The miracles of Gautama Buddha refers to supernatural feats and abilities attributed to Gautama Buddha by the Buddhist scriptures. The feats are mostly attributed to supranormal powers gained through meditation, rather than divine miracles.[1]
Through meditation, past rebirth or “promises” due to his understood.
Aniruddha’s poem at the end of the Aniruddha (anuriddha) Sutra explains to you how the Buddha teleported:
Knowing my thoughts
the supreme Teacher in the world
came to me in a mind-made body
using his psychic power.
I just want to point out that the mind-made body is separate than teleporting of the physical body. This distinction is made clear in the Ayogula Sutta (of which an English translation seems to be hard to find?).
In the Sutta, Ananda asks the Buddha if he can travel by using his mind-made body to the brahma world, and then asks if he can travel with his physical body to the brahma world, making a clear distinction between two forms of travel.
“Venerable sir, does the Blessed One remember ever going to the world of brahma through spiritual power with a body made by the mind?” [ 1 ]“I remember, Ananda, going to the world of brahma through spiritual power with a body made by the mind.”“But, venerable sir, does the Blessed One remember ever going to the world of brahma through spiritual power with this body compo
sed of the four great elements?”
“I remember, Ananda, having gone into the world of brahma through spiritual power with this body composed of the four great elements.”
Most of the Buddha’s miracles are seen in Buddhism as being the result of extraordinary psychic abilities gained through advanced meditation, rather than miraculous powers.[1] According to Buddhist texts many of the Buddha’s disciples, as well as some non-Buddhist hermits and yogis who attained high meditative states, also had some of these same abilities.[81][82][note 3]
Levitation
A comparative study of reports that the Buddha and his disciples journeyed to celestial realms or traversed considerable distances on earth through the power of levitation gives the impression that at an early stage these would have been envisaged as being done with a mind-made body. Probably as a result of literalism, a tendency that makes itself felt in various ways in the early Buddhist texts and which has led to a range of developments in the Buddhist traditions, at a relatively early stage this would then have led to the idea that such feats involve acts of levitation done with the physical body.
JOCBS. 2016(5): 11–26. ©2016 Bhikkhu Anālayo
Did buddha did miracles?
An entry by: Bhikkhu Vimala, PhD Candidate of Budhist Psychology at PGIPBS (2015-present)
Sorry to disappoint you, but the Buddha is a human. Because of this fact, he has no miracle powers.
This fact is supposed to highlight his deep thinker’s personality, his unique philosophy and his legacy in Buddhism ethics, psychology and psychotherapy.
But how could he create such huge philosophy and psychology in the Pali Tipitaka? Buddhist scholars agree that his teaching covers the Early Buddhism only, i.e. the teaching from his time until after the first post-mortem schism which happened right after the second council, about 140 year after his demise. The Abhidhamma Pitaka for example was not his work but a much later developed Buddhism psychology. The rest of this huge philosophy and psychology were created and added gradually, continuously through 2500 year of Buddhism history, by tirelessly, anonymously modesty Buddhist thinkers and scholars and commentators who dedicated their life works to the Buddha.
Some devoted Buddhists shall show proof that he performed supernatural powers in such and such discourses.
Because Buddhism is a religion, although not in the original definition of religion per se, it is phenomenological. Much of the discourses rightly apportioned to him was added long after the first Buddhist council. Some were created or re-composed much later, e.g. Jataka tales aprox. 400 – 300 BCE, Dhammapada aprox. 300 BCE. And so as to popularize Buddhism, details of his supernatural power in such discourse might have been created and added in to attract more believers.
All in all, we should remember that supernatural powers are not wanted qualities by Buddhism. The Buddha and Buddhism always make clear that he meant his teaching as a way of life to prevent sufferings, i.e stress and mental disorders.
But if you want to know the personality qualities, the mentality and the characteristics that make him unique, we can show you plenty.
After much thoughts and effort to reconstruct his personality profile based on the Myers-Briggs Personality Indicators, my fellow monks and I come to conclusion that he meets the ISTJ profile – The Deep Thinker. This profiling was compiled from facts filtered from the Volume of Discourse, as well as detailed events of his laying down monastic laws in the Volume of Monastic Laws.
Some of his Unique straits are as follows (but not exclusion):
- Honest and Direct – Integrity is the heart of the Buddha. Emotional manipulation, mind games and reassuring lies all run counter to his preference for managing the reality of the situations he encounters with plain and simple honesty.
- Strong-willed and Dutiful – He embodies that integrity in his actions too, working hard and staying focused on his goals. Patient and determined, he always meets his obligations, period.
- Very Responsible – His word is a promise, and a promise means everything. He would rather run himself into the ground with extra days and lost sleep than fail to deliver the results he said he would. Loyalty is a strong sentiment for him, and he fulfill his duties to the people and organizations he has committed himself to.
- Calm and Practical – None of his promise would mean much if he lost his tempers and broke down at every sign of hardship – he keeps his feet on the ground and make clear, rational decisions. Peoples’ preferences are a factor to consider in this process, and he works to make the best use of individual qualities, but these decisions are made with effectiveness in mind more so than empathy. The same applies to criticisms, for others and himself.
- Create and Enforce Order – The primary goal of the Buddha is to be effective in what he has chosen to do, and he believes that this is accomplished best when everyone involved knows exactly what is going on and why. Unclear guidelines and people who break established rules undermine this effort, and are rarely tolerated by the Buddha. Structure and rules foster dependability; chaos creates unforeseen setbacks and missed deadlines.
- Jacks-of-all-trades – The Buddha is proud repositories of knowledge, though the emphasis is more on facts and statistics than concepts and underlying principles. This allows him to apply himself to a variety of situations, picking up and applying new data and grasping the details of challenging situations as a matter of course.
- His defining characteristics of integrity, practical logic and tireless dedication to duty make the Buddha a vital core to many families, as well as communities that uphold traditions, rules and standards. He enjoys taking responsibility for his actions, and take pride in the work he does – when working towards a goal, he holds back none of his time and energy completing each relevant task with accuracy and patience.
- The Buddha doesn’t make many assumptions, preferring instead to analyze his surroundings, check his facts and arrives at practical courses of action. His personalities are no-nonsense, and when he’s made a decision, he will relay the facts necessary to achieve his goal, expecting others to grasp the situation immediately and take action. He has little tolerance for indecisiveness, illogic, dishonesty and laziness.
- The Buddha has sharp, fact-based minds, and prefer autonomy and self-sufficiency to reliance on someone or something. Dependency on others is often seen by him as a weakness, and his passion for duty, dependability and impeccable personal integrity forbid falling into such a trap.
Cures and Karma II. Some Miraculous Healings in the Indian Buddhist Story Tradition: