Hello everyone,
I have been a long time practitioner of the mahasi vipassana and shamata jhanas, and have had some life changing success with the technique.
on a recent retreat in a famous and well regarded mahasi center, after I had some interesting transformative experiences/progress, I was instructed by my very experienced lineaged monastic teacher, that "one can/should now practise powers".
I was quite taken aback by this, as monastics are usualy quite careful and reserved when speaking about these things.
also, i know siddhis are quite advanced stuff, and I still do not consider myself to be up to that level.
my concentration skills are mediocre at best(leigh brasington style soft jhanas 1-8, not the visuddhimaga ones), and truth to be told, I have never been interested in powers, and consider them an unskillful distraction, at best.
However it was quite surprised to hear a teachers suggestion like this, so I am interested does anyone know at what level of attainment/awakening are students advised to practise siddhis?
any advice from people familiar with the mahasi lineage would be much appreciated in helping me to unpack the meaning of the teachers mysterious instruction.
With much thanks,
Kita

I don't have a clear cut clear answer to this, but I read an interestng story about that topic. When Munindraji (who was I think 1st path after an intense training with Mahasi Sayadaw) wanted to return to India after years of practice and study in Burma, Mahasi S. told him that India was the land of siddhis so he should learn about it. Munindraji declined the offer and made a counter-offer,  that the Siddhis be taught to his student Dipa Ma. They considered that her high abilities at concentration, having attained 2nd path, and having an impeccable moral character, that she was a good candidate to be taught the siddhis.

If you don't get a better answer maybe this will be of some use ... I am not familiar with the Mahasi way studying the Siddhis but I am familiar with the Spiritualist way. I have written about some of my experiences on my web site and blog. If you want more information on how to pursue this approach let me know.

https://sites.google.com/site/chs4o8pt/psi_experience

https://sites.google.com/site/chs4o8pt/spiritual_healing

http://ncu9nc.blogspot.com/2012/10/what-is-it-like-to-communicate-with.html

Yesterday I was listening to the Deconstruct Yourself podcast, where Michael Taft was talking to Daniel Ingram about the fire kasina.
https://deconstructingyourself.com/dy-008-meditation-magick-fire-kasina-guest-daniel-ingram.html (Dzogchen and the post-magickal at 51:24 )

Roughly paraphrasing, Taft said something along the lines of "monastics begin practicing these powers/kasinas/magick after a certain time, because once you have awakened fully, and achieved everything, what else is there left to do as a fulltime monastic? "

It seems obvious to me that you should do what you feel is right for you, not what some teacher thinks is right for you.

If you did want to practice powers/siddhi, and were guaranteed success, which might interest you most?

thanks for your reply.
I agree with the point of practising what feels right for me, and not what teacher thinks I should be doing.
It does seem like the teacher overdiagnosed my progress, because at this point i feel like i still have more awakening to do, instead of wasting my time on siddhis.
as for the questions on what siddhis i would practise if i had to.. good one..
i think i would expolore different deva realms, that seems quite interesting. i would also like to improve my metta to siddhi level - dipa ma style, as metta does not come easy to me, but it can be blissful and awesome indeed.
looks like I will be experimenting with fire kasina then, like many people on here seem to do.
thanks everyone for your replies, with metta,
Kita

@kita I send you a PM.

I've been looking at this for a few days and remembering that at least in some accounts enlightenment is considered the supreme siddhi. I wonder if in some way or maybe for some people that is literally true. That seeing the true nature in  the multiplicity of perception and the world is a psychic concentration feat. I've never had the privilege of sitting at a Mahasi center or speaking with a teacher at such a place, but I think I'd like to ask about that.  Maybe there's something to the idea.

I remember seeing Beth Upton, a student of Pa-auk sayadaw, talking about how at the monastery Pa-auk had started teaching the siddhis much earlier in a student's progression than before.  She speculated that this was because maybe he was getting older and didn't care any more.  It was on one of her two Guru Viking interviews that you can find on Youtube if you want to see what she has to say about siddhis.  The videos are indexed so you can jump right to it.