Does levitation really exist?

Question

Sometimes you hear of people who can levitate from the ground. It looks like it is not just a state of mind but a real physical happening.

So is there any prove of the existence of it and how is it is physically possible.

Answer 1

Yes it is possible and Lord Buddha had to show some supernatural powers in certain incidents. But Lord Buddha's perspective was a bit different from what you might expect....

One day Lord Buddha and some monks were on path to reach a certain village / city. On the way the group had to cross a river, there was a boat and people had to pat the boat owner to cross the river (Like a ferry). Suddenly a person who looked like a sage crossed the river levitating above the river. It was done by him to show off as the Lord Buddha's group was there.

Lord Buddha asked "how much does it cost to cost the river".

The amount was told to Lord Buddha, Then Lord Buddha said "That is how much that person's Power is worth"

(Because the power he had only helped him cross the river and that costed a certain amount,no matter how many river he cross that has no value other that the money he save when using the power. In the Grand scale of things he is just as helpless as any other being because his power does not free him from "Samsara")

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Lord Buddha asked us to focus on the path and not on fancy powers. Because you do not necessarily need to be a Buddhist to do all of that. Because even Before Lord Buddha's birth people was able to do so much more (Like inter-realm travel).

One day a sage from another teaching wanted to know the answer to the same question that you are asking, So he came to Lord Buddha's Monastery and became a monk. All he ever did was practicing hard to reach the same level as the monks. He was sent by the elder sages of his earlier practice to learn Lord Buddha's teaching so they can show powers and attract people to their teaching (Foreigners to india and even some indians to this day ask questions like why are there so many similarities among Buddhism and other religions without knowing the kind of foul play Buddhism had to deal with).

He tried his best and he couldn't reach the level he wanted and he started asking questions from "Arahats" who visited Lord Buddha to acknowledge their completion of the path. But at the time all the Arahats visited was not with any powers (There are two different practices to reach the end and depending on what path you choose you either get or miss the powers,but there is no lack of the path between the two versions).

In the end he was fed up and directly went to Lord Buddha and told the truth. Lord Buddha kindly advised him and he became an "Arahat". But never returned to the older practice.

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There is also another side to Powers....

One day a monk who had reached "Universal hearing (Dibba sotha)" came to Lord Buddha and asked Lord Buddha's guidance to gain (Dibba chakku) "Universal seeing/eye".

Lord Buddha looked at the monk's Karma and said you have not done enough good Karma to reach that level

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So there is a clear mention that not only powers vary in the path also the powers can only be reached by ones who have done enough Karma to make it available.

Answer 2

Yes...it does, yet the probability of seeing this depends on you and not the Ones who can achieve such feats.