The Twin Miracle

[2][3] According to Buddhist texts, when the Buddha returned to his home kingdom of Kapilavastu following his enlightenment, his fellow tribesman refused to bow to him because he was a junior member of the tribe.

[6][7] According to the Pali version of the story, in the Buddha's time, a wealthy treasurer suspended a sandalwood bowl in the air with a cord, hoping to find an enlightened being who can fly up and take it.

On the seventh day, news of this reached one of the Buddha's disciples, Pindola Bharadvaja, who then proceeded to fly up and take the bowl, thus converting the treasurer to Buddhism.

[1]: 140–143 [5] In the Sanskrit account of the event, the sandalwood bowl story is absent and the six jealous teachers, confident in their own supranormal powers, challenge the Buddha to a miracle contest on their own accord in hopes of regaining followers.

[1]: 140–143  To the rival teachers' surprise, the Buddha accepts the challenge, stating that the rule forbidding miracles applied to his monks but not to him, in the same way that subjects are forbidden from picking from the royal orchard, but not the king himself.

[1]: 140–143 The Buddha declares that he will perform the miracle at the foot of a mango tree in Savatthi on the full moon day of Asalha Puja in four months time.

[1]: 140–143 [8]: 39  According to the Pali version of the story; the rival teachers, desperate to avoid the contest, uproot all of the mango trees in the area prior to the miracle tournament.

[8]: 42–47  The fire and water then shoot up to illuminate the cosmos to the applause of the audience while the Buddha teaches the Dhamma to the observers as he walks along on the jeweled walkway.