| | Edd, That was such a wise thing to say. You must already be attaining Noble Wisdom, Omnicience, to know that Truth. Siddhis are very dangerous in the wrong hands. You can be very close to Enlightenment without achieving enlightenment, and in those cases, only compassion can keep a person from becoming very evil and very powerful when the siddhis appear.
If you're wondering, I was not an ardent buddhist, ever. I did not study hard. Meditation was such a chore to me. I came by way of Westernized Zen, like many in this forum. I was lucky. It is the most difficult of dhammas. There are great things about the Zen teachings that led me to escape from suffering, though. Most important of them all, however, is the disdain for Jhanas and for siddhis. I was taught to disregard them completely as simply illusions.
(Siddhis are the opposite of Illusion, just as jhanas are levels of escape from illusion, but we use lies and half-truths in all branches of buddhism in order to help people find the ineffable truths for themselves. So, when teaching, stick to sutras, but when meeting enlightened people, you can discuss truths in perfect and beautiful ways that can't be done with deluded minds.)
So I had not believed in anything spiritual about Buddhism or any religion for most of my adult life. And Zen had given me a disdain for mahayana. So I didn't know what Siddhis were or if my psychic senses were actually psychic, or if I was experiencing an insanity. I had always done it somewhat, and I had well-thought scientific and rational explanations for myself. I was sure that my brain was picking up on cues I didn't conciously percieve, and creating conclusions that were very accurate when there was nothing too specific involved. Even after enlightenment, I still believed in absolutely nothing but science. However, after this point, my senses not only got stronger, they started giving me Details! Having no sense of shame anymore, I started telling people what I "felt" like I was getting. It shocked me to the core. Over and over. I startled many people, but I was the one who became more and more uneasy. Looking at a stranger and saying "you got raped at 13 by your stepdad" was wrong of me, but by the time this experience happened I was becoming very disturbed. Afraid. Desperate for explanation. My science had to be ammended.
So the path I had thought completed for so long, began again after five years. I knew what I was not. My new passion was to find out what I was. What everything was. Why was there illusion? I learned so much since then that It is unfathomable to me in retrospect. I am so glad to be able to discuss such things!
I will tell you a little about reading minds. But your own adventures will be much more interesting. When you know another's mind, it can be on any level. Moods are the easiest. They are often too easily known, as I will become very anxious if someone around me is anxious (that is, anxious but hiding it). I think a lot of people do this to some degree Very rarely is it ever phrases, as in distinct words, because we do not normally think in words, but it can happen if someone is concentraded on a phrase strongly. The best example in my own life, so far, was a moment where my friend asked me to grab something and in my mind I felt "in the bedroom" while at the same time mentally 'heard', "Top drawer". My friend yelled "top drawer" when I was already in the next room and reaching for the drawer. This was a rare thing for me, though i have found it common to start singing a song in someone else's head.
Why did I get two knowings at the same time? We think many thoughts simultaneously. Each level of cognition can work at the same time. The lowest level of cognition thinks in emotions or 'flavors'. This is the easiest to read, and the easiest kind of reading to practice. This is why you may walk into a room and sense "tension". If you have inner stillness, and feel panic when someone approaches, it is not your panic.
So always ask yourself, "is this feeling mine?" before searching for its cause. ( Also, I still have anxiety sometimes, if you wondered. But it is good. It is useful. It is just enough to make me hurry when I need to hurry, to want to leave a chaotic place, ro be careful not to break a thing. But no longer do I have panic attacks.) I feel other people's emotions most when I know them well, and it hurts the same as if they were my emotions. So if I can't calm someone, I have to leave. I am still attaining Noble Wisdom, so maybe it will not always be this way?
I love this discussion. I want to comment on the other posts:
Reading minds is invasive. It is also very natural and happens all the time between everyone. However, learning to do it does cause a morality issue. If I wanted, I could become very wealthy and influential with minimal effort. That is why it is regarded as dangerous to pursue the siddhis before attaining Noble Wisdom. That is the meaning behind "Tantra can create both buddhas and bodhisattvas, but can also create DemonKings". For a good example of a DemonKing, I think of the early career of General Buttnaked.
When integrating the jhanas with daily life, there are many side effects. If you feel as if you are receiving information when interacting with another being, you very much are. The practice comes into play when you must familiarize yourself with the taste of your own imagination to know the taste of other minds. You gotta find out when you are right and wrong.. This can lead to many bad experiences. It's best to use this siddhi only when you are compelled by love to do so.
I have had many experiences that taught me how wrongness can enter in and cause suffering before I gained a better understanding. One time, after playing a venue, a stranger sat next to me and began to compliment me and I immediately grabbed his shoulder and said "You're supposed to be dead. What happened? How are you alive?" and this made him run to the bathroom and lock himself in for thirty minutes while his gf had to calm him through the door. It was a wrongness of me. I discovered the story later. The man held a secret that he had been born dead for his first six minutes and yet came back to life with absolutely no brain damage, baffling the doctors. I had sensed an otherworldly 'smell' on him and in my curiousity I had scared the shit out of him. I drove away someone I could have helped in some small way.
A few of these experiences taught me enough to know when to use this ability, though I'm still gaining wisdom even now, and the few times lately I've used it in the last two years, I've not ever been wrong... ...Until last week. I drank whiskey for the first time in many years, and that messed up everything and I ended up making a fool of myself. But that was just another lesson 
For myself, as with Daniel, it started out as a natural gift that become exponentially stronger after 2nd, 3rd, and 4th path. It gets stronger every day. But of course now, I only have the impetus to ease pain, and so I keep it secret. I wonder why some people have a natural gift. I have my own thoughts on the issue, but it is very obvious to me that All people do it often. Some people do it well, naturally, to a point where they need treatment and generally are diagnosed as schizoaffective or schizophrenic. Some become psychics. I know of a mentalist in Israel that describes the process in the same way as I always have.
I feel when people are trying to know my mind. I love feeling that feeling and I love calling people out when I feel them do it. When seeing two people, I often look into one person's mind and listen audibly to the other person responding to movements in the mind of the first person, all without either of those people realizing that extrasensory perception was being used.
It is powerful Sexually. It changes the nature of Sex. It is another level, and that is why certain sects promote ego-loss through tantric sex. There is Dhamma in tantric sex! Vajrayana, Mahamudra. I'm gay, or at least was gay, but I can say the same thing that Daniel has said about this siddhi. It made me an amazing lover.
Vajrayana Vajrayana |