Dear Akvan Sir,
Theruwan saranayai !
Thanks a lot for the Sutta reference.
Yes, of-course there are several reasons that one has not been able to attain a magga-phala even after listening to Tilakkhana many times in one’s past lives. After all, nothing happens without causes & conditions.
But my question was not that. I was trying to ask something else.
From the Sutta reference you gave :
“Endowed with these six qualities, a person is incapable of alighting on the lawfulness, the rightness of skillful mental qualities even when listening to the true Dhamma …”
My original question was something like this :
We all have heard Tilakkhana in MANY MANY of our past lives. So this is NOT the first time that we are hearing Tilakkhana.
Suppose a person “X” has attained Sotapanna stage in this life after hearing about Tilakkhana. So it means that in all those infinite number of past lives in which he heard Tilakkhana, he was endowed with those six “bad qualities” (or obstructions) that prevented him from attaining magga-phala.
However, following the logic of infinity, if samsara has no beginning then there must have been AT LEAST ONE past life of X (among his infinite number of past lives as a human) in which he was NOT endowed with those six “bad qualities”. Hence he should have attained the Sotapanna stage back then, when he heard Tilakkhana (in that past life).
But this does not seems to be true. Since X attained Sotapanna stage in this present life, which implies that in all those infinite number of past lives (in which he heard Tilakkhana) he was endowed with the six “bad qualities” which prevented him from attaining magga-phala in the past.
So this is the contradiction that I was talking about. I hope you got my point.
So to avoid this contradiction we have to “assume” that – this is the FIRST TIME (among his infinite number of past lives as a human) when X is NOT endowed with those six “bad qualities” at the time of a Buddha sasana. And hence X was able to attain the Sotapanna stage in this present life after listening Tilakhhana.
So it seems that this is the most fortunate (luckiest) time for X (among all of his infinite number of past lives as a human).