#4: “So, I am beginning to think that I am also guilty of focusing on the deeper aspects of Buddha Dhamma.”
Don’t say that. You’ve done a great job. I’m sure that everyone who visits here knows it.
#5: “In my previous post, I advised learning the Paticca Samuppada process. But even before that, one needs to understand the terms involved there. What do the terms avijja, sankhara, bhava, jati, etc., represent?”
And another question from the mail: “Do you understand the difference between “phassa” and “samphassa”?”
I saw these questions and then I understood what was wrong. I never asked a question or tell about Paticca Samuppada in the forum or mail. That’s why lal didn’t know how much I understood. Also, I mentioned that I did not achieve any maggaphala before. Therefore, reasonably, lal would have advised me to learn the Paticca Samuppada.
I got infected with the coronavirus eight days ago. The first time I had a high fever, I felt like I could actually die. I suffered from a severely high fever of 103℉. I had been taking a rest with medicine brought from a nearby hospital while self-quarantining at home. Now, I am totally fine. Through this experience, I have clearly seen the dangers of staying in the human realm. I know that I can’t be free from this pain as long as I keep accepting vatthu kāma.
Anyway, I would like to focus more on what lal was going to say in the above post, so let me give you a brief answer. I did my best to understand the Paticca Samuppada. And I certainly attained sotapanna anugami now. But I am not sure whether I am sotapanna.
+) I can tell the difference between “phassa” and “samphassa” to you. Phassa is just contact between “six rupa” and “five pasada rupa and hadaya vatthu”. Samphassa means phassa with “san”. So it occurs through six ayatana.
#6: “I would like to hear your thoughts on the above. Each person is different, and it would help to get an idea of their background first.”
First of all, I don’t remember whether I said my age or not. Maybe I told lal by mail that I am 22 years old. I am 21 years old man from South Korea. The reason I said I was 22 years old before is because of the East Asian age reckoning. I grew up in a Catholic family. But I wasn’t devout because I couldn’t understand their doctrines logically. In 2019, I tried to join the sangha. But the group was Mahayana. I realized that their teachings were different from what I had studied. So I returned to lay life. At this time, I didn’t even know that there is Theravada Sangha in South Korea.
Anyway, I had a lot of thoughts about the direction of Pure Dhamma. Some of the prejudices against Budda sasana have not yet been addressed on this site. Let me list a two things.
1. Buddhism was influenced by Hinduism(Brahmanism more precisely). I think I saw this briefly covered in some posts. For example, Arōgyā Paramā Lābhā.. In Korea, many scholars and the general public think that Buddhism is a religion created by criticizing Hinduism. So it would be helpful to write about this topic, as far more people have this misunderstanding than we think.
2. Everyone has Buddha-nature. In Korea, it is not well known how exceptional the appearance of Buddha is. Because they think everyone has Buddha-nature. I think it would be appropriate to add a few paragraphs to the existing post(Key Problems with Mahāyāna Teachings) rather than writing a new post on this point.
So, these are what I came up with right after I was asked. I think we should continue to think about this problem in the future. It would be good to open a new thread to discuss this topic.