Inner Strength - Access to Insight

84Wherever we go, people will be glad to know us. Why? Because we’re notencumbered. Whatever we do, we can do with ease. We can walk, run, danceand sing—all with a light heart. We’re Buddhism’s beauty, a sight for sore eyes,graceful wherever we go. No longer burdened, no longer encumbered, we canbe at our ease. This is vipassan›-ñ›˚a: the first branch of knowledge.So. Now that we’ve cleared away these splinters and thorns so thateverything is level and smooth, we can relax. And now we’re ready for theknowledge we can use as a weapon. What’s the knowledge we use as a weapon?Iddhividhı. We can display powers in one way or another, and give rise tomiraculous things by way of the body, by way of speech, or by way of the mind.We have powers we can use in doing the work of the religion. That’s callediddhividhı. But in the Canon they describe it as different kinds of walking: walkingthrough the water without getting wet, walking through fire without gettinghot, staying out in the rain without getting chilled, staying out in the windwithout getting cold, resilient enough to withstand wind, rain, and sun. If you’reyoung, you can make yourself old; if old, you can make yourself young. Ifyou’re tall, you can make yourself short; if short, you can make yourself tall. Youcan change your body in all kinds of ways.This is why the Buddha was able to teach all kinds of people. If he wasteaching old people, he’d make his body look old. Old people talking with oldpeople can have a good time because there’s no distrust or suspicion. If he metup with pretty young women, he could make himself look young. He’d enjoytalking with them; they’d enjoy talking with him and not get bored. This is whythe Dhamma he taught appealed to all classes of people. He could adapt his bodyto fit with whatever type of society he found himself in. For instance, if he metup with children, he’d talk about the affairs of children, act in a childlike way. Ifhe met up with old people, he’d talk about the affairs of old people. If he met upwith young men and women, he’d talk about the affairs of young men andwomen. They’d all enjoy listening to what he had to say, develop a sense of faith,become Buddhists, and even ordain. This is called iddhividhı.Next is manomayiddhi, power in the area of the mind. The mind acquirespower. What kind of power? You can go wherever you want. If you want to gosightseeing in hell, you can. If you want to get away from human beings, youcan go sightseeing in hell. It’s nice and relaxing. You can play with the denizensof hell, fool around with the denizens of hell. Any of them who have only a littlebad kamma can come up and chat with you, to send word back to their relatives.Once you get back from touring around hell you can tell the relatives to makemerit in the dead person’s name.Or, if you want, you can travel in the world of common animals and chatwith mynah birds, owls—any kind of bird—or with four-footed animals, twofootedanimals. You can go into the forests, into the wilds, and converse with theanimals there. It’s a lot of fun, not like talking with people. Talking with people ishard; talking with animals is easy. You don’t have to say a lot, simply think in themind: Tell them stories, ask them questions, like, “Now that you’re an animal,what do you eat? Do you get enough to stay full and content?” You find that you