To Attain That Perfection Of Power And Wisdom, Culminating In The
Cessation Of Sensible Existence, Requires, According To The Ordinary
Paths, a period of three asankhyas (or say Uncountable Time x 3),
whereas by means of the magic arts of
The Tantras it may be reached in
the course of three rebirths only, nay, of one! But from the Tantras
also can be learned how to acquire miraculous powers for objects entirely
selfish and secular, and how to exercise these by means of Dharani or
mystic Indian charms.
Still the orthodox Yellow Lamas professedly repudiate and despise the
grosser exhibitions of common magic and charlatanism which the Reds still
practise, such as knife-swallowing, blowing fire, cutting off their own
heads, etc. But as the vulgar will not dispense with these marvels, every
great orthodox monastery in Tibet keeps a conjuror, who is a member of
the unreformed, and does not belong to the brotherhood of the convent, but
lives in a particular part of it, bearing the name of Choichong, or
protector of religion, and is allowed to marry. The magic of these
Choichong is in theory and practice different from the orthodox Tantrist
magic. The practitioners possess no literature, and hand down their
mysteries only by tradition. Their fantastic equipments, their frantic
bearing, and their cries and howls, seem to identify them with the
grossest Shamanist devil dancers.
Sanang Setzen enumerates a variety of the wonderful acts which could be
performed through the Dharani. Such were, sticking a peg into solid
rock; restoring the dead to life; turning a dead body into gold;
penetrating everywhere as air does; flying; catching wild beasts with the
hand; reading thoughts; making water flow backwards; eating tiles; sitting
in the air with the legs doubled under, etc. Some of these are precisely
the powers ascribed to Medea, Empedocles, and Simon Magus, in passages
already cited. Friar Ricold says on this subject: "There are certain men
whom the Tartars honour above all in the world, viz. the Baxitae (i.e.
Bakhshis), who are a kind of idol-priests. These are men from India,
persons of deep wisdom, well-conducted, and of the gravest morals. They
are usually acquainted with magic arts, and depend on the counsel and aid
of demons; they exhibit many illusions, and predict some future events.
For instance, one of eminence among them was said to fly; the truth,
however, was (as it proved), that he did not fly, but did walk close to
the surface of the ground without touching it; and would seem to sit down
without having any substance to support him." This last performance was
witnessed by Ibn Batuta at Delhi, in the presence of Sultan Mahomed
Tughlak; and it was professedly exhibited by a Brahmin at Madras in the
present century, a descendant doubtless of those Brahmans whom Apollonius
saw walking two cubits from the ground. It is also described by the worthy
Francis Valentyn as a performance known and practised in his own day in
India.
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