Venerable Maudgalyāyana (vegan): A Compassionate Protector’s Miraculous Journey, Part 1 of 2

The spiritual pairing of Maudgalyāyana and the Venerated Śāriputra (vegan), Who was also one of Buddha’s chief disciples, is significant. The two had developed a strong and unique affinity through several prior existences together over numerous past lifetimes with the future Shakyamuni Buddha. The various abilities that They developed suited Them to work as perfect assistants, maintaining concord, stability, and discipline within the congregation of the Buddha’s order of monks.

The path that led Maudgalyāyana to become a revered assistant of Shakyamuni Buddha was instigated numerous eons ago, through merits earned by Śāriputra with the Worshipped Anomadassī Buddha. According to Theravāda tradition, Anomadassī Buddha was one of the 28 Buddhas listed in the Buddhavaṃsa. At that time, Śāriputra spontaneously attended the Sangha of Anomadassi Buddha. Becoming completely enraptured by the proceedings of the congregation, He held an umbrella to protect the Buddha from the Sun for seven days. Due to this merit, Anomadassi Buddha predicted that, in the distant future, Śāriputra would become one of the chief disciples of Gautama Buddha, alongside His close friend Maudgalyāyana. They would serve as Shakyamuni Buddha’s right- and left-hand assistants, respectively.

Among Shakyamuni Buddha’s disciples, Maudgalyāyana was foremost in supernatural powers, using them to protect the Dharma. He possessed six types of supernatural abilities: the Divine eye (clairvoyance), Divine ear (clairaudience), mind-reading, knowledge of past lives, the extinction of defilements, and the ability to travel freely through space (teleportation).

His supernatural powers had a karmic connection to His past life, when He was a fisherperson. He realized that His livelihood was creating bad karma and decided to change to more virtuous ways. Later, He encountered a Pratyekabuddha (“solitary Enlightened One”). Deeply impressed by His dignified manner, He invited the Pratyekabuddha to His house to receive offerings. After offering Him a meal, Maudgalyāyana witnessed the Pratyekabuddha rise into the air and move freely in all directions. Inspired, He made a vow to attain such powers in a future life. Through His determination, Maudgalyāyana’s wish came true, and in this life, as a disciple of the Buddha, He became the foremost in supernatural abilities.

During a 1991 lecture in Taiwan, also known as Formosa, our Most Beloved Supreme Master Ching Hai (vegan) explained why the Buddha forbade Maudgalyāyana from using magical powers, even though Buddha Himself manifested countless forms and used great powers to help beings in Heaven and hell. “Maudgalyāyana had magical powers of a mortal, and He had to use His mind to control them through mantras and rituals. It needed to be done through His physical body. The Buddha’s magical powers were transcendental powers, and egoless powers. He was doing without doing. […] You deliver sentient beings without thinking there’s sentient being to be delivered. You do things without thinking of doing it. That is beyond Maudgalyāyana’s level of understanding. Maudgalyāyana used the ‘Hoola Hop’ type of mantras to perform magic. Of course it would interfere with other people’s karma, and it’s very ignorant to do things in this way. He was doing it with ego: I can change this, I can change that. But He was asking for trouble. It would create karma because it’s interfering with the karma of the Universe. [...]”