"Bases Of Psychic Power" Series: Final Analysis (7/7)

I studied & practiced with the "Iddhipāda-Vibhaṅga Sutta — An Analysis Of The Bases Of Power" for about 4 months daily. These Roads To Power are desire, persistence, intent, and discernment. Most of this 7-part podcast series are my considerations, questions, experiences, explorations, suggestions, interpretations & practices with this sutta. Part 7 sums up the series via my findings, observations, comparisons and some extrapolation and (esoteric) guess work

Transcript

Summary,

Findings,

Observations,

And comparisons.

This is the final part of a seven-part series on studying and practicing with the Iri Pada,

The Pha Phanga Sutta,

An analysis of the bases of power.

So I may have mentioned this before,

But if this sutta on the analysis of the bases of power is mostly for monastics,

What would be any significant differences for a lay version?

And I also discovered towards the end of producing this series that,

Quote,

The practice that leads to the development of the basis of psychic power,

End quote,

Is specifically,

Explicitly stated in the linked discourses 51.

2.

And this is just that section,

A translation from Bhante Sujato,

Quote,

And what is the practice that leads to the development of the basis of psychic power?

It is simply this Noble Eightfold Path,

That is,

Right view,

Right thought,

Right speech,

Right action,

Right livelihood,

Right effort,

Right mindfulness,

And right immersion.

This is called the practice that leads to the development of the basis of psychic power.

Maybe a lot of the practices and way of working with this sutta is kind of for naught,

Or maybe it's just now an interesting consideration,

Or maybe there's something to it,

I don't know.

So now addressing the section,

Quote,

Perceiving what is in front and behind,

So that what is in front is the same as what is behind,

And what is behind is the same as what is in front,

Are translated,

Quote,

Perceiving continuity as before,

So after,

As after,

So before,

End quote.

So could this section also be somehow related to helping with seeing,

Knowing,

And discerning the arising and passing nature of phenomena,

And or act as a type of pivot point between past and future,

AKA the present moment,

Due to keeping a perception of what is in front and behind,

Well in hand,

Well attended to,

Well considered,

Well tuned,

Penetrated by means of discernment,

Or translated,

The perception of continuity is properly grasped,

Attended,

Born in mind,

And comprehended with wisdom.

It's playing on this perception,

Or this way of doing things of what is in front and behind in continuity.

If you take the present moment,

And then you go in front of that,

Or behind that,

When we're considering time,

Or timelines,

Timetables,

Time matrices,

Are just this perception of continuity,

Translated that way,

Or looked at that way,

And that's,

You know,

Well attended to,

Well considered,

Well tuned,

Grasped,

Born in mind,

Comprehended with wisdom.

And can this be a type of strategy,

A way of establishing oneself with awareness,

So that arising and passing nature of phenomena on perceived linear time could be more easily discerned.

Seems like it wouldn't hurt anything.

So now here's kind of a woo woo,

And run on sentence alert after I read what I'm going to address here,

The section of the sutta I'm going to address,

And really get into some kind of out there speculation when it comes to esoteric teachings and whatnot.

My guess is on why the Buddha languaged this the way he did,

And then broke it down.

So anyway,

This is on the main section again,

The kind of encoding encapsulation of the entire sutta in this one paragraph that he later goes on to unpack,

And I'll just read it again here.

Quote,

There is the case where a monk develops the base of power endowed with concentration founded on desire and the fabrications of exertion,

Thinking,

This desire of mine will be neither overly sluggish nor overly active,

Neither inwardly constricted nor outwardly scattered.

He keeps perceiving what is in front and behind,

So that what is in front is the same as what is behind.

What is behind is the same as what is in front.

What is below is the same as what is above,

And what is above is the same as what is below.

He dwells by night as by day,

And by day as by night,

By means of an awareness thus open and unhampered.

He develops a brightened mind.

End quote.

So here we go after the first couple sentences here with my run on sentence,

Commentary if needed afterwards.

So the main thing here is why would the Buddha initially give these somewhat cryptic instructions in the sutta on the basis of power,

Then go on to explain them in ways where some don't seem immediately obvious and are related to the initial cryptic instructions that I just read.

Could this be a nod to various occulted means to power using some of the same kinds of imagery,

While at the same time decrypting in a manner that could be critical to established occult systems for those with eyes to see and ears to hear,

And or even going so far here as to the initial cryptic instructions actually being what is only taught secretly to some occult initiates,

Then saying there's deeper layers of decoding while critically commenting by reading between the lines in the subtext on the existing occult schools and systems that is not with some kind of reformulated,

Recreated,

Homogenized,

Special 360 vision for quote,

Perceiving what is in front and behind so that what is in front is the same as what is behind.

What is behind is the same as what is in front,

End quote.

Nor is it by somehow purifying the body by rituals because internally it's full of various kinds of unclean things and by dwelling so,

Quote,

What is below is the same as what is above and what is above is the same as what is below,

End quote,

Means not something such as combining heaven,

Hell,

And earth or emphasizing symbolic spats over various hierarchies,

But by mindfulness to,

Of,

And for in a kind of way,

The immediate everyday human reality of being trapped within a meat suit composed of foul things.

From my understanding currently,

The Buddha would be critical of some of the teachings and practices of his day and he would also be able to immediately give kind of a reference point that the teachings that were being criticized,

He would give reference points for these that the people he was talking about them to would immediately recognize and then go on to explain in a way they could understand kind of what the more helpful,

Wise,

Skillful version of what was being kind of unskillfully,

Unwisely,

Unhelpfully taught and practiced and get into kind of occult schools and esoteric schools or even esoteric texts especially,

A lot of it's encrypted or there's layers of meaning hidden behind certain things.

So there's a kind of an exoteric version that's taken literally and then there's symbology embedded within that a lot of times.

What I'm getting at here is,

You know,

Could the Buddha have used this kind of language and imagery that was kind of in line with some of the esoteric and occulted schools but then in the subtext in between the lines encode his understanding of these type of ways of,

I don't know,

Doing whatever occult schools do about gaining hidden wisdom and knowledge.

So for example,

When he says,

Perceiving what is in front and behind so that what is in front is the same as what is in behind is behind and what is behind is the same as what is in front.

There's this one esoteric occult teaching about 360 vision where supposedly there's this ability if I'm remembering this right or getting this right where one can see in all directions at once either with their inner vision to the outside or with somehow with their physical vision somehow,

I don't know.

To get an idea of this,

I think there's some like apps where you can do a panorama or a 360 view and see in one 2D image 360 degrees around you.

But as I've gone into here,

That's not what the Buddha meant by perceiving what is in front and behind so that what is in front is the same as what is behind and what is behind is the same as what is in front.

And now we've gone in,

Or I've gone into that,

Or we if you're listening to this.

And then there's of course this practice and some schools and teachings of purifying the bodies with rituals,

Bathing rituals,

Burning certain things,

All kinds of other stuff.

But here the Buddha talks about the bodies internally full of various kinds of unclean things.

And while some people can do internal cleanses,

There is a perception of well,

If these guts were spilled out on a table,

I mean,

How clean can they be if there's food and stuff and waste going through them all the time?

In one way,

What kind of purity can there ever be in some sense of the word?

And then this classic one though,

What is below is the same as what is above and what is above is the same as what is below.

There's this classic esoteric axiom,

As above,

So below and also as within,

As without.

So this is kind of like talking about the correspondence between if something happens in the heavens,

Then it's gonna have some kind of correlation here on earth.

And I guess if there's something going on in earth,

There's gonna be some kind of correlation in the lower realms,

Hell realms.

And so by what is below is the same as what is above and what is above is the same as what is below.

He's not talking about that so much.

He's not talking about a combination of heaven,

Hell,

And earth,

Or even different hierarchies about higher and lower on the food chain.

But he's talking about the mindfulness of the immediate everyday human reality of being in this meat suit,

Composed of these foul things,

These 32 parts of the body.

So I just thought that was a kind of interesting take on some of these different occulted esoteric is still taught and established sometimes perceptions and teachings and keeping things hidden unless initiated,

Which in general,

Some of those things I feel don't need to have initiations or self-initiation's okay.

And especially during these times where there's so much access to information and seem to be at a state of consciousness where a lot of this stuff is okay without initiations.

However,

There's still some teachings and practices that require initiation,

Require the teaching and training and tutelage,

Supervision,

Guidance of someone who's gained mastery and successfully does such initiations because some of this type of information and practices if given to the wrong people at the wrong time is kind of like giving a flamethrower to a three-year-old.

Then going on now,

Why would the Buddha draw attention to and give instructions to invert something,

Anything?

And in this instance,

I mean here to dwell or meditate as by day,

So by night,

As by night,

So by day,

By developing the basis of psychic power that has immersion due to enthusiasm and also energy,

Mental development,

Inquiry,

An act of effort with the same features,

Attributes and signs by day as by night and then develop it with the same features,

Attributes and signs by night as by day.

So this seems kind of like an inversion.

And are there other instances where the Buddha specifically instructs inversions this explicitly?

It's also interesting here to note,

Are these the proper translations?

Because what I'm gonna read here is kind of a paradox of this,

To front-load an answer really quick or briefly,

It might just be the context of the audience too.

Certain audiences might need to hear it one way,

Other audiences might need to hear it another way.

It might apply to some during certain conditions and times and not to others.

This is taken from M.

N.

4,

Is it Majjhima Nikaya 4?

There are some contemplatives and Brahmins who have the perception of day when it is night and of night when it is day.

This I tell you is their being in a dwelling of delusion.

As for me,

I have the perception of day when it is day and of night when it is night.

This is also translated by Bhante Sujato as,

There are some ascetics and Brahmins who perceive that it's day when in fact it's night or perceive that it's night when in fact it's day.

This meditation of theirs is delusional,

I say.

I perceive that it's night when in fact it is night and perceive that it's day when in fact it is day.

So if this is an inversion though in this sutta about kind of not going exactly what he said to these Brahmins in Majjhima Nikaya 4,

If it is a type of inversion,

Could the subtext involve inversions on how day and night came to be in this world?

And so thus could this make the instructions laid out here actually invert the inversion for a restoration?

So inverting an inversion actually removes the inversion,

Puts it back up right.

And I'll link to a article about the Earth's axial tilt,

Which explains kind of how way back the changes in the tilt of the Earth which would affect daylight,

Nighttime,

Daytime,

Nighttime.

And just to me the phrase turning upright,

What had been overthrown or riding the overthrown from a popular refrain,

Ending plenty of sutas is pretty close to inverting an inversion.

So this is a classic way that plenty of sutas end and just kind of illustrates this point of inverting an inversion,

Putting back right what's been tipped over and distorted,

Done wrong,

Restoring something.

So here's the refrain,

One translation of it.

Magnificent Master Gotama,

Magnificent Master Gotama.

Master Gotama has made the Dhamma clear in many ways as though he were turning upright what had been overthrown,

Revealing what was hidden,

Showing the way to one who was lost or holding up a lamp in the dark for those with eyesight to see forms.

I go to Master Gotama for refuge and to the Dhamma and to the Sangha of Bhikkhus.

From today let Master Gotama remember me as a lay follower who has gone to him for refuge for life.

Or just one other translation here from Bhante Sujato.

Excellent Master Gotama,

Excellent Master Gotama.

As if he were riding the overturned or revealing the hidden or pointing out the path to the lost or lighting a lamp in the dark so people with good eyes can see what's there,

Master Gotama has made the teaching clear in many ways.

I go for refuge to Master Gotama for the teaching and to the mendicant Sangha.

From this day forth may Master Gotama remember me as a lay follower who has gone for refuge for life.

So another kind of nuanced consideration that probably wouldn't crop up for many in this world currently,

But could doing practices or developing perceptions as mentioned here,

Like the perception of light,

The perception of daytime at any hour of the day,

Well in hand and well established.

The ability to do that could make someone a very bright light,

So to speak.

And so maybe dwelling as by day as by night is helpful to not draw so much attention to oneself.

So this is just kind of like a beacon,

A lighthouse in the darkness.

Obviously it's gonna be seen and people will know where it's at and be able to easily access someone shining so brightly with really no other light sources around,

Right,

Metaphorically here.

Being able to dwell by day as by night,

Maybe one wouldn't stick out like a sore thumb so much to,

I don't know,

Potential forces and beings who would probably not like to see someone shine so bright or it can make them look bad or might tend to take some of their power away,

Their influence away.

And I'd like to just read a little portion of kind of a illustration of some of the old mystery school religion,

Esoteric type things for some people here that are claimed to be in power and what they are actually into,

Their belief systems,

Their viewpoints.

And this is from pages 43 and page 104 of an overview of the world system of bondage and separation from life.

That's found at the Jim Stone University website.

Out of this placement of king and priest as the highest offices of this world emerged the restatement of the ancient ritual of establishing two pillars at the entrance of every temple oriented to the rising sun.

Rising sun equals Horus,

Rising or horizon,

Coming over the horizon on the first day of spring on the vernal equinox.

These two pillars represent the line of the king and the line of the priest who established their lineages to control the land and the law throughout history to the present time.

And here the storyline of the Isis and Osiris mystery cult is simple and quite instructive.

There are nine godheads in the primary Egyptian pantheon known as the Ennead.

Anu sits at the top of the council of nine,

The Ennead.

Below him are two sets of brother sister twins,

Husband and wife,

That embody the physical earth in its primordial elements,

Earth,

Air,

Fire,

And water.

Out of these emerge another two sets of brother sister twins,

Husband and wife,

Representing the polarity of dark and light in the false light matrix of the hologram containment field.

These are Isis and Osiris on the light side from who emerges the prodigal sun,

S-U-N slash sun,

S-O-N,

Horus who rises in the east at the horizon,

Horus rising,

Set and Nephles,

Can't pronounce the name of Set's feminine counterpart,

Counter the light as it is extinguished on the western horizon by Set as he removes the light of the day at sunset and gives it over to his sister wife to cover the night,

Light and dark,

Black and white,

The never-ending polarity displayed for all to see on every Masonic temple floor in Westminster Abbey and many more from their checkerboard floor.

And that's the end of the two selections from an overview on the world system of bondage and separation from life.

So continuing now on with this notion of light,

So maybe having this quote,

"'The perception of light,

The perception of daytime at any hour of the day,

Well in hand and well established,

Is a boosted illumination of consciousness to neutralize forces of light and darkness,

Especially when added to the sort of swapping of perceptions for day and night.

Such day and night perception swapping,

Coupled with the perception of light,

Allows for light to prevail amongst what some say are now unnatural,

Manipulated periods of sunlight and no sunlight on Earth,

Where others say in a far ancient time the Earth had two suns and no darkness.

' And perhaps this also lends skillful perceptions of night,

Unlike some symbolic representations of night,

Like a nuclear winter or dark ages or a worldwide virus.

" And by the way,

Before I come back to that paragraph I just laid out,

This is an aside of 10 perceptions helpful to some who are ill from AEN 1060,

Having the perception of inconstancy,

Not self,

Unattractiveness,

Drawbacks,

Abandoning,

Dispassion,

Cessation,

A distaste for every world,

An undesirability of all fabrications,

And anapanasati,

Or mindfulness of in and out breathing.

So if one has mastered consciousness on both the light and dark sides of it,

Or if you want to say maybe positive or negative,

Then if,

I guess,

If there's way too much light,

It's almost blinding,

Then if one has this kind of notion of dwelling at daytime or around light in the same way they dwell at nighttime and vice versa,

If something's really dark and bleak and negative or at night and someone can be and dwell how they do in the daytime when there is light,

Then if both of those polarities are mastered,

So if there's an imbalance at any time,

Can rebalance that,

Then that seems to act as a neutralizing force in the world,

A rebalancing force,

One that leads towards liberation.

So these types of perceptions or even mass perceptions aren't as applicable,

Especially when they're not helpful for anything,

Lead to more bondage.

So then if such a thing is established and having this added notion of being able to have the perception of light,

The perception at daytime,

At any hour of the day,

Well in hand,

Well established,

If that's added on to the swapping of perceptions for day and night,

Dwelling,

Then that would kind of give the light an upper hand if it needs to.

So if,

I don't know,

Maybe a counterpart that would also master these swapping of perceptions of light and darkness day and night,

But then also be working for the darkness,

The negativity,

You know,

The kind of service to self thing as their agenda,

Well then having this ability to bring light in at any time,

You know,

Again,

Added with this mastery of day and night perception,

Well then that's going to,

At least it seems like,

Be a force for good,

Goodness,

And by that I mean established ethically and being a force for cause,

For liberation,

Well being for oneself and others,

Short term and long term,

Leading towards release,

Unbinding,

Nibbana,

And just having this alleged manipulation of these times of sunlight and no sunlight,

Some say,

Or just tossing that off a little bit,

If the Earth is a little bit off its axis,

Then this wobble and whatnot,

Then,

You know,

What is the most conducive periods of light and darkness for the population if this is something that's been manipulated on higher levels,

Which I'll link to in the show notes,

How could it be righted,

How could it be adjusted to if it can't be righted or corrected in order to benefit ourselves and others?

Of course I don't know the answers to that,

But having the knowledge available,

The actual ancient history,

If it's accurate,

Available,

Can this help,

Can it distract some people from practice,

What degree of knowledge and knowing is necessary on this,

How much should we share it and to who,

How should we view it and how should we respond to it,

If at all?

And that ends this summary section with some of my findings,

Observations and comparisons.