Reading guide
A group of mendicants gone slack
Confirmed by direct reading, the discourse opens with an unflattering portrait: mendicants staying beneath the longhouse are “restless, insolent, fickle, scurrilous, loose-tongued, unmindful, lacking situational awareness and immersion, with straying minds and undisciplined faculties” — the occasion for everything that follows.
A toe that shakes a firmly embedded building
Confirmed by direct reading, Moggallāna's own demonstration is deliberately dramatic: with no wind at all, and the longhouse's own foundations described as “firmly embedded, imperturbable and unshakable,” he makes it “shake and rock and tremble” using nothing but his big toe — leaving the startled mendicants “shocked and awestruck.”
The Buddha names the cause, not the display
This project's own observation: rather than dwelling on the display itself, the Buddha immediately redirects the mendicants' own attention to its cause — asking what Moggallāna has “developed and cultivated so as to have such power and might,” then answering his own question: the four bases of psychic power, described here in the same compressed form as SN 51.12, ending once again in arahantship.
A demonstration used pedagogically, not for its own sake
This project's own observation: the discourse frames the demonstration itself as instrumental — the Buddha's own stated purpose for sending Moggallāna was “wanting to strike awe” in mendicants who had grown slack, not to display power for its own sake; the awe becomes the occasion for a teaching on its own cause.
Key terms
The text
§1So I have heard. At one time the Buddha was staying near Sāvatthī in the stilt longhouse of Migāra’s mother in the Eastern Monastery. Now at that time several mendicants were staying beneath the longhouse. They were restless, insolent, fickle, scurrilous, loose-tongued, unmindful, lacking situational awareness and immersion, with straying minds and undisciplined faculties.
§2Then the Buddha addressed Venerable Mahāmoggallāna, “These spiritual companions of yours staying beneath the longhouse are restless, insolent, fickle, scurrilous, loose-tongued, unmindful, lacking situational awareness and immersion, with straying minds and undisciplined faculties. Go, Moggallāna, and strike awe in those mendicants!”
§3“Yes, sir,” replied Mahāmoggallāna. Then he used his psychic power to make the longhouse shake and rock and tremble with his big toe. Then those mendicants stood to one side, shocked and awestruck. “Oh lord, how incredible, how amazing! There’s no wind at all; and this stilt longhouse of Migāra’s mother has deep foundations. It’s firmly embedded, imperturbable and unshakable. And yet it shakes and rocks and trembles!”
§4Then the Buddha went up to those mendicants and said: “Why do you, mendicants, stand to one side, shocked and awestruck?” “It’s incredible, sir, it’s amazing! There’s no wind at all; and this stilt longhouse of Migāra’s mother has deep foundations. It’s firmly embedded, imperturbable and unshakable. And yet it shakes and rocks and trembles!” “Wanting to strike awe in you, the mendicant Moggallāna made the longhouse shake and rock and tremble with his big toe. What do you think, mendicants? What things has the mendicant Moggallāna developed and cultivated so as to have such power and might?” “Our teachings are rooted in the Buddha. He is our guide and our refuge. Sir, may the Buddha himself please clarify the meaning of this. The mendicants will listen and remember it.”
§5“Well then, mendicants, listen. The mendicant Moggallāna has become so powerful and mighty by developing and cultivating the four bases of psychic power. What four? Moggallāna develops the basis of psychic power that has immersion due to enthusiasm … energy … mental development … inquiry, and active effort. He thinks: ‘My inquiry won’t be too lax or too tense. And it’ll be neither constricted internally nor scattered externally.’ And he meditates perceiving before and behind: as before, so behind; as behind, so before; as below, so above; as above, so below; as by day, so by night; as by night, so by day. And so, with an open and unenveloped heart, he develops a mind that’s full of radiance. The mendicant Moggallāna has become so powerful and mighty by developing and cultivating these four bases of psychic power. And by developing and cultivating these four bases of psychic power, the mendicant Moggallāna wields the many kinds of psychic power … controlling the body as far as the realm of divinity. … And by developing and cultivating these four bases of psychic power, the mendicant Moggallāna realizes the undefiled freedom of heart and freedom by wisdom in this very life. And he lives having realized it with his own insight due to the ending of defilements.”
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