However, I was thinking in another direction. Since man was first invented some people have been trying to perfect themselves for the benefit of all life on earth. Some of people that immediately come to mind are beings like Jesus, Buddha, Confucious, Lao Tsu, Gandhi, Mandela, Martin Luther King, etc. Many of us have tried to become enlightened so people wouldn't have to suffer so much and could live better lives.
I was thinking today that the coming singularity might also help to create "Immortal Mahasiddhas" whose lives would be lived to benefit all beings first on earth and then throughout the Galaxy. If one combines the path to enlightenment with the Singularity this could be achieved by many many beings.
The following is the definition of Mahasiddha from Wikipedia:
Mahasiddha
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Mahasiddha (Tibetan: གྲུབ་ཐོབ་ཆེན་པོ; Wylie: grub thob chen po; or Tibetan: ཏུལ་ཤུག; Wylie: tul shug; Sanskrit Devanagari: महासिद्ध; IAST: mahāsiddha, maha meaning "great" and siddha meaning "adept") is a term for someone who embodies and cultivates siddhi of perfection. They are a type of eccentric yogi in both Hinduism and Vajrayana Buddhism. Mahasiddhas were tantric practitioners, or tantrikas who had sufficient attainments to act as a guru or tantric master. A siddha is an individual who, through the practice of sadhana, attains the realization of siddhis, psychic and spiritual abilities and powers. Their historical influence throughout the Indic and Himalayan region was vast and they reached mythic proportions which is codified in their songs of realization and hagiographies, or namthar, many of which have been preserved in the Tibetan Buddhist canon. The Mahasiddha are acknowledged as the founders of many Indian and Buddhist traditions and lineages.Robert Thurman contrasts the Tantric Buddhist communities within which the Mahasidda practiced and taught with the Buddhist universities such as Nalanda which flourished at the same time:
The Tantric communities of India in the latter half of the first Common Era millennium (and perhaps even earlier) were something like “Institutes of Advanced Studies” in relation to the great Buddhist monastic “Universities.” They were research centers for highly cultivated, successfully graduated experts in various branches of Inner Science (adhyatmavidya), some of whom were still monastics and could move back and forth from university (vidyalaya) to “site” (pitha), and many of whom had resigned vows of poverty, celibacy, and so forth, and were living in the classical Indian saiñnyãsin or sãdhu style. I call them the "psychonauts" of the tradition, in parallel with our “astronauts,” the materialist scientist-adventurers whom we admire for their courageous explorations of the “outer space” which we consider the matrix of material reality. Inverse astronauts, the psychonauts voyaged deep into “inner space,” encountering and conquering angels and demons in the depths of their subconscious minds.[1]It was the Mahasiddhas who instituted the practices that birthed the Inner Tantras of Dzogchen practiced by the Nyingma school of Tibetan Buddhism. The other schools of Tibetan Buddhism and other Vajrayana Buddhists such as Shingon Buddhism practice Mahamudra meditation, also a practice initiated by the original Buddhist Mahasiddha. end quote.
I also found at Wikipedia a list of the possible Siddhis that and enlightened adept can attain.
[edit] Five Siddhis of Yoga and Meditation
In the Bhagavata Purana the Five Siddhis of Yoga and Meditation are described as below:- tri-kāla-jñatvam: Knowing the past, present and future;
- advandvam: Tolerance of heat, cold and other dualities;
- para citta ādi abhijñatā: Knowing the minds of others and so on;
- agni arka ambu viṣa ādīnām pratiṣṭambhaḥ: Checking the influence of fire, sun, water, poison, and so on;
- aparājayah: Remaining unconquered by others;[4]
[edit] Eight Primary Siddhis
Ganesha with the Ashta (8) Siddhis. The Ashtasiddhi are shown as attendants of Ganesha. Painting by Raja Ravi Varma (1848-1906)
- Aṇimā: reducing one's body even to the size of an atom
- Mahima: expanding one's body to an infinitely large size
- Garima: becoming infinitely heavy
- Laghima: becoming almost weightless
- Prāpti: having unrestricted access to all places
- Prākāmya: realizing whatever one desires
- Iṣṭva: possessing absolute lordship;
- Vaśtva: the power to subjugate all.[5]
[edit] Ten Secondary Siddhis
In the Bhagavata Purana Lord Krishna describes the Ten Secondary Siddhis as:- anūrmi-mattvam: Being undisturbed by hunger, thirst, and other bodily disturbances
- dūra-śravaṇa: Hearing things far away
- dūra-darśanam: Seeing things far away
- manaḥ-javah: Moving the body wherever thought goes (teleportation)
- kāma-rūpam: Assuming any form desired
- para-kāya praveśanam: Entering the bodies of others
- sva-chanda mṛtyuh: Dying when one desires
- devānām saha krīḍā anudarśanam: Witnessing and participating in the pastimes of the Apsaras
- yathā sańkalpa saḿsiddhiḥ: Perfect accomplishment of one's determination
- ājñā apratihatā gatiḥ: Orders or Commands being unimpeded [6]
- end quote from wikipedia under the heading "Siddhis"
- I personally have either experienced some of these things myself or I have seen others (especially in India and Nepal) who could do almost all these things. This might be hard to believe for a person with a western materialistic mind, but I can say to you that all these things are possible without any electronic technology present. And some people on earth CAN and DO one or more of these things all over the earth.
- "There are more things in heaven and earth than have ever been thought of in your philosophy, Horatio" quote from Shakespeare in "Hamlet" (this was from my memory)
- There now follows an exact quote from Shakespeare:
- Hamlet:
And therefore as a stranger give it welcome.
There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,
Than are dreamt of in your philosophy. - http://www.enotes.com/shakespeare-quotes/there-more-things-heaven-earth-horatio
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