossible until one emerges from that 'jhāna'. Since Sujato translated all the suttas, let's take a look at what he translated, and how it supports his interpretation of 'jhāna'. AN 9.36: Jhānasutta—Bhikkhu Sujato (suttacentral.net) ‘The first absorption is a basis for ending the defilements.’ ‘Paṭhamampāhaṁ, bhikkhave, jhānaṁ nissāya āsavānaṁ khayaṁ vadāmī’ti, iti kho panetaṁ vuttaṁ. That’s what I said, but why did I say it? Kiñcetaṁ paṭicca vuttaṁ? Take a mendicant who, q uite secluded from sensual pleasures, secluded from unskill...

Pāḷi and Sanskrit definition of Viveka

'Viveka', Sanskrit dictionary Primary meaning is ‘discrimination’. Other meanings: (1) true knowledge, (2) discretion, (3) right judgement, (4) the faculty of distinguishing and classifying things according to their real properties’. Wikipedia (sanskrit dictionary entry 'viveka') Viveka (Sanskrit: विवेक, romanized: viveka) is a Sanskrit and Pali term translated into English as discernment or discrimination.[1] According to Rao and Paranjpe, viveka can be explained more fully as: Sense of discrimination; wisdom; discrimination between the real and the unreal, between the self and the non-self, between the permanent and the impermanent; discriminative inquiry; right intuitive discrimination; ever present discrimination between the transient and the permanent.[2]: 348 The Vivekachudamani is an eighth-century Sanskrit poem in dialogue form that addresses the development of viveka. Within the Vedanta tradition, there is also a concept of vichara which is one t...

notes on the Dhamma

Search This Blog