Psychism
 

So for a long while I've been blessed, I'd say blessed because I consider it a gift, with Premonitions (the ability to see future events before they occur) and I was wondering, what is psychism in Bhuddhism? What I'm looking for, if it helps, is kind of like Christians say psychism is a gift from Satan, witches say it's a gift from the gods, ect. You know? So, how about Buddha? Personally, I don't want to give this gift up...

That it's an iddhi, and not really worth pursuing.

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Hi lumieres, Buddhism doesn't attach a lot of importance to such things. Sometimes they can happen as a result of meditation practice , or people can have certain abilities anyway ...but they're definately not a gift from anyone good or bad !

Sometimes I have predicted the occasional future event myself - it just happens, I don't try to do anything.

I don't think its anything particularly unusual, to be quite honest and its definately not the goal of Buddhist practice. The aim is to practice the Dhamma to overcome the causes of unsatisfactoriness/stress /suffering in ones life.

in the Bible, Jesus demonstrated psychism....

in Buddhism, as has been explained, it is a siddhi or supernormal mental capacity

the mind of the Buddha also had psychism

however, the goal of Buddhism, is to live & die free from suffering

with metta

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You'd be surprised! It depends on the tradition or "school" of Buddhism, lumieres. In Tibetan Buddhism people like yourself are highly valued, and the most gifted are consulted even by the government and the highest lamas as "oracles". The Dalai Lama consults the Tibetan State Oracle from time to time. It was after consulting the Oracle that he fled Lhasa and escaped to India. Do not by any means, give up your gift. Rather, cultivate it. It's a precious gift. You're blessed. :)

No, Mystic1, I wouldn't be surprised. I was an offline practitioner of Tibetan Buddhism for a long time.

This is the Beginners forum and so it is necessary to establish the importance of developing an understanding of the core teachings of the Buddha for people who are new to Buddhism.

These practices of consulting oracles etc are cultural and have nothing to do with the Buddha's teachings or the goal of Buddhism.

The Buddha considered them to be 'lowly arts' and said:


"Whereas some priests and contemplatives, living off food given in faith, maintain themselves by wrong livelihood, by such lowly arts as:

reading marks on the limbs [e.g., palmistry];
reading omens and signs;

interpreting celestial events [falling stars, comets];
interpreting dreams;

reading marks on the body [e.g., phrenology];
reading marks on cloth gnawed by mice;

offering fire oblations, oblations from a ladle, oblations of husks, rice powder, rice grains, ghee, and oil;

offering oblations from the mouth;
offering blood-sacrifices;

making predictions based on the fingertips;
geomancy;

laying demons in a cemetery;
placing spells on spirits;

reciting house-protection charms;
snake charming, poison-lore, scorpion-lore, rat-lore, bird-lore, crow-lore;

fortune-telling based on visions;
giving protective charms;

interpreting the calls of birds and animals —

he abstains from wrong livelihood, from lowly arts such as these."

(DN 11 Kevatta (Kevaddha) Sutta: To Kevatta)

http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipit...11.0.than.html

It should be clear that I was addressing lumieres with my response, not TB practitioners, who I know are aware of these things. I'm not sure how that misunderstanding occurred. I don't think we should disparage lumieres' gift. Perhaps her OP should be moved to a different category...?

Mystic1, you quoted me in your post #5, which is why I responded !

Nobody has disparaged the fact that lumieres has stated that she gets premonitions, I already said that I get them myself sometimes too.

This is definately not the goal of Buddhist practice however - and so it is not an important issue in comparison to developing an understanding of and practising the Buddha's teachings. http://www.discussworldissues.com/fo...ilies/grin.gif

IMO, the Buddha was gifted because of 'Right View'.

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I agree with those who have said it's not worth pursuing. Have you thought of any skillful, loving-kind, non-violent things you could you actually do with it? Does it help liberate mind?