[Buddha-l] Re: Magic

[L.S. Cousins]

Rahula,

I am not sure if you are responding to my query. But, if so, it is 
just a kind of mistranslation:
The Pali is:
evaruupaaya tiracchaanavijjaaya micchaajiivena jiivita.m kappenti
In all cases it should be:
... make their living by wrong means of livelihood, by such base arts as ...

In other words the issue is wrong livelihood for a mendicant who is 
dependent on alms. These lists also include medicine where it is 
clear that there is no objection to studying medicine and no 
objection to practising it for other monks.

Lance Cousins

>Hi,
>   
>   How about the Brahmajala Sutta. Among others, we find:
>   
>   "Whereas some ascetics and Brahmins, feeding on the food of the 
>faithful, make their living by such base arts, such wrong means of 
>livelihood as palmistry, [26] divining by signs, portents, dreams, 
>body-marks, mouse-gnawing, fire-oblations, oblations from a ladle of 
>husks, rice-powder, rice-grains, ghee or oil, from the mouth or of 
>blood, reading the finger-tips, house- and garden-lore, skill in 
>charms, ghost-lore, earth-house lore, [27] snake-lore, poison-lore, 
>rat-lore, bird-lore, crow-lore, foretelling a person's life-span, 
>charms against arrows, knowledge of animals¡¦ cries, the ascetic 
>Gotama refrains from such base arts and wrong means of 
>livelihood.....................
>   
>   "Whereas some ascetics and Brahmins make their living by such base 
>arts as arranging the giving and taking in marriage, engagements and 
>divorces; [declaring the time for] saving and spending, bringing 
>good or bad luck, procuring abortions,  using spells to bind the 
>tongue, binding the jaw, making the hands jerk, causing deafness, 
>getting answers with a mirror, a girl-medium, a Deva; worshipping 
>the sun or Great Brahma, breathing fire, invoking the Goddess of 
>luck, the ascetic Gotama refrains from such base arts and wrong 
>means of livelihood."
>
>   Best wishes,
>   Rahula