Hi firewns. Thank you for that. Clearly my tapa was high when I came to this topic, your posts had a calming effect on me, your metta level must be high, it tranquilized me haha. Appreciate that friend.
The following is going to be long, and I apologize for the length. I don’t have others I can share this with, and the PureDhamma community feels like family, so I feel I should explain my reason for wanting to attain jhana, because I keep seeing the reply of “one does not need jhana in order to attain magga phala”. I’m aware of this. I am not trying to cultivate jhana for this purpose. There is one significant primary reason I want this, and also a lesser secondary reason.
Before I explain those 2 motivations, I think I should make clear my number one goal is to attain the Sotapanna stage in this very life. It has been since I officially entered the world of Buddha Dhamma in 2016. So it has been about 3 years of me following/practising the Path and learning/trying to understand the Dhamma.
But in order to attain the Sotapanna stage, simply following the Path and learning/reading Dhamma is not enough. One NEEDS to LISTEN to a desana by an Ariya. I feel like this point should be emphasized more on this site, because for the longest time I was under the incorrect impression that one could become a Sotapanna just by READING the material. And I think many others here are or were under the same incorrect impression. I don’t think one can even become a Sotapanna Anugami just via reading(unless I am mistaken, I don’t think the Tipitaka even mentions how one would become a Sotapanna Anugami. Tipitaka was orally transmitted back then so I doubt the Tipitaka would have said that one can become Sotapanna Anugami via reading.)
I wish reading allowed this feat, but that is not the case. I’ve noticed things and rules are precise in Buddha Dhamma. It is not random nor arbitrary nor some meaningless zen gibberish to impress/confuse people with a profound saying. The Buddha would not have said that listening to a desana is a requirement for Sotapanna stage if it was arbitrary. It is not, there is a significant reason why it is a requirement. As Buddha Dhamma teaches, nothing can come out of nothing. Every effect/result has a cause. In order for a result/effect to come, one needs BOTH the cause and the conditions. Like in order to get a fruit one would need an fruit seed AND the right conditions(fertile soil via nutrients/water/sun) for the fruit(result/effect) to bear. The 4 stages of enlightenment are magga phala. Phala means fruit(result/effect). Sotapanna stage is the fruit/result of something. It cannot come to be randomly, arbitrarily. Without causes and conditions. This too needs the causes/conditions or seeds/nutrients and fertile soil. So if Sotapanna stage is the fruit, what are the seeds and conditions?
From contemplating the info here and few suttas, listening to the desana by the Ariya is the seed. The Ariya energy from their desana being implanted/seeded in our minds. Our minds are the soil. Striving/sila/kusala/Anapana/Satipatthana/following the Path are the conditions(nutrients/sun/water) for that seed so that it can be in the fertile ground most conducive to eventually grow/result into a fruit(magga phala, or Sotapanna stage). Now it is no longer just a seed, but the fruit. Sotapanna stage is like the young underripe fruit. This underripe fruit would keep growing, eventually this fruit completes matures and becomes ripe at the Arahant stage.
The main reason I’m interested in attaining jhana is because it is a backup plan. What if this is my last jati of my human bhava. I have no idea where my next destination will be. It could be the apayas. There is no guarantee I will become Sotapanna in this very life. In case I don’t, I will have nothing to guarantee my safety from an unfortunate realm. Besides attaining magga phala, no activity exists for securing/guaranteeing the human/deva realm, besides deva realm just seems like a scary trap. Fortunately, an activity to secure or at least increase chance for brahma realm exists: and that is jhana or cultivating high metta, if one could sustain this through the entire bhava. If I attain jhana, I will have a higher chance of being reborn a brahma. Being reborn in a fortunate realm. I will have a safety net, something to fall back on, in case I don’t become a Sotapanna in this life. And there is a high chance/probability I won’t.
The reason for why I think I will most likely not become a Sotapanna in this life being: the scarcity of Ariyas in this day and age.
Now if I were in the Indian subcontinent during the time of the Buddha, I would have obviously had the possibility of a higher chance of the blessing/luxury/privilege of being able to hear a desana by the Buddha himself or other Ariyas. Thanks to the Buddha’s appearance, Ariyas and Arahants were abundant during that time. But that is not the case today. The Buddha is not here today. And I believe that compared to those times, there is a scarcity of Ariyas in these present days. It is not as if I have access to an Ariya. Thus do not have easy access to listening to a desana by an Ariya that is needed to become a Sotapanna either. Even if I do, I would not even be able to be 100% sure whether they are Ariya or not.
In addition, I do not think recordings of desanas fulfill that requirement to become a Sotapanna. I have great doubt they would work or count. I do not think recording would have enough of a strong javana power that is equal to the javana power that would be radiated from a desana heard in person. I do not think recordings would implant the seed in my mind successfully.
If recordings could do such a feat, it would have been fortunate for us if the devas(who have powers we don’t, and most likely advanced technology we don’t) could have given the gift of a recording device and recorded a desana by the Buddha. Then the future generation would have a desana to listen to by the Buddha himself, and we would have this recording to use as the seed in our minds to attain the Sotapanna stage.
Attaining the Sotapanna stage is not an insignificant goal. I do not take it lightly. Thus I do not want to risk it nor take a chance by just relying on recordings. In case they do not work nor provide the necessary requirement to attain the Sotapanna stage, I want to be safe and listen to a desana in person. To accomplish this, I have already requested the organizers of Venerable Wallasmuelle’s desana tour to visit the USA and my state so that I’d be able to listen to a desana in person. Thankfully I was told they are planning on doing the desana tour in USA.
^ So I believe I have taken the initial necessary steps to increase my chances of attaining the Sotapanna stage for anyone who misunderstood me and may have thought this is my secondary goal, and jhana is my first goal. That is not the case. It is the reverse.
In short:
#1 main goal: Sotapanna stage in this very life.
#2 secondary goal: attaining jhana to increase the chances of being reborn in a fortunate realm-the brahma realm, as a backup plan/safety net in case I do not become a Sotapanna in this life/bhava.