At the time of Buddha, there lived a young woman called Magadhabhatri who had strong faith in the Buddha and his followers.

She went abroad to another country to live with her non-Buddhist husband and his family.
They had many visits from their kind non-Buddhist teacher, but this was not enough for Magadhabhatri who was always talking about how special her own Teacher, Buddha was.
This filled her mother-in-law's mind with faith in Buddha. So she asked Magadhabhatri to invite him to visit them.

When Magadhabhatri promised the family that Buddha and his followers would come the very next day they could hardly believe her. They said that even if Buddha was already on his way it would be impossible for him to get there so quickly.

Magadhabhatri climbed to the top of the house holding flowers and incense, and she said a special invitation prayer to ask Buddha to come.

Buddha heard her prayer through his miracle powers and told five hundred of his students that if they had miracle powers too, they could come with him to visit her the next day.
One student not wanting to be left behind meditated all night so that he would have the special miracle powers he needed to fly along with Buddha!

Magadhabhatri’s mother-in-law told all the local people that the Buddha was coming that day with five hundred followers saying: “Magadhabhatri tells me that they are going to fly here miraculously from her father’s land!”

There was great surprise and excitement. Many people stood on the hills and looked up at the sky to try to see Buddha flying in.

So that they would all be able to see him, Buddha emanated eighteen bodies that looked like him to be seen at each of the eighteen gates to the town.

Only one came, it was the Buddha, He came to Magadhabhatri’s house, but everyone in the town and local area saw Buddha and it filled their minds with very strong faith in him. From that time on they all carefully practised Buddha’s teachings.

Tag: The flying Buddha