Reply To: Phases

#57273
Saurabh@2110
Participant

I also had same experiences like you regarding anariya jhana as well as indulges, at about same age as yours. I think I had reached something like closer to 2nd anariya jhana (my present guess, could be wrong though), it was amazing happiness like a still lake and absense of both discomfort and thinking. I stopped trying to reexperience that state many years back. But now I have realized in last 1.5 to 2 years that, the more expert one is in anariya jhanas, deeper in hell one might land! It’s like higher you jump, lower you fall! Anyways, you said, you will focus on the dhamma as soon as the school year is over. I was like that only! I was so much obsessed with reading suttas from tipitaka that I used to hide the sutta books while studying so that my parents wouldn’t know I am reading suttas from tipitaka instead of studying, because my parents have literally scolded me because of my poor performance in school. That was the obsession I had about suttas from tipitaka. I used to think that if I become sotapanna before my final exam, I will score top in my college exam, I was 16 yrs old when I used to think like that. My goal was definitely noble but my conduct was definitely not because I didn’t know how to practice dhamma. Btw I am a dentist now.

I do think that practicing dhamma for attaining sotapatti phala also includes studying enough to score well in exams so that one’s livelihood becomes stable. I think I may have reached sotapanna anugami stage because I have become selfish enough to stop indulges, so my conduct is very good now, I stay mindful most of the time in a day, I have experienced piti many times and I am closer to experience sukha/joy now. So my advice would be that, try to exert your energies more in studies and as much less as possible in indulges. Because engaging in indulges will just postpone the sukha/joy of life, so if one really want to experience sukha or proper happiness in life, one needs to have mindfulness of one’s daily life. In your case this can translate as focus on studying as much as possible and as much less in indulges as possible. I feel because of living like this, although it is still very long and almost impossible, I feel I am progressing towards sotapatti phala, even if it is very very slowly. But I know it is harder than I can imagine. So all the best buddy!