Siddhi
Siddhi ( skt. सिद्धि, IAST siddhi , Tib. དངོས་ གྲུབ་, Wylie dngos grub , "success, work of art, perfection") denote special supernatural powers and abilities in Buddhism and Hinduism which, according to tradition, one attains through spiritual practice . Masters, the Siddhis, are worshiped in many spiritual currents.
Hinduism
One of Shiva's nicknames is Siddheswara ("Lord of the Siddhis"). The Siddheswara temple in Bhubaneswar , for example, is dedicated to this aspect of Shiva .
In Hinduism, such miraculous powers are mostly attributed to yogis and ascetics . In the Yoga Sutra of Patanjali many forms of magical powers are described, ranging from telepathy to foreknowledge, overcoming hunger and thirst, to omnipotence and omniscience. Certain siddhi are also enumerated in some late Upanishads . One practice of Raja Yoga is e.g. B. Samyama , which is believed to give rise to siddhi. In Hinduism and especially in Yoga such magic powers but are also a hindrance in the sinking considered so that the elimination of these forces is to be a spiritual progress, to final liberation ( moksha leads).
Siddhi power includes the ability of some yogis, called parakayapravesha , to pass into the body of a dead person. Spirit of the Dead ( Bhutas ) can cause the deceased to move around. The Hindu philosopher Adi Shankara is said to have had this ability. When asked about things that are dealt with in a Kamashastra (textbook on eroticism), the celibate monk had to pass, but asked for six months to investigate this question. Then he went into the forest, where he found the body of King Amaruka, who had died while hunting. Shankara put himself in the shoes of the dead king and brought him back to life. For half a year he gave himself in the form of the king to all carnal pleasures in order to learn all that he had not known before, until he again assumed his own appearance and returned.
Buddhism
In Tantric Buddhism ( Vajrayana ) a distinction is made between “ordinary Siddhi” and “highest Siddhi”. Likewise, in the discourses of the Suttapitaka , the Buddha distinguishes between “worldly” (Pali lokiya ) higher mental powers and the “transcendent” (Pali lokuttara ) higher mental powers (Pali abhiññā ). The term Siddhi only exists in the plural form, the common colloquial form Siddhi is formally incorrect.
As a basis for systematically developing Siddhi, the mastery of very strong concentration of mind / heart ( jhana ) is a prerequisite , according to the teachings of the Buddha . The cultivation of the qualities that Buddha calls "the 4 foundations of mental power" (Pali iddhipada ), which belong to the 37 things leading to awakening ( bodhipakkhiyadhamma ), are considered by the Buddha to be particularly well suited to developing these capacities.
Ordinary siddhi
Under "ordinary Siddhi" in the life stories of various Buddhist masters magical powers and abilities such as mind reading, influencing the weather, walking over water, moving through the air or rocks, spontaneously healing diseases, invulnerability or being able to bring the dead to life, are mentioned. The types of ordinary siddhi thus appear almost unlimited; in tantric Buddhism they should appear as a result of tantric practice and also go hand in hand with entering the various bodhisattva stages. In the literature of Sutric (here Mahayana ) and especially of Tantric Buddhism there are numerous examples of masters who are said to have attained the aforementioned or other Siddhi.
In many discourses, the Buddha distinguishes five different types of ordinary siddhi / worldly higher mental powers:
| # | Surname | Pali / Sanskrit | description |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | The different magical powers | Iddhi / Siddhi | The Siddhi in the narrower sense such as B .: to become multiple and become multiple, to become one again; to appear and disappear, to walk unhindered through walls, ramparts and mountains and through the air; to emerge and submerge in earth and water; to be able to walk on the water as if on solid ground; to switch to other realms of being within samsara (e.g .: to switch directly to heavenly realms and to be able to return from there). |
| 2. | The heavenly ear | Dibba-sota / - | The ability to hear sounds from other areas of existence and sounds too far away to be heard with normal hearing. |
| 3. | Seeing through the hearts of others | Parassa ceto-pariya-ñāna / - | The ability to directly recognize the thoughts, states of mind, and mood of other beings. |
| 4th | Memory of previous forms of existence | Pubbe nivāsānussati / - | The ability to remember hundreds, thousands, hundreds of thousands, or more forms of existence ( reincarnation ) during multiple expansions and contractions of the universe. |
| 5. | The heavenly eye | Dibbha-cakkhu / - | The ability to look into other realms of being, to see things invisible to the fleshly eye; to recognize how the beings move on according to their work ( karma ) in samsara (i.e. to recognize where or in which area of existence a deceased being was reborn within samsara). |
In Majjhima-Nikaya 36, Buddha states that on the night of his awakening under the Bodhi tree, during the first night watch, he realized the memory of earlier forms of existence. In the second night watch he realized the heavenly eye and in the last night watch he finally realized the highest Siddhi / the transcendent higher spiritual power.
Supreme Siddhi
The "highest Siddhi" or the transcendent higher spiritual power that reaches a person is, the realization of the full Triebversiegung and knowledge about (Pali āsavakkhaya ) when he Arhat , Pratyekabuddha (Single awakened) or Samyaka-Sambuddha (Fully Awakened) is. He directly realizes the Four Noble Truths and thereby attains full awakening ; often, but not always, beings who have attained awakening also display various ordinary siddhi. For example, the Buddha sometimes used his ordinary siddhi, according to tradition, but indicated that at best they were of relative salvific value. He also pointed out that someone who has the usual siddhi does not necessarily have to be awake because of this.
Siddha
Siddha means someone who has attained Siddhi. In tantric Buddhism it is also the name for someone who has reached higher levels of realization - up to full awakening. A master who has attained the highest Siddhi ( enlightenment ) is also called Mahasiddha ( Sanskrit for "Great Ruler of Perfect Abilities").
literature
- Abhayadatta: The Masters of Mahamudra: Lives, Legends and Songs of the Eighty- Four Enlightened Ones . Diederichs, Munich 1991, ISBN 3-424-01076-6 .
- Keith Dowman: Masters of Meditation and Miracle . Shambala Books, Boston, Mass. 1994, ISBN 1-57062-113-6 .
- Hellmuth Hecker : The ford to the other bank in the system of Buddhist practice. Pp. 280-286, 297-319, and the like. 413-422. Beyerlein & Steinschulte, 1st edition, Stammbach 1999, ISBN 3-931095-18-5 .
- Nyanatiloka Mahathera: Buddhist Dictionary. Lemma Abhiññā. Beyerlein & Steinschulte, 5th edition, Stammbach 1999, ISBN 3-931095-09-6 , online: abhiññā .
- Yeshe Tsogyal: The lotus born in the land of snow. How Padmsambhava brought Buddhism to Tibet. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 1996, ISBN 3-596-12975-3 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Manohar Laxman Varadpande: History of Indian Theater. Classical Theater. Volume 3. Abhinav Publications, New Delhi 2005, p. 222
- ↑ See e.g. B. Digha-Nikaya 2
- ↑ See e.g. B. Samyutta-Nikaya 51: 5 and 6
- ↑ See e.g. B. Digha-Nikaya 2, Majjhima-Nikaya 6 and 77, Anguttara-Nikaya III, 102
- ↑ See e.g. B. Majjhima-Nikaya 49 or Mahavagga 1: 7-20 ( Vinayapitaka )
- ↑ See e.g. B. Digha-Nikaya 11
- ↑ See e.g. B. Culla-Vagga VII 2-5 ( Vinayapitaka )