2

Do Buddhas have precognition? Do they know what events are going to happen before they do?

Obviously, the Buddha knows that he will not be reborn, and he knows what will generate a good rebirth, and what a bad. Are any of these destinies both assured and knowable?

According to Early Buddhism and the Bhagavadgita, By Kashi Nath Upadhyaya, p84, the Buddha "seems" to have claimed that he does not have "unlimited" knowledge of the future.

But I wondered if Buddhas had any certain knowledge of the future, aside from their not being reborn. Or perhaps, though the future is not fully predetermined (ibid), they can have certain knowledge of events aside from not being reborn.


Apologies for stating this, because users of the site may have noticed that I ask many similar questions, but, from wikipedia...

Think not of the past but of the future. Constantly maintain the future thoughts to be good. This is what we call the Sambhogakāya.

Just one single evil thought could destroy the good karma that has continued for one thousand years; and just one single good thought in turn could destroy the evil karma that has lived for one thousand years. If the future thoughts are always good, you may call this the Sambhogakāya. The discriminative thinking arising from the Dharmakāya (法身↔fashen "Truth body") is called the Nirmanakāya (化身↔huashen "transformation body"). The successive thoughts that forever involve good are thus the Sambhogakāya.

if they don't, and the Buddha-nature is identical to the body, then maye it could be said (likely not) that rebirth has no phenomena whatsoever?

1 Answer 1

1

Do Buddhas have precognition?

Some Buddhist may have precognition if they develop abhiññā. Precognition is not limited to Buddhism. Hindus also have meditation techniques which develop these kind of powers. Though not frequent there are cases outside Buddhism also which such phenomena has been seen. See studies in parapsychology.

Having said this only a handful of people even among Buddhist have precognition as an ability.

3
  • 1
    Is it possible that abhiññā includes knowledge of the past (former abodes), and the present (including e.g. the present state of someone who has died, whether they're in heaven) ... but not the future?
    – ChrisW
    Commented Jun 30, 2017 at 3:12
  • Abhiññā is inclusive of all Supernormal powers. Iddhi vidhā nana is catch all. All Supernormal phenomena come under Abhiññā if it does not fit in the other categories it can be put under Iddhi vidhā nan which is super powers. Seeing the future can be put under divine eye and also also Iddhi vidhā nan. The Divine Eye (Clairvoyance)- this power allows one to see beings in other realms as well as see the future in iddhi Commented Jun 30, 2017 at 3:57
  • thank you to you both. i might add a note on what i know so far, i think to the question
    – user2512
    Commented Jun 30, 2017 at 4:04

You must log in to answer this question.