OK. That is kind of what I expected. I think most of those who read my website probably would say the same.
1. You wrote at the end of your first post: “If I deserve strong criticism, please don’t hesitate. This kid needs to learn and move forward.”
- The following is not a criticism, but rather my honest evaluation based on your posts, along with a few suggestions.
- Since only a Buddha can determine someone’s ‘status,’ I am not certain whether what I say in #2 is correct. But that is my best guess. I considered not being so direct, but I think it could be useful for many to gauge their ‘status.’
2. My evaluation was based on the following two observations: (i) Your main issue is “Anxiety and Panic attacks after 2 years” and (ii) At the beginning of your first post, you wrote “2 years ago … I saw a video by Daily Stoic’s Ryan Holiday on “memento mori”.
- Regarding (i): a Sotapanna would not get panic attacks.
- Regarding (ii): I have not studied Stoicism. But I find the following description in “What Is a Stoic Person?” to be revealing of its philosophy: “Stoics thought that, in order to be happy, we must learn to distinguish between what we can control and what we cannot. Those things in our life that we can control, we should try to steer towards their best outcomes for all. Those that we cannot control, we must learn to accept.”
- I am not sure when you looked into Stoicism. If it was after you “started practicing Dhamma,” that means you were still not certain about Buddha’s teachings. This is not an admonition not to look into other teachings, but one of the characteristics of a Sotapanna is that they have “unbreakable confidence in Buddha’s teachings.” Additionally, regarding the highlighted section in the above quote: With the Buddha’s teachings, we can achieve “total control.”
3. Based on your post in response to my request, I would say that you are at the ‘jānato‘ stage. That means you have “received enough information” about Buddha’s teachings to be able to get to the Sotapanna stage. But to get to the Sotapanna stage, one must have also gone through the ‘passato‘ stage, where one has “seen with wisdom’ the implications of what one learned. See “‘Jānato Passato’ and Ājāniya – Critical Words to Remember.”
- Now, to some suggestions.
4. The most critical stage is to reach the Sotapanna stage. The Buddha said that one would have overcome 99% or more of all future suffering at that point. If all future suffering of a puthujjana is compared to the size of the Earth, the amount of suffering left for a Sotapanna is the size of a pebble (small stone).
- That is because most of the strong/potent kamma are done with wrong views or ‘miccha ditthi.’ In particular, all apayagami kamma (those that can bring rebirth in an apaya) are done with miccha ditthi.
- Thus, the most critical step in following Buddha’s teachings is to first remove the ten types of miccha ditthi (which includes not believing in rebirth and not believing that kamma can (not deterministic, but could) have their corresponding vipaka or results), and then to remove the deeper wrong views/miccha ditthi that ‘sensual pleasures in kama loka‘, ‘jhanic pleasures ‘, or ‘arupa samapatti pleasures’ are beneficial and can lead to overcoming suffering.
- Most people have removed the ten types of miccha ditthi. Removing deeply ingrained ‘deeper wrong views‘ requires more effort. After all, one would have removed 99% or more of all future suffering at that point.
5. I think a major obstacle in that second phase is to focus on the anicca nature of external objects (one’s possessions and even one’s physical body) and not to focus on the anicca nature of ‘mental constructs’ that arise in the mind based on those external things.
- There are over 50 suttas in the ‘Vacchagottavagga‘ of ‘Saṁyutta Nikāya 33′ that address the issue of deeper miccha ditthi. In all these suttas, Vacchagotta asks the Buddha the same question: “What is the cause, what is the reason for these various misconceptions (diṭṭhi) to arise?”
- In all those suttas, the Buddha’s answer is the same: “it is because of not knowing each component of the pañca upādānakkhandha, its origin, its cessation, and the practice that leads to its cessation.”
- As we know, those five components are rupa upādānakkhandha through viññāṇa upādānakkhandha. In the suttas, these are abbreviated as rupa through viññāṇa (rupa, vedanā, saññā, saṅkhāra, and viññāṇa).
- It is obvious that vedanā, saññā, saṅkhāra, and viññāṇa arise in one’s mind. But many people consider rupa to be ‘external objects.’ That leads to serious misconceptions. Here, rupa refers to “the mental image that arises in one’s mind based on an external rupa.” That mental image is based on one’s experience of previous rupa and thus is rupa upādānakkhandha. The ‘upādāna‘ part comes because one’s wrong view that they are ‘real and can be beneficial’.
- See “Rupa, Vedanā, Saññā, Saṅkhāra, Viññāṇa – Mostly Misunderstood.”
6. Let us consider the first of the 50-plus suttas mentioned above.
- In the “Rūpaaññāṇa Sutta (SN 33.1),” Vacchagotta asks the Buddha the question: “What is the cause, what is the reason for these various misconceptions (diṭṭhi) to arise?”
- At marker 1.6, the Buddha answers: “Vaccha, it is because of not knowing rupa, its origin, its cessation, and the practice that leads to its cessation.” (The four subsequent suttas in the series repeat the verse for vedanā, saññā, saṅkhāra, and viññāṇa. The rest of the suttas in the series describe various other related aspects.)
- As we discussed above, rupa does not refer to ‘external rupa,’ but the one that arises in one’s mind based on an external rupa.
- An ‘external rupa‘ can be a sight, sound, taste, smell, or a ‘body touch.’ Let us consider a sight (also called rupa for ‘rupa rupa’ or ‘vanna rupa’ to distinguish from other types). The Buddha has explained that the attachment to a sight (rupa) is experienced in two steps: rupa paṭisaṁvedī, immediately followed by “rūpa rāga paṭisaṁvedī” for those who have not eliminated kama raga samyojana. However, that second step does not occur for an Arahant or an Anagami who has eliminated kama raga samyojana.
- If one can fully understand this, that is one way to become a Sotapanna. See, “Sandiṭṭhiko – What Does It Mean?“
7. The reason that one may attach to a certain ‘external rupa‘ with greed for anyone born a human (puthujjana or Arahant) is the following: That ‘external rupa‘ leads to the creation of an “appealing version of it” in the mind of anyone born a human. The human body and the external world are both “designed via Paticca Samuppada” to provide a “kama sanna” that triggers a “sukha feeling.”
- The mind of a puthujjana will automatically attach to that ‘mind-made rupa‘ with the ‘subha/kama sanna‘ (rupa paṭisaṁvedī, immediately followed by “rūpa rāga paṭisaṁvedī”). That is the very beginning of a series of attachment steps that may lead to the accumulation of potent kamma. That is why the initial stage is called “purana kamma‘ meaning ‘the initial kamma accumulation stage.’ If further attachment in subsequent steps occurs, it leads to the ‘nava kamma‘ stage, where potent, new kamma is accumulated. There are many posts on the website on this issue; see, for example, “Purāna and Nava Kamma – Sequence of Kamma Generation .”
- On the other hand, only the rupa paṭisaṁvedī step occurs for an Arahant or an Anāgāmi who has eliminated kāma rāga samyojana. They still feel the ‘sukha vedana‘ due to the “kama sanna,” but their minds do not undergo the “rūpa rāga paṭisaṁvedī” step.
- Now, a Sotapanna has ‘seen with wisdom’ (with dhamma cakkhu) this process. Thus, they have removed the wrong view that those ‘kama sanna’ are ‘real and can be beneficial’. That has led to the removal of the three ‘ditthi samyojana‘ (sakkaya ditthi, vicikiccha, silabbata paramasa). However, since they have not removed the kama raga samyojana, their minds will still become attached and undergo the “rūpa rāga paṭisaṁvedī” step. Still, they are attached with three fewer samyojana than a puthujjana, and that is why those attachment do not lead to ‘apayagami kamma.’
- See, for example, “Sotapanna Stage from Kāma Loka.”
8. Also see “Avijjā is Triggered by Kāma Saññā in Kāma Loka” and other recent posts in “New / Revised Posts.”
- One cannot hope to eliminate “99% or more of all future suffering” by just casually reading a few posts. One must make a serious effort! I am not saying this to anyone specifically; it is the truth. Think about how much time a person spends getting a good education. That will hold only for this lifetime. Reaching the Sotapanna stage is for an eternity!
9. Please feel free to ask questions to clarify any issues that may not have been addressed. It is impossible to do that in a single post. But I thought some of you could benefit from the above summary. The key is to ask questions to clarify any ‘difficult issues.’ I may write a hundred posts without addressing them, because I’m unsure how much of what I write people understand.
