“The supernatural is only the nature of which the laws are not yet understood.” – Agatha Christie
In 9th century Bangladesh, according to legend, the venerable Mahasiddha Virupa left Nalanda, the monastery where he had served as Grand Abbot, and journeyed on foot into southern India. There, he came to the small town of Dakinitapa and its local tavern. He ordered wine, and the tavern keeper asked for payment. The great Virupa cut a deal; he drew a line in the sand just before the tavern’s shadow; he would drink until the sun’s movement caused the shadow to touch the line, then pay in full. The tavern keeper agreed. Virupa drank for three straight days before the town, in disarray after three days of constant sunlight, sent its king to the tavern. There, the king realized that Virupa had stopped the sun in the sky. Virupa asked the king to pay his bar tab. He did, and the sun immediately set.
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In the Vajrayana Buddhist tradition (of which the venerable Mahasiddha Virupa was a part), consciousness is considered to be three-leveled, from coarse to subtle to very subtle. Awareness of each deeper layer brings a practitioner a closer understanding of the Buddha’s teachings. With these subtler realizations nearing the Buddha’s total understanding, practitioners would be liberated from the cycles of karma, incapable of bringing about anything other than total goodness for all.
To assist in practicing awareness of subtler and subtler consciousness, the Buddha advised his followers to abide by five precepts: no killing, no lying, no stealing, no illicit sex, and no taking intoxicants. These are, traditionally speaking, activities that make conscious awareness coarser, thus generating poor karma that negatively affects oneself and others. Following the precepts helps practitioners manifest the virtues of subtle insight and generate karma toward all beings’ liberation from suffering. Abiding by the precepts is considered wholly possible, and clergymen should be above committing violations.
For this reason, when monks at Nalanda Monastery accused their Grand Abbot of eating meat, drinking alcohol, frequenting pubs and brothels, and killing insects, these accusations were assessed with utmost seriousness. The monastery found Virupa unfit to continue in his role, and they dispelled him from their ranks. Virupa accepted their verdict, composed a song to cleanse the community of his misdoings, and left, parting the River Ganges to allow him passage on his way out.
With his various miracles proving his enlightenment, the community had to reassess their understanding of Virupa’s actions, recommitting their knowledge that understanding the path as a universal set of absolutes neglects the fluidity of the highest truth. The venerable monk has been known since as Mahasiddha Virupa — “Mahasiddha” being someone who has attained enlightenment and mastered “siddhis”, or supernatural capabilities. While precepts and natural laws remained good practice for ordinary practitioners, they did not represent the highest ideal. True liberation is of a form only intelligible to those so liberated, and there exists no rigid path to it.
I’ve wondered just how much psychological progress can overcome physical limitations. A crude but lucid example: could Virupa drunk drive? (Author’s note:don’t.) The process by which alcohol depresses the central nervous system is scientifically understood as clear and unambiguous, and Virupa, a man like any other, was just as susceptible to its effects. But then again, he should be just as incapable of parting rivers and moving celestial bodies. Any contemporary scientific understanding suggests no means by which the brain’s chemical impairment wouldn’t correspond to a proportional cognitive impairment. But neither does contemporary science have an explanation for consciousness itself, or any other of life’s miracles, large or small. After all, that’s why they’re considered miracles.
