[Alupleintilla]

As an enthusiatic Dhammabeginner I've been pondering this for a while. I can't refute the existence of supernatural beings but I keep finding passages in Discourses (sorry, can't quote as it'd take me most of the afternoon to find them, I'm sure!) that seem to state what Rhysman has just said that they exist but have nothing of benefit in regards Dhamma.

I'm finding Dhamma wonderful and hugely beneficial in it's own right so I personally don't feel the need to hunt out ghosts and gods to make Buddhism any more mysterious and magical to my everyday life.

I attend a fairly orthodox Vihara where spirits and other such entities are talked of very matter-of-factly and that still throws me a bit. I'm not currently particularly well-disposed towards this aspect of Buddhism but I accept that it is a very real aspect of daily life for these monks who I respect and like immensely.

Possibly going slightly off-topic but I certainly don't see kamma and dependent arising as in anyway supernatural, just 'how things are'. I think I'm beginning to get an understanding that kamma simply states that cause and effect apply to the entire universe, and the bits and bobs of Einstein, Heisenberg and Bohr etc I just about 'get' seem to be describing the same thing. I don't have the confidence in my understanding of such lofty theories to go into any further details about how such Buddha-friendly ideas confirm what I am beginning to get to grips with in regards Dhamma.

I've recently started to be aware of the concept of Dependent Arising talked about on BBC science documentaries, for example, in the language of Quantum Theory. This may be old news to you chaps but it's blown my head once I got the connection. (Not that I can follow or fully understand an entire 1 hour documentary on String Theory!)