Ven. Nyanatiloka (Anton Gueth), Buddhist Dictionary: Manual of Buddhist Terms and Doctrines (palikanon.com); Dhr. Seven (ed.), Ashley Wells, Wisdom Quarterly
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Abhiññā: There are six "higher powers" (abhi-aññā, "higher knowledges"), supernormal knowings that consist of five mundane (lokiya, "worldly") powers attainable through mental unification (samādhi, "collectedness," concentration).
(1) magical powers (iddhi-vidha)
Magic is real in spite of Disney. - (2) divine ear (dibba-sota)
- (3) penetration of the minds of others (ceto-pariya-ñāna)
- (4) remembrance of past lives (pubbe-nivāsānussati)
- (5) divine eye (dibba-cakkhu)
The sixth is a supermundane (lokuttara) power attainable only through penetrating insight (vipassanā), namely, the cessation of the influxes, outflows, defilements (āsavas), in other words, realization of full enlightenment (arahantship).
- (6) extinction of all cankers (āsavakkhaya).
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| Summary of Real Magic (Alden Marshall) |
The stereotype text met with in all four of the sutra collections (e.g., DN 34; MN 4, MN 6, MN 77; AN.III.99; AN.V.23; SN.15.9 and Pug.271, Pug.239) is as follows:
(1) "Now, O meditators, the meditator enjoys the various magical powers, such as:
"Being one, one becomes many, and having become many one becomes one again. One disappears and reappears at will. Without obstruction one passes through walls and mountains as if they were air. One dives into the earth and rises up again as if it were water.
"One walks on water without sinking as if it were earth. Crosslegged one levitates through air as if one were a winged bird. With one's hand one touches sun and moon, these mighty ones, so powerful. Even up to the brahma-world one has mastery over this body.
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| Is there room for the supernatural in Western Buddhism? Four sutra views (Buddha Weekly) |
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(2) "With the divine ear one hears sounds, heavenly or human, far or near.
(3) "One knows the minds of other beings (parassa ceto-pariya-ñāna), other persons, by penetrating them with one's own mind. One knows the greedy mind (heart) as greedy and the not-greedy one as not greedy; knows the hating mind as hateful and the not-hating one as not hateful.
"One knows the deluded mind as deluded and the undeluded mind as not deluded; knows the contracted mind and the distracted one, the developed mind and the undeveloped one, the surpassable mind and the unsurpassable one, the concentrated (collected, unified) mind and the unconcentrated one, the freed mind and the unfreed one.
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| It starts with samadhi, which begins with collecting mind on a single object such as the breath. |
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(4) "One remembers many former existences, such as one birth, two, three, four and five births...one hundred thousand births; remembers many formations and dissolutions of worlds:
"'There I was, such a name had I...and vanishing from there I entered into a new existence somewhere else...and vanishing from there, I again reappeared here.'
"Thus, one remembers, always together with the marks and peculiarities, many a past life.
(5) ''With the divine eye (dibba-cakkhu = yathā-kammūpaga-ñāna or cutūpapāta-ñāna), the pure one, one sees beings vanishing and reappearing, lowly and noble ones, beautiful and ugly ones, sees how beings are reappearing according to their deeds (karma):
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| Real Magic (Dr. Dean Radin, Ph.D.) |
"At the dissolution of their body, after death, they have appeared in lower worlds, in painful states of existence, in worlds of suffering, even in hells.
"Other beings, however, who followed good actions...have appeared in a happy state of existence, even in a heavenly world.
(6) "Through the extinction of all cankers in this very life one enters into the possession of deliverance of mind, deliverance through wisdom, after having oneself understood and realized it.''
Four, 5, and 6 appear frequently under the name of the "threefold (higher) knowledge" (te-vijjā). They are, however, not a necessary condition for the attainment of enlightenment (arahatta), that is, of the sixth abhiññā.
The Path of Purification (Vis.M. XI-XIII) gives a detailed explanation of the five mundane higher powers together with the method of attaining them.
In connection with the four kinds of progress (patipadā), abhiññā means the "comprehension" achieved on attainment of the paths and fruitions.
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