At the end of my above comment, I wrote the following:
Even though I was discussing attaining the Sotapanna stage, the process can also be used to cultivate Satipaṭṭhāna, as mentioned at the beginning of my comment.
- However, it may not happen in a few sittings. Furthermore, one needs to grasp the fundamentals necessary and also live a moral life, i.e., cultivate sila.
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1. Cultivation of Satipaṭṭhāna (to access the ‘kāma saññā free’ Satipaṭṭhāna Bhūmi) by a Sotapanna is a bit more involved than I implied above. There are suttās that describe the required steps in detail.
- Before getting into that process, I think it is beneficial for most people (who may be puthujjana or Sotapanna Anugāmi) to understand the critical foundations of the Buddha’s teachings.
- In particular, I think it is not enough to understand that cravings for ‘worldly pleasures’ must be given up to attain Nibbāna.
- It is easier to give up the cravings for ‘worldly pleasures’ if one understands that external sights, sounds, tastes, etc, actually do not deliver those ‘pleasures.’
- The ‘sense of a pleasure’ arises from saññā built into us (all living beings) and from our external environments via Paṭicca Samuppāda.
- That is why I keep working to explain that deeper aspect.
2. When that framework is understood, it becomes easier to attain the Sotapanna stage and also to cultivate Satipaṭṭhāna.
- One of the steps in cultivating Satipaṭṭhāna is to cultivate ‘Indriya bhāvanā‘ or the ‘Restrain of Sense Faculties.’ It is explained in the “Indriyabhāvanā Sutta (MN 152),” for example. Let me explain the key ideas in that sutta to give an idea of why that ‘solid foundation’ is critically important.
3. In the days of the Buddha, other teachers (such as Alara Kalama) also taught ‘Indriya bhāvanā.‘ We all know that our Bodhisatta learnt cultivation of anariya jhāna from yogis like Alara Kalama before attaining Buddhahood with his own efforts.
- Such yogis realized that attachment to sense pleasures leads to bad outcomes, and that even forcefully abstaining from them can lead one to transcend the ‘kāma loka‘ and enjoy ‘jhānic pleasures’ associated with the Brahma realms. To achieve that, they went deep into the jungles to avoid enticing sensory stimuli such as tasty food, luxury houses, and women. However, our Bodhisatta realized that such efforts yield only temporary solutions. Such yogis will be reborn in a Brahma realm, but they may still be reborn in the apāyās in the future, since they had not broken the samsāric bonds associated with kāma rāga.
- Those yogis did not know that the way to be permanently free of the ‘kāma loka‘ is to comprehend how we attach to such sensory pleasures via ‘distorted saññā‘, which in this case is ‘kāma saññā.’ When one fully understands that process, one can cultivate Satipaṭṭhāna to become permanently free of the kāma loka and attain the Anāgāmi state. That is one way to explain the ‘previously unheard teachings’ of a Buddha.
4. In the above sutta, Uttara, a pupil of the brahmin Pārāsariya (a yogi like Alara Kalama), came to the Buddha and asked how the Buddha teaches ‘Indriya bhāvanā‘ to the bhikkhus.
- The Buddha, in turn, asked Uttara how his teacher taught him the ‘Indriya bhāvanā.‘
- Uttara’s answer was what I explained in #3 above, i.e., to ‘stay away from such sensory pleasures’ or to live like a blind person (who would not see such attractive sights), a deaf person (who would not hear such attractive sounds), etc. One can do that by living deep in the jungles.
- Then the Buddha (@marker 2.8) tells Uttara, “In that case, Uttara, a blind person and a deaf person will have developed sense faculties without any effort.” Such people do not crave attractive sights or sounds while they are deaf, but in future lives (when they are born with eyes and ears) they will have those cravings. Until the ‘kāma rāga samyojana‘ is broken with wisdom, one is not free of rebirths in the ‘kāma loka.’
- Then the Buddha explained the correct way to control the sensory faculties. We will discuss that in the future. It involves understanding how the ‘kāma saññā‘ arises via Paṭicca Samuppāda.
- But first, it is critically important to understand the role of saññā in our built-in attachments to so-called ‘sensory pleasures.’
