Monthly Archives: February 2012

Dharma In Popular Music; Todd Rundgren, “Compassion”

Posted on February 28, 2012 by Buddhist Learning Center
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Compassion is a verb. ~Thich Nhat Hanh

You want more, and still more,
Until you get more than you ever bargained for.
Now its plain, clear as rain,
I’ve seen your symptoms many times before.

Lying on your bed of pain
What will you have now?

What are riches untold in a life without compassion?
For there’s no winter as cold
as a life without compassion.
There’s no prescription that’s sold
that can heal you like compassion.

Well you tried and you cried,
And let your disappointment make you hard inside.
You have doubt, you reach out,
Still you’re the only one you care about.

Hiding in your sack of woe
What do you need now?

For there is nothing so sad
as a life without compassion.
And even love has turned bad,
it was love without compassion.
And you don’t need what you had
‘Cause you did not have compassion.

Dying on your bed of pain
What will you have now?

You’ll get no judgment from me,
I can only feel compassion.
And if that’s what you need,
I will give you my compassion.
Just don’t forget about me
‘Cause we all need some compassion.

Open up your heart
so you can start to feel compassion.
Get down on your knees,
pray to heaven for compassion.
Everybody needs compassion.
If you want to be healed
then you know you got to feel compassion.

Watch the Video on Youtube

Three Quick Meditations You Can Do Anytime

Posted on February 25, 2012 by Buddhist Learning Center
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Anam Thubten Rinpoche recommends a meditation practice that anyone can do, anytime. Simply pause, relax, just become aware of your breath, and allow yourself to fully experience the present moment. After all, the present moment is the only time anyone can really experience happiness.

Long, arduous, leg numbing meditation sessions are not the only way to meditate. Today, we present three one minute meditations from three different Masters, including accomplished Buddhist Monk Thich Nhat Hanh, Tibetan Buddhist Lama Anam Thubten Rinpoche, and health guru Andrew Weil, M.D.  All recommend a practice including short meditations that are available to those even on the busiest schedule.

Anam Thubten Rinpoche recommends a meditation practice that anyone can do, anytime.  Simply pause, relax, just become aware of your breath, and allow yourself to fully experience the present moment. After all, the present moment is the only time anyone can really experience happiness. This practice is centering. It brings a greater sense of peace, perspective, improved focus and renewed energy. And it’s available wherever and whenever you want. This so called ‘Pause Meditation’ is also very similar to the following meditations offered by Thich Nhat Hanh and Andrew Weil, M.D.

Meditating Your Way to Greater Happiness and Health

 

Thich Nhat Hanh offers the following short meditation, “I would like to offer one short poem you can recite from time to time, while breathing and smiling.

"Breathing in I calm my body. Breathing out I smile. Dwelling in the present moment, I know this is a wonderful moment." ~Thich Nhat Hanh

“Breathing in I calm my body.

Breathing out I smile.

Dwelling in the present moment,

I know this is a wonderful moment.”

“Breathing in, I calm my body.“ This line is like drinking a glass of ice water- you feel the cold, the freshness, permeate your body. When I breathe in and recite this line, I actually feel the breathing calming my body, calming my mind.

“Breathing out, I smile.” You know the effect of a smile. A smile can relax hundreds of muscles in your face, and relax your nervous system. A smile makes you master of yourself. That is why Buddhas and Bodhisattvas are always smiling. When you smile you realize the wonder of the smile.

“Dwelling in the present moment.” While I sit here, I don’t think of somewhere else, or of the future or the past. I sit here, and I know where I am. This is very important. We tend to be alive in the future, not now. We say, “Wait until ‘i finish school and get my Ph.D degree, and then I will be really alive.” When we have it, and it’s not easy to get, we say to ourselves, “I have to wait  until I have a job in order to really live.” And then after the job, a car. After the car, a house. We are not capable of being alive in the present moment. We tend to postpone being alive to the future, the distant future, we don’t know when. Now is not the moment to be alive. We may never be alive at all in our entire life. Therefore, the technique, if we have to speak of a technique, is to be in the present moment, to be aware that we are here and now, and the only moment to be alive is the present moment.

“I know this is a wonderful moment.“ This is the only moment that is real. To be here and now, and enjoy the present moment is our most important task. “Calming, Smiling, Present moment, Beautiful moment.” I hope you will try it.

Thich Nhat Hanh, Being Peace

Though breathing is partially controlled by the autonomic nervous system, a degree of control of the breath is clearly helpful in influencing our emotional state. “Feelings come and go like clouds in a windy sky. Conscious breathing is my anchor,” writes Thich Nhat Hanh.  Of course, breath is something available to everyone virtually all the time. Andrew Weil, MD offers the following breathing meditation which fights disease, oxygenates the blood, and brings feelings of peace.

The 4-7-8 (Relaxing Breath)

Once you develop this technique by practicing it every day, it will be a very useful tool that you will always have with you. Use it whenever anything upsetting happens - before you react. Use it whenever you are aware of internal tension. Use it to help you fall asleep. This exercise cannot be recommended too highly. Everyone can benefit from it. ~Andrew Weil, MD.

“This is utterly simple, takes almost no time, requires no equipment and can be done anywhere. Although you can do the exercise in any position, sit with your back straight while learning the exercise.

  • Exhale completely through your mouth, making a whoosh sound.
  • Close your mouth and inhale quietly through your nose to a mental count of four.
  • Hold your breath for a count of seven.
  • Exhale completely through your mouth, making a whoosh sound to a count of eight.
  • This is one breath. Now inhale again and repeat the cycle three more times for a total of four breaths.

Note that you always inhale quietly through your nose and exhale audibly through your mouth. The tip of your tongue stays in position the whole time. Exhalation takes twice as long as inhalation. The absolute time you spend on each phase is not important; the ratio of 4:7:8 is important. If you have trouble holding your breath, speed the exercise up but keep to the ratio of 4:7:8 for the three phases. With practice you can slow it all down and get used to inhaling and exhaling more and more deeply.

This exercise is a natural tranquilizer for the nervous system. Unlike tranquilizing drugs, which are often effective when you first take them but then lose their power over time, this exercise is subtle when you first try it but gains in power with repetition and practice. Do it at least twice a day. You cannot do it too frequently. Do not do more than four breaths at one time for the first month of practice. Later, if you wish, you can extend it to eight breaths. If you feel a little lightheaded when you first breathe this way, do not be concerned; it will pass.

Once you develop this technique by practicing it every day, it will be a very useful tool that you will always have with you. Use it whenever anything upsetting happens – before you react. Use it whenever you are aware of internal tension. Use it to help you fall asleep. This exercise cannot be recommended too highly. Everyone can benefit from it.”

Dr. Andrew Weil  3 Breathing Exercises

Alan Watts: The Sound of the Rain Needs No Translation

 

Anything That Contradicts Experience and Logic Should Be Abandoned

Posted on February 17, 2012 by Buddhist Learning Center
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Anything that contradicts experience and logic should be abandoned. ~Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama

Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it. Do not believe in anything simply because it is spoken and rumored by many. Do not believe in anything simply because it is found written in your religious books. Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of your teachers and elders. Do not believe in traditions because they have been handed down for many generations. But after observation and analysis, when you find that anything agrees with reason and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all, then accept it and live up to it.  ~Buddha

How to Recognize the Modus Ponens Argument Formthumbnail We must conduct research and then accept the results. If they don’t stand up to experimentation, Buddha’s own words must be rejected.  ~Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama

Believe nothing merely because you have been told it. Do not believe what your teacher tells you merely out of respect for the teacher. But whatsoever, after due examination and analysis, you find to be kind, conducive to the good, the benefit, the welfare of all beings — that doctrine believe and cling to, and take it as your guide. ~Buddha

Zen Boyscout

Posted on February 16, 2012 by Buddhist Learning Center
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Students achieving Oneness will move on to Twoness. ~Woody Allen

Woody Allen’s work is filled with contemplations of death, the possibilities of an afterlife and the existence of God. Similar to the Buddha’s own experience, he is said to have become deeply troubled during his sheltered youth upon first learning of the inexplicability and inevitability of death.

“What! This all has to end?” he summarized this realization. Of course, the Buddha taught whatever is subject to origination is subject to cessation.

In the following quotations, Allen explores such Buddhist themes as the universality of suffering, the illusory nature of life,  reincarnation, carpe diem, and of course, his own unique philosophical musings on death and the existence of god.

How do you spot the Zen Boyscout? He’s the one starting a fire rubbing one stick together.
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Students achieving Oneness will move on to Twoness.

To you I'm an atheist; to God, I'm the Loyal Opposition. ~Woody Allen

Eternal nothingness is fine if you happen to be dressed for it.

How can I believe in God when just last week I got my tongue caught in the roller of an electric typewriter?

I don’t want to achieve immortality through my work… I want to achieve it through not dying.

I was thrown out of college for cheating on the metaphysics exam; I looked into the soul of the boy sitting next to me.

If God exists, I hope he has a good excuse.

If it turns out that there is a God, I don’t think that he’s evil. But the worst that you can say about him is that basically he’s an underachiever.

If only God would give me some clear sign! Like making a large deposit in my name in a Swiss bank.

 Great, that means I’ll have to sit through the Ice Capades again!  ~Woody Allen Musing On Nietzsche’s Theory of Eternal Recurrence (in which we’re doomed to repeat the same life over and over)

I was thrown out of college for cheating on the metaphysics exam; I looked into the soul of the boy sitting next to me. ~Woody Allen

And what if the worst is true? What if there’s no God, and you only go around once and that’s it. Well, you know,don’t you want to be part of the experience? You know, what the hell, it’s not all a drag. And I’m thinking to myself, “Geez, I should stop ruining my life, searching for answers I’m never going to get, and just enjoy it while it lasts.”

Life is divided into the horrible and the miserable.

Life is full of misery, loneliness, and suffering – and it’s all over much too soon.
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Not only is there no God, but try getting a plumber on weekends.

On the plus side, death is one of the few things that can be done just as easily lying down.

To you I’m an atheist; to God, I’m the Loyal Opposition.       

What if everything is an illusion and nothing exists? In that case, I definitely overpaid for my carpet.

It’s not that I’m afraid to die, I just don’t want to be there when it happens.

If it turns out that there is a God, I don't think that he's evil. But the worst that you can say about him is that basically he's an underachiever. ~Woody Allen

 

Dhammapada, Part 19; The Just

Posted on February 15, 2012 by Buddhist Learning Center
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If you determine your course With force or speed, You miss the way of the dharma. ~Buddha

If you determine your course
With force or speed,
You miss the way of the dharma.
Quietly consider
What is right and what is wrong.
Receiving all opinions equally,
Without haste, wisely,
Observe the dharma.
Who is wise,
The eloquent or the quiet man?
Be quiet,
And loving and fearless.
For the mind talks.
But the body knows.
Gray hairs do not make a master.
A man may grow old in vain.
The true master lives in truth,
In goodness and restraint,
Non-violence, moderation and purity.
Fine words or fine features
Cannot make a master
Out of a jealous and greedy man.
Only when envy and selfishness
Are rooted out of him
May he grow in beauty.

Fine words or fine features Cannot make a master Out of a jealous and greedy man. Only when envy and selfishness Are rooted out of him May he grow in beauty. ~Buddha

A man may shave his head

But if he still lies and neglects his work, If he clings to desire and attachment,
How can he follow the way?

The true seeker
Subdues all waywardness.
He has submitted his nature to quietness.
He is a true seeker
Not because he begs
But because he follows the lawful way,
Holding back nothing, holding to nothing,
Beyond good and evil,
Beyond the body and beyond the mind.
Silence cannot make a master out of a fool.
But he who weighs only purity in his scales,

The true seeker Subdues all waywardness. He has submitted his nature to quietness... Silence cannot make a master out of a fool. But he who weighs only purity in his scales, Who sees the nature of the two worlds, He is a master. He harms no living thing. ~Buddha

Who sees the nature of the two worlds, He is a master.

And yet it is not good conduct
That helps you upon the way,
Nor ritual, nor book learning,
Nor withdrawal into the self,
Nor deep meditation.
None of these confers mastery or joy.
O seeker!
Rely on nothing
Until you want nothing.

~Buddha

Gray hairs do not make a master. A man may grow old in vain. ~Buddha

Dharma In Popular Music; The Beatles, “The Inner Light”

Posted on February 13, 2012 by Buddhist Learning Center
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"See without looking, hear without listening, breathe without asking." ~W.H. Auden

Without Going Out of my door I can know all things on Earth
Without looking out of my window
I could know the ways of Heaven

The farther one travels
The less one knows
The less one really knows

Without going out of your door
You can know all things on Earth
Without looking out of your window
You could know the ways of Heaven

The farther one travels
The less one knows
The less one really knows

Arrive without travelling
See all without looking
Do all without doing

“I am a writer who came from a sheltered life. A sheltered life can be daring as well. For all serious daring starts from within.” ~Eudora Welty

Written By George Harrison

Watch the Video on Youtube.

This song appears to have been closely based on some verses from the Tao Te Ching:

“Without going out of my door
I can know all things on earth.
Without looking out of my window
I can know the ways of heaven.
For the farther one travels,
The less one knows.

The sage therefore
Arrives without travelling,
Sees all without looking,
Does all without doing.”

-Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching

 

Angry Buddha

Posted on February 12, 2012 by Buddhist Learning Center
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     “A woman who practices reciting Buddha Amitabha’s name, is very tough and recites “NAMO AMITABHA BUDDHA” three times daily. Although she is doing this practice for over 10 years, she is still quite mean, shouting at people all the time. She starts her practice lighting incense and hitting a little bell.

A friend wanted to teach her a lesson, and just as she began her recitation, he came to her door and called out: “Miss Nuyen, Miss Nuyen!”.

As this was the time for her practice she got annoyed, but she said to herself: “I have to struggle against my anger, so I will just ignore it.”

And she continued: “NAMO AMITABHA BUDDHA, NAMO AMITABHA BUDDHA…”

But the man continued to shout her name, and she became more and more oppressive. She struggled against it and wondered if she should stop the recitation to give the man a piece of her mind, but she continued reciting: “NAMO AMITABHA BUDDHA, NAMO AMITABHA BUDDHA…”

The man outside heard it and continued: “Miss Nuyen, Miss Nuyen…”

Then she could not stand it anymore, jumped up, slammed the door and went to the gate and shouted: “Why do you have to behave like that? I am doing my practice and you keep on shouting my name over and over!”

The gentleman smiled at her and said: “I just called your name for ten minutes and you are so angry. You have been calling Amitabha Buddha’s name for more then ten years now; just imagine how angry he must be by now!”

    ~Thitch Nhat Hahn, Being Peace

The Monk and The Cow Dung Worm

Posted on February 11, 2012 by Buddhist Learning Center
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“To straighten the crooked, you must first do a more difficult thing, you must straighten yourself.” ~Shantideva

“There is a wonderful little story about two monks who lived together in a monastery for many years; they were great friends. Then they died within a few months of one another.

One of them got reborn in the heaven realms, the other monk got reborn as a worm in a dung pile. The one up in the heaven realms was having a wonderful time, enjoying all the heavenly pleasures. But he started thinking about his friend, “I wonder where my old mate has gone?”

So he scanned all of the heaven realms, but could not find a trace of his friend. Then he scanned the realm of human beings, but he could not see any trace of his friend there, so he looked in the realm of animals and then of insects. Finally he found him, reborn as a worm in a dung pile…

Wow! He thought: “I am going to help my friend. I am going to go down there to that dung pile and take him up to the heavenly realm so he too can enjoy the heavenly pleasures and bliss of living in these wonderful realms.”

So he went down to the dung pile and called his mate. And the little worm wriggled out and said: “Who are you?”, “I am your friend. We used to be monks together in a past life, and I have come up to take you to the heaven realms where life is wonderful and blissful.”

But the worm said: “Go away, get lost!”

“But I am your friend, and I live in the heaven realms,” and he described the heaven realms to him. But the worm said: “No thank you, I am quite happy here in my dung pile. Please go away.”

Then the heavenly being thought: “Well if I could only just grab hold of him and take him up to the heaven realms, he could see for himself.” So he grabbed hold of the worm and

"Strive for your own salvation with diligence." ~Buddha

started tugging at him; and the harder he tugged, the harder that worm clung to his pile of dung.”

View on Buddhism/Buddhist Stories

The Buddha’s final words instructed us “Strive for your own salvation with diligence.” Each man is responsible for his own life and, try as we might, we cannot take that responsibility for anyone else. Though Buddhists are motivated to relieve suffering whenever possible, one may point the way to enlightenment, but not drag anyone down the path.

Hence, the wisdom is revealed in the traditional requirement that one must request three times before being taught the Dharma. Helping those who don’t want to be helped can be difficult as well as messy. According to Shantideva, “To straighten the crooked, you must first do a more difficult thing, you must straighten yourself.”

“

When Tibetans Are Scattered Throughout The World, The Dharma Will Come To The Land of The Red Man.

Posted on February 9, 2012 by Buddhist Learning Center
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A tiny mountainous region in southern Siberia at the corner of Russia, Mongolia, China and Kazakhstan may have been the genetic source of the earliest Native Americans. This was an area pervaded by Tibetan culture. Pictured: Tibetan dancer

Scholars have debated the Dalai Lama’s suggestion that certain elements of Hopi Indian culture are too similar to Tibetan culture to be merely off hand chance occurrences. However, University of Pennsylvania anthropologists have unearthed new evidence which sheds new light as to the origins of the first influx of Native American migration to this continent 20 to 25,000 years ago.

A tiny mountainous region in southern Siberia at the corner of Russia, Mongolia, China and Kazakhstan may have been the genetic source of the earliest Native Americans. “The region known as the Altai is a key area because it’s a place that people have been coming and going for thousands and thousands of years,” said Theodore Schurr, an associate professor in Penn’s Department of Anthropology.

This was an area pervaded by Tibetan culture. Though we treasure the culture of Tibet today as one of the world’s great wonders, in ancient times it was even more so. According to Jeffrey Hopkins, Ph.D., “Tibetan Culture extends far beyond Tibet, stretching from Kalmyk Mongolian areas near the Volga River (in Europe where the Volga Joins the Caspian Sea), Outer and Inner Mongolia, the Buryat Republic of Siberia, Bhutan, Sikkim, Ladakh, and parts of Nepal. In all of these areas, Buddhist ritual and scholastic studies are conducted in Tibetan. Youths came from these vast regions to study in Tibet, especially in and around its capital, Lhasa, but also throughout its three provinces, usually returning to their own lands after completing their studies (until Communist takeovers in many of these countries).”

A sense of kinship and solidarity has developed between the cultures. While displacement and invasion have forced Tibetans to reach out to the global community in search of allies, the Hopi and other Southwestern Native Americans have sought an audience for their message of world peace and harmony with the earth. Pictured: Hopi dancers

As more research is done, the genetic markers of other later migrations may become apparent, so the possible genetic relationship between the Tibetans and the Hopi can be examined. Until then one can’t help but be overwhelmed with the similarities between the two cultures.

Besides their common physical appearances, their braided hair for both males and females, etc, the Hopi and Tibetan people share many more cultural similarities. Both cultures have extensive use of turquoise jewelry to ward off evil spirits., Both cultures exhibit similar use of silver and coral,  as well as similar colors, materials and woven patterns of their textiles.

When the Dalai Lama first met with the Hopi tribal leaders in 1979, they said “Welcome Home!”

To which the Dalai Lama responded, “Where did you get your turquoise?”

The prophecy of Guru Rinpoche said, "When Tibetans are scattered throughout the world, and horses run on iron wheels and when iron birds fly, the dharma will come to the land of the red man."

Since the Chinese takeover of Tibet, many Tibetan families have relocated to the New Mexico. According to Antonio Lopez, “As exchanges become increasingly common between Native Americans and Tibetans, a sense of kinship and solidarity has developed between the cultures. While displacement and invasion have forced Tibetans to reach out to the global community in search of allies, the Hopi and other Southwestern Native Americans have sought an audience for their message of world peace and harmony with the earth.”

The mingling of these two cultures has led to questions about a possible common ancestry as well as other quizzical observations. For example, the Hopi language is different than any other Native American people. Yet, the Hopi word for ‘moon’ is the same as the Tibetan word for ‘sun’ and the Hopi word for ‘sun’ is the same as the Tibetan word for ‘moon.’ The same is true for the Hopi and Tibetan words for ‘love’ and ‘hate’ each with opposite meanings in the other language.

The Dalai Lama truly has a brotherhood with all mankind. He is especially ready to harmonize with any religious tradition sharing the same basic principles of compassion and kindness.

Other commonalities between Tibetan Buddhist ritual and Native American culture of the Southwest are unmistakable. For example, Pueblos also engage in intricate sand painting and destruction. Writer Frank Walters observed that The Navajo and the Pueblo perform a ritualistic dance which symbolically mirrors the Tibetan Journey of the Dead, from the Tibetan Book of the Dead.

Furthermore, The understanding of interconnectedness (the web of life) is unsurpassed in Native American culture and is nowhere pronounced with more beauty and poetry than by Chief Seattle and select other Native Americans. Of course, today the Dalai Lama is champion of interconnectedness and the reduction of suffering worldwide reaching out to all people of all religions.

But perhaps it is this intrinsic feeling of interconnectedness that makes the Dalai Lama and others believe in a connection. He has been right enough often enough, that I wouldn’t bet against him. Genetics aside, as pictures from around the world attest, the Dalai Lama truly has a brotherhood with all mankind. He is especially ready to harmonize with any religious tradition sharing the same basic principles of compassion and kindness.

Sources:

Penn Anthropologists Clarify Link Between Asians and Early Native Americans

Similarities between Tibetan and Native American groups

From the Roof of the World to the Land of Enchantment:
The Tibet-Pueblo HOPI Connection

What Good Is Walking On Water, When the Ferryboat Is So Cheap?

Posted on February 4, 2012 by Buddhist Learning Center
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“People usually consider walking on water or in thin air a miracle. But I think the real miracle is not to walk either on water or in thin air, but to walk on earth. Every day we are engaged in a miracle which we don't even recognize: a blue sky, white clouds, green leaves, the black, curious eyes of a child -- our own two eyes. All is a miracle.” ― Thich Nhat Hanh

If a wicked man can become a pure religious man, this according to Buddhism, is a practical miracle.

In every religion we hear of miracles being performed by either the founders of these religious or by some of their disciples. In the case of the Buddha, he performed what people would call miracles on the day of his birth until his passing away into Nirvana. The psychic powers (so-called miraculous powers in other religions) of the Buddha were attained through his long and intense training in meditation. The Buddha meditated and passed through the highest stages of meditation that culminated in Enlightenment. Among his many abilities were the power to levitate, to multiply his body, to read the minds of others, to pass through solid rock and such.  These abilities were performed during many episodes of his life and were considered common events by his disciples and those who encountered him. The Buddha taught that such powers can be acquired through training in meditation. They are not considered miracles by those who understand them and they fall within the ability of any person who trains his mind through meditation and mental concentration to very high levels.

Can you walk on water? You have done no better than a straw. Can you fly in the air? You have done no better than a bluebottle. Conquer your heart; then you may become somebody. ~Ansari of Heart

Once a man named Kevatta went up to the Buddha, paid homage, and said, “Lord, Nalanda is a successful city. The people living in Nalanda are prosperous, and they have confidence in the Blessed One.  Lord, it would be good if the Blessed One appointed a monk to work a marvel of supernormal power, so that the people of Nalanda might become much more confident in the Blessed One.”

The Buddha replied, “Kevatta, I do not teach the Law to monks in that way”.  The Buddha gave the same reply when the question was put to him the second and third time. After the third question, the Buddha replied that there were three kinds of supernormal levels:

1. The marvel of supernormal power to appear as many persons, to pass through walls, to fly through the air, walk on water. All these are physical actions the ordinary people cannot perform.
2. The supernormal power to read other people’s minds.
3. The supernormal power to be able to guide people according to their mental development, for their own good, using suitable methods that fit these people.

He taught that a monk who displays the first two supernormal powers for their own sake in order to impress people, is no different from the performance of a shaman or a magician.  The Buddha said that a monk who practices such worldly miracles is a source of shame, humiliation and disgust. This is because such actions may impress and win converts and followers, but they do not help them put an end to their suffering.

The third kind of supernormal power which the Buddha calls “the miracle of instruction” helps people to get rid of suffering. This is the only supernormal power that is fit to be practiced and is encouraged and praised by the Buddha.

Another story illustrates the Buddha’s attitude towards miraculous powers. One day the Buddha met an ascetic who sat by the bank of a river. This ascetic had practised austerities for 25 years. The Buddha asked him what he had received for all his labour. The ascetic proudly replied that, finally, he could cross the river by walking on the water. The Buddha pointed out that this gain was insignificant for all the years of labour, since he could cross the river using a ferry for one penny!  

When the uneducated, the unsophisticated and the naive see the performance of miracles, their faith and incredulity deepens. The converts who are attracted to a religion through witnessing these powers embrace a faith, not because they realize the truth or gain in wisdom, but because they are either frightened or impressed by matters they do not understand.  In contrast, the Buddha appealed to the reasoning power of people to consider his teachings. This is best illustrated in the Kalama Sutta.

From the article What About Miracles