OK. Your question was: “Furthermore, what exactly needs to be understood about the purāṇa kamma stage? So far, I understand that it happens automatically and unconsciously. A puthujjana cannot prevent the initial attachment.”
- The main point is that once the purāṇa kamma stage begins for a puthujjana with a sensory event, it is inevitable that at least some of those events will lead to kamma accumulation.
- Then, how can a puthujjana get out of that ‘kamma accumulation’ ever? They are trapped in the kāma loka forever!
- A relatively few can temporarily bypass the kāma loka and enter the rupa loka Brahma mindset (i.e., jhāna). They will be reborn in a Brahma realm, but at the end of that existence, they will be reborn in the kāma loka. That is because they had not eliminated the ‘kāma rāga samyojana.’ I explained that in #6 of “Buddhist Non-Attachment Is Based on Yoniso Manasikāra.” Also see “Overcoming Kāma Saññā – Satipaṭṭhāna Bhumi or Jhāna.”
- Therefore, until one realizes how the purāṇa kamma stage begins automatically (with the trigger of ‘kāma saññā‘) and understands how to overcome that kāma saññā to enter the Satipaṭṭhāna Bhūmi, one will be forever trapped in the rebirth process; they may temporarily be reborn in rupa loka, or even arupa loka, but eventually end up in the kāma loka. See “Overcoming Kāma Saññā – Satipaṭṭhāna Bhumi or Jhāna.”
- Those are critical points to understand. Please feel free to ask questions on anything unclear. It takes contemplation during a quiet time to fully understand these issues.
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By the way, my comment in the previous post, “Aren’t all those done in the pursuit of ‘sensory pleasures’ if they are illusions?” is better worded as, “Aren’t all those done in the pursuit of ‘sensory pleasures’ not realizing they are illusions?“