The Price of Supernatural Powers

While traveling to spread the teachings, Zen master Dang An Phong and his disciple passed through a border region. The scene before them was horrifying: two armies clashing in fierce combat, blood staining the earth red, bodies piled upon one another. The sounds of screaming and clashing weapons formed a symphony of sorrow and destruction.

Dang An Phong stopped, and a powerful compassion arose in his heart. Looking upon the lives being slaughtered, he felt an unbearable anguish. In that moment, he decided to intervene. Without hesitation, he rose into the air and hovered above the battlefield. His body radiated light, majestic and solemn, as he pointed his hand down toward the earth.

This extraordinary act struck terror into the soldiers on both sides. They dropped their weapons and scattered to the edges of the road, not daring to advance a single step further. The war fell silent, thanks to the power of his supernatural abilities. After descending, Dang An Phong returned to the temple, his face grave and heavy with thought.

He called his disciple to him and spoke in a voice that was sorrowful yet resolute:

"Because I revealed my supernatural powers, I must now pass away."

The disciple was astonished, but before he could ask why, the very next day Zen master Dang An Phong pressed his palms against the ground, raised his feet toward the sky, held himself motionless in that position, and entered final nirvana. He chose a most unusual way to depart, remaining stubborn, one might say, until his very last moment, refusing to lie down or sit as ordinary people do. The disciple and the townspeople could not move his body, for it had become stiff and firm as stone.

Only when his sister came down from the mountain did anything change. With a gentle push against the body, half scolding and half loving, she said:

"Brother, you broke the precepts while alive. Why must you still be stubborn in death?"

Only then did his body fall softly to the ground, becoming supple once more, and the people were finally able to place him in the stupa. The story ends with a sense of deep regret, yet it carries a powerful lesson.

The Meaning of the Story

This story highlights the strict precepts of Buddhism regarding the use of supernatural powers. Miracles may attract the masses and resolve urgent situations, but they bring harmful consequences: they cause people to become dependent, superstitious, and to forget the law of cause and effect (karmic law). True practitioners always dread revealing supernatural powers, because doing so disrupts spiritual balance and obstructs the genuine path to enlightenment.

Compiled from a dharma talk by Venerable Thich Chan Quang