lence, prompting the emperor to have the image de-
stroyed. This act was followed by the miraculous ap-
pearance of a large log of camphor wood that emitted
the sound of Buddhist chants. Impressed, the emperor
gave orders that the wood be fashioned into two Bud-
dhist images, thus assuring the successful introduction
of Buddhist devotion to Japan.
Miracles and monks
Throughout the Buddhist world, accounts of holy
Buddhist monks are laced with miraculous events and
descriptions of their marvelous powers. Many of these
are patterned on accounts of the Buddha, noting a
monk’s auspicious birth and the omens that followed
his death. It is said, for instance, that when the promi-
nent Chinese monk Hongren (602–675) was born a
bright light filled the room, and that when he died the
sky turned dark and mountains trembled, as they did
every year on the anniversary of his death. Other
monks are credited with the standard supernormal
powers of being able to read minds, levitate, and rec-
ognize the past lives of others. For example, according
to one biography, the Korean monk WO ̆NHYO
(617–686) once appeared at one hundred places at the
same time. Holy monks are often thought to have spe-
cial powers over nature, taming wild animals and
changing the weather. The twelfth-century Vietnamese
monk Tinh Gió,I, for instance, received the title Rain
Master after provoking rain during a serious drought,
something other eminent monks of the time were un-
able to accomplish. The Japanese monk KUKAI
(774–835) was also said to be able to provoke rain
through his mastery of Buddhist ritual. To this day,
stories circulate of miraculous events associated with
prominent or mysterious monks, nuns, and lay Bud-
dhist figures, living and dead.
In addition to miracles provoked by individuals,
countless miracles are associated with Buddhist ob-
jects. Buddhist scriptures are said at times to protect
their owners from fire, Buddhist images come to life
in dreams to offer warnings and advice, and prayers to
relics result in miraculous cures. Such stories perme-
ate Buddhist culture, only a small portion of the total
ever being written down or otherwise reaching beyond
the local level.
Explanations for miracles
Scholastic Buddhist literature does not group all of the
phenomena discussed here into one category; there is
no well-attested Buddhist term equivalent to miracle.
Buddhist writers have expounded at length on the clas-
sic set of supernormal powers accruing to holy men,
but have shown less interest in proposing a general
theory of miracles. In some cases, the miraculous was
explained according to local theories. In East Asia, for
instance, recourse was often made to the Chinese con-
cept of resonance (ganying) by which animals, the
weather, and so on respond to a person of high at-
tainments or an event of extraordinary significance just
as one string on a musical instrument responds natu-
rally to another. More frequently, wondrous events are
simply recorded without a sustained attempt at expla-
nation. In fact, many Buddhist texts and teachers make
a point of downplaying the significance of supernat-
ural events. They insist that supernormal powers are a
by-product of cultivation and not its goal. The Bud-
dha himself upbraided his disciples for displaying their
powers in public. Nonetheless, the allure of the mar-
velous made it an exceptional rhetorical tool. That is,
Buddhist texts are at pains to demonstrate the extra-
ordinary powers of, for instance, the Buddha, before
going on to dismiss these powers as child’s play and
peripheral to the far greater goals of enlightenment and
release from suffering.
There has never been a strong tradition of skepti-
cism toward miracles within Buddhist circles, though
those hostile to Buddhism were always ready to dis-
count Buddhist claims to the marvelous. For the most
part, Buddhists have always accepted the supernormal
powers of the Buddha and the potential of Buddhist
figures and objects to provoke miracles. In modern
times, however, it has become commonplace for Bud-
dhist writers to strip away miraculous events from an-
cient Buddhist writings in an attempt to reveal a
historical core to a given legend. While not in itself un-
reasonable, this approach is often accompanied by the
assumption that miraculous stories emerge in response
to the demands of an unsophisticated laity, steeped in
popular superstition. In fact, for most of Buddhist his-
tory, miracle stories have been popular at all social lev-
els and accepted as literally true by even the most
erudite of monks.
The future of Buddhist miracles is uncertain. Even
Buddhist leaders skeptical of accounts of miracles have
not made concerted efforts to disprove Buddhist mir-
acles or discourage the propagation of stories of mar-
velous, supernatural events associated with Buddhism,
suggesting that miracles will continue to occupy a place
of importance in Buddhist culture for the foreseeable
future.MIRACLES