Now of the people who flocked to him many desired signs and wonders that so they might be convinced of the truth, but these were not given in that manner and the Blessed One forbade his disciples to exalt themselves thus. For there is nothing but the taintless beauty of Law throughout the worlds, and the wise know there is no miracle at all, but only a higher law, not known to the ignorant, which in its action appears to them strange and a miracle. Yet did our Lord teach that for the instructed there are the powers, since to them in their higher consciousness the bonds of time and space and form exist no more. But it is useless and perilous to expose these mysteries before the ignorant who can but see in them the breaking of the law, and see it either with fear or greed. Therefore he taught that those who have attained should be wise and silent in knowledge where the occasion does not demand speech or action, and very rarely can they be demanded, for each stage has its own knowledge and cannot rise to the knowledge of a consciousness above its own. Hence all this foolish talk of miracle and the like. But for those who know even in part the fetters are broken:—the binding fetters of form, time and space. And of such a case the Lord told this story, while he rested at one time at Jetavana: “There was a faithful, noble, joyful disciple who desired to hear again the words of Him who has thus Attained, and he came in the evening to the river Aciravati, hoping to cross by the ferry. But so it was that the boatman had himself gone to hear the great words and there was no ferry. Then, joyful in meditating on the Light, and lost of all else, that faithful disciple walked on the water of the river, and his feet made no holes in the water, and he went as if on dry land. But suddenly in the middle of the river he saw waves, and his joy sank and his feet with it, for fear entered his soul and fear is a fetter of the world of form, so that he immediately became subject to it. But again he strengthened his inmost self in meditation on the Enlightened One, and again he walked on the water and so came to Jetavana and saluted the Blessed One, and took his seat respectfully beside him, and the Lord asked: ‘Disciple, did you come with little fatigue by the road? Have you lacked for food?’ And he replied: “Lord, in my joyful meditation I received support so that I walked on the water and did not sink, and thus have I come to Jetavana as though I walked on dry land.” And the Lord said: “So also has it been in past lives.” For he taught that though there are times and seasons for the powers to be manifested to the ignorant, they are very few. CHAPTER XIV NOW while the Perfect One dwelt by Rajagriha there came to him a message from Kapila, from his father, the Maharaja Suddhodana, and it said this: