དངོས་གྲུབ

Siddhis are spiritual, magical, supranormal, paranormal, or supernatural powers acquired through a sadhana (spiritual practices), such as Meditation and Yoga.^[1] People whom have attained siddhis are formally known as siddhas.



In the Pancatantra, a siddhi may be the term for any unusual skill or faculty or capability.
^[7]===Eight primary siddhis===

In Hinduism eight siddhis (Ashta Siddhi) are known:

• 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

In the Bhagavata Purana, the five siddhis of Yoga and meditation are:

1. tri-kāla-jñatvam: knowing the past, present and future
2. advandvam: tolerance of heat, cold and other dualities
3. para citta ādi abhijñatā: knowing the minds of others and so on
4. agni arka ambu viṣa ādīnām pratiṣṭambhaḥ: checking the influence of fire, sun, water, poison, and so on
5. aparājayah: remaining unconquered by others

Alan Wilson Watts (6 January 1915 – 16 November 1973) was a British-born philosopher, writer, and speaker, best known as an interpreter and populariser of Eastern philosophy for a Western audience. Born in Chislehurst, he moved to the United States in 1938 and began Zen training in New York. Pursuing a career, he attended Seabury-Western Theological Seminary, where he received a master's degree in theology. Watts became an Episcopal priest then left the ministry in 1950 and moved to California, where he joined the faculty of the American Academy of Asian Studies.

Watts gained a large following in the San Francisco Bay Area while working as a volunteer programmer at KPFA, a Pacifica Radio station in Berkeley. Watts wrote more than 25 books and articles on subjects important to Eastern and Western religion, introducing the then-burgeoning youth culture to The Way of Zen (1957), one of the first bestselling books on Buddhism. In Psychotherapy East and West (1961), Watts proposed that Buddhism could be thought of as a form of psychotherapy and not a religion. He also explored human consciousness, in the essay "The New Alchemy" (1958), and in the book The Joyous Cosmology (1962).

Towards the end of his life, he divided his time between a houseboat in Sausalito and a cabin on Mount Tamalpais. His legacy has been kept alive by his son, Mark Watts, and many of his recorded talks and lectures are available on the Internet. According to the critic Erik Davis, his "writings and recorded talks still shimmer with a profound and galvanizing lucidity."^[3]