White-cloth laypeople

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    • #45668
      TripleGemStudent
      Participant

      MN 51: Kandarakasutta

      “Mayampi hi, bhante, gihī odātavasanā kālena kālaṁ imesu catūsu satipaṭṭhānesu suppatiṭṭhitacittā viharāma.”

      “For we white-clothed laypeople also from time to time meditate with our minds well established in the four kinds of mindfulness meditation.”

      Whom are the white-clothed laypeople, are they anagārika’s? Or are they just regular householders or laypeople? 

      From reading the initial part of the sutta, I can see how people would believe that the Buddha is teaching satipatthana to lay people in the sutta, but upon reading over the sentences and lines over carefully, to me that’s not the case. The Buddha is just mentioning about satipatthana and not actually teaching it in the sutta. 

    • #45671
      Lal
      Keymaster

      The two people mentioned there appear to be regular people and not anagārikas.

      • The Buddha delivered the Satipatthana Sutta to bhikkhus and not regular people.
      • I will get into this issue in the upcoming posts, but Satipatthana Bhavana can be fully implemented only by bhikkhus, who can stay away from sensual pleasures and sexual activities in particular.
      • Getting to the Sotapanna stage does not require Satipatthana. It requires the comprehension of Buddha’s worldview. 
      • However, progressing above the Sotapanna stage (especially the Anagami stage) requires relinquishing sensual pleasures. By definition, an Anagami would have removed the kama raga samyojana. That is not possible for a regular householder.

      However, laypeople can use the basic framework. In fact, that is what one of those two people, Pessa, said to the Buddha in the verse you quoted: “For we white-clothed laypeople also from time to time meditate with our minds well established in the four kinds of mindfulness meditation.”

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