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37 Factors of Enlightenment – Meditation To Attain Arahanthood
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We all wish you well in this new chapter in your life. You have certainly chosen a good environment to practice.
- May the Blessings of the Triple Gem be with you always!
- Sādhu! Sādhu!! Sādhu!!!
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Saurabh wrote: “So basically, we cannot imagine/fathom what all lord buddha had realized.”
- No. That is not what I meant.
- The difficulty for me was to sort out the correct teachings of Buddha. These days, different people have different interpretations that have evolved (‘devolved’ is the better word) over the past two thousand years.
- It was Wharaka Thero who started the process of uncovering the correct teachings of the Buddha. Only a ‘jati Sotapanna‘ (who had attained the Sotapanna stage in a previous life) can do that with the help of the Tipitaka books written over two thousand years ago. He would have uncovered more if he had not passed away in 2017. We should all be grateful to him, and also do our best to keep making progress.
- Once the interpretations become clear, it is easy to understand.
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Saurabh asked: “So both pleasant as well as unpleasant experiences are due to distorted sanna?”
- Yes. All sensory experiences are based on illusions.
- Thinking the sensory experiences are real, one attaches to ‘pleasurable feelings’ (sukha vedana) with kama raga.
- Those sensory experiences that lead to ‘sorrow or anger’ (dukha vedana) are also illusions. They generate patigha.
- Even those that lead to ‘neutral feelings’ (adukkhamasukha vedana) are also illusions. They generate at least avijja. For example, when we see the blue sky or green grass, we accept that as ‘reality’, and that is avijja. The sky is not blue, and grass is not green. Those colors are mind-made. Of course, avijja is generated in both of the other two cases, too.
- This is the ‘previously unheard teachings of the Buddha’.
- Modern science agrees, but it tries to explain the illusory nature of sensory experience as arising in the brain. See “Without ‘Mind-Made’ Perception, World Is Colorless, Soundless, Tasteless, Odorless, and Touchless“.
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‘Meditation’ can have two meanings:
- Contemplation is a type of meditation. One must contemplate the Dhamma concepts one has learned. Venerable Kondanna (one of the five ascetics) attained the Sotāpanna stage while he was contemplating the concepts he learned from the Buddha.
- However, in the Buddha Dhamma, ‘bhavanā‘ refers to Vipassanā, which can be done only in the Satipatthāna Bhumi (even a Sotāpanna must first cultivate Satipatthāna to enter the Satipatthāna Bhumi).
I discussed that in #3 of “Is It Necessary for a Sotāpanna to Abstain from Sensual Pleasures?“
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Saurabh’s next- to-last comment: “can we say that rebirth process is also sustained by accumulated kammic energies, via also the moral or wise deeds, speech and thoughts?”
- Yes, if you mean mundane moral or wise deeds, speech, and thoughts.
- Kammic energy is generated in both ways: (i) apunna abhisankhara involved in immoral deeds, speech, and thoughts, and (ii) punna abhisankhara involved in (mundane) moral deeds, speech, and thoughts. The latter category includes compassion, giving, etc that lead to rebirths in higher realms, while the former leads to rebirths in the apayas.
- Good point. Both sustain the rebirth process.
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Regarding Saurabh’s last comment:
- It is quite difficult to separate mental activity from brain activity.
- The mental body (gandhabba) is trapped inside the solid physical body. It receives only the sensory inputs that the brain transmits to it. This is why some people get into ‘vegetative states’ when their brain gets damaged. See “Persistent Vegetative State – Buddhist View”
- Thus, gandhabba is totally unaware of the external world unless it receives that information from the brain. See “Brain – Interface between Mind and Body.”
- However, if the gandhabba ‘pops out’ of the physical body, then it can see, hear, and think on its own. That is what happens in Near-Death Experiences: “Near-Death Experiences (NDE): Brain Is Not the Mind“. Since it does not have a physical body (the ‘mental body’ is smaller than an atom in modern science), it can also go through walls, ceilings, etc. However, because it lacks a solid, physical body, it does not have taste, smell, or touch sensations.
- It is amazing that the Buddha discovered such details about our existence.
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I am glad to read your comment. It seems I am at least getting my message through to some.
1. It took me over fifteen years of daily contemplation to get to this point. But as the Buddha stated, his teachings are deeper than anyone can imagine. He said he only taught a fraction of what he realized!
- The main problem, as I see it, is that most people don’t know where to get started. Many meditation programs teach ‘Vipassana‘, but even the teachers are not even Sotapannas.
- One must be a Sotapanna even to start cultivating Satipatthana, and that must be done before that Sotapanna can start engaging in Vipassana! Engaging in Vipassana is the same as cultivating Satta Bojjhanga.
- See “Is It Necessary for a Sotāpanna to Abstain from Sensual Pleasures?“
2. Those with uccheda ditthi can never make any real progress. As I have explained in recent posts, many scientists and philosophers know that sensory experiences are not real. However, they are trying to understand them without a rebirth process. For example, they think thoughts arise in the brain and try to figure out how the brain ‘developed’ to that stage to generate feelings and awareness.
- However, some are beginning to realize that the brain is not where our thoughts arise:
- In the video, she mentioned the famous case of ‘patient HM,’ who lost memories in a brain operation. I discussed that in “Patient H.M. – Different Roles of Brain in Memory“
- More relevant posts in “Brain and the Gandhabba“
3. Even though those with sassata ditthi are in a better position, they also cannot understand Paticca Samuppada as long as they believe in a permanent soul-type entity.
- Paticca Samuppada says one extends the rebirth process each time one initiates a Paticca Samuppada process with the belief that experience (at that moment) is real.
- This is why that process (and the rebirth process itself) can also be stopped within a short time. Venerable Bahiya stopped the rebirth process (i.e., became an Arahant) within an hour! Angulimala attained the Sotapanna stage within an hour after killing almost a thousand people.
4. The systematic way to learn Buddha’s teachings is summarized at the beginning of the “Buddha Dhamma – Systematic” section. That section starts with the following:
The Ānāpānasati Sutta (MN 118) provides a succinct roadmap to Nibbāna. The first stage of Ānāpānasati only involves embracing the ‘Buddha’s worldview’ (‘āna‘) and rejecting the ‘mundane worldviews’ (‘āpāna‘); see “Ānāpāna – Adopting Buddha’s Worldview and Discarding ‘Mundane Views’,” “First Stage of Ānāpānasati – Seeing the Anicca Nature of ‘Kāya’” and “First Stage of Ānāpānasati – Verses in Ānāpānasati Sutta.” That enables one to attain the Sotāpanna stage.
- Then, the second stage of Ānāpānasati is to cultivate Cattārō Satipaṭṭhāna.
- That enables one to fulfill Satta Bojjhaṅga and the Noble Eightfold Path (ariyo aṭṭhaṅgiko magga) in the third stage of Ānāpānasati.
- The second and third stages of Ānāpānasati are discussed in “Ānāpānasati – Mindfulness (Sati) Based on Buddha’s Worldview,” “Kāye Kāyānupassanā – Details in Satipaṭṭhāna,” and “Ānāpānasati Sutta – Complete Overview.”
There, rejecting the ‘mundane worldviews’ (‘āpāna‘) is to reject the idea that sensory experiences are real. Embracing the ‘Buddha’s worldview’ (‘āna‘) is to realize that any feeling of ‘sukha‘ and ‘dukha‘ in sensory experiences are triggered by the ‘distorted sanna‘.
- The best example of that is ‘rupa sanna‘ or the ‘distorted sight’. We see colorful objects, but no such objects exist in the world! In fact, even our ability to ‘see anything’ is generated via that ‘rupa sanna‘. See “Human Life is Unlivable in a ‘Colorless’ World.”
- The problem is not with ‘seeing’ but with attaching to the vedana (joyful or depressing/angry feelings) and engaging in immoral deeds. However, as long as one does not fully comprehend how those six types of ‘distorted sanna‘ (via the six senses) arise, engaging in such immoral deeds cannot be stopped with ‘willpower’.
5. Understanding the kamma generation process is the first step, as mentioned in #4 above.
- I encourage everyone to ask questions until any doubts are cleared. The teachings have been so badly distorted over thousands of years.
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The following new video is an indication of the emerging realization that the brain is not where our thoughts arise:
In the video, she mentioned the famous case of ‘patient HM,’ who lost memories in a brain operation. I discussed that in “Patient H.M. – Different Roles of Brain in Memory“
More relevant posts in “Brain and the Gandhabba“
Alvino’s comment is based on the following question: Can one attain the Sotapanna stage by reading?
- The answer depends on “reading what?”
- It may not be possible to attain the Sotapanna stage by reading Tipitaka suttas. The suttas are highly summarized when it comes to foundational concepts.
- For example, it would be impossible to understand the meaning of words like anicca and anatta just by reading the suttas.
- Those concepts must be explained either via verbal discourses or detailed writings. I think either will work.
- In the Buddha’s day, the second option wasn’t available because written texts didn’t exist and 99% of people had no education.
Yes. You have summarized it perfectly!
- One day, scientists and philosophers who embrace uccheda ditthi (life ends with the death of the physical body because thoughts arise in the brain) will have no choice but to abandon that assumption.
- That could be when there is more evidence that the brain is not where thoughts arise, such as “Near-Death Experiences (NDE): Brain Is Not the Mind“.
New:
Is It Necessary for a Sotāpanna to Abstain from Sensual Pleasures?
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I explained that briefly in the two posts mentioned above: “Buddhist Explanations of Conception, Abortion, and Contraception” and “Cloning and Gandhabba.”
- See especially #13 and #14 in the second post above. Please read those two posts carefully.
- Mother’s mental state at the moment of conception plays a key role in matching the gati of the gandhabba that can take possession of the zygote.
- Note that the zygote was created even a few days before that, when the intercourse took place that created the zygote.
- Thus, the ‘moment of conception’ (a gandhabba ‘taking possession of the zygote’ or ‘merging with the zygote’) could be any time from the time of intercourse to a few days after that.
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Your assumption is correct. A baby born into a family of a certain faith usually adopts that faith/religion; if it’s an atheist family, the baby is also likely to start off as an atheist.
- A jati Sotapanna will overcome that as they grow up. The attainment of the Sotapanna stage of Nibbana will never be lost.
- However, when I think about it, it seems unlikely that a Sotapanna could even be born into a non-Buddhist family. One’s gati plays a huge role in the conception process. Usually, the gati of the parents (especially the mother) must match that of the gandhabba (manomaya kaya) entering the womb. See “Buddhist Explanations of Conception, Abortion, and Contraception” and “Cloning and Gandhabba.”
- Even if such a ‘non-matching birth’ takes place for some other reason, they will never engage in an ‘apayagami deed’ or an immoral deed that can lead to rebirth in one of the four lowest realms (apayas). However, it is possible that they may not make progress on the Noble Path in that life. Yet, he is guaranteed to attain Arahanthood within seven bhava.
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The main difference between Buddha’s teachings and modern science is the following. I forgot to mention that in my previous comment.
- The rebirth process is sustained by accumulated kammic energies, i.e., via immoral or unwise deeds, speech, and thoughts.
- In the modern scientific model (the theory of evolution), kamma/kamma vipaka plays absolutely no role. Thus, it is unclear how one mind can engage in immoral deeds while another would not. What is the difference between those two brains (since they claim it is the brain itself that generates thoughts, speech, and actions)? I don’t see how they can explain that.
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“I forgot to mention this Mara Devaputta thing in my last message. Just a related question: is Mara Devaputta capable of doing such a thing? I have always understood that when one is emotionally intense/wrong and makes decisions out of attachment and avijja, in such a case one is always under the influence of Mara Devaputta. Am I correct here?”
- Mara Devaputta is the leader of the highest Deva realm. Some say he can affect others’ minds. But I am not certain that he can affect the mind of a Sotapanna.
- Even humans can affect other humans’ minds. Not with telepathic powers, but just by talking to them. That can go both ways. For example, one always learns the Buddha’s teachings from another person.
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This is one of those things that we cannot really explain.
- Of course, anyone with even the slightest faith in the Buddha would have asked the Buddha to stay alive as long as possible. The maximum lifespan at that time was around 100-120 years.
- Venerable Ananda was a Sotapanna, so if he understood the question, he would definitely have asked the Buddha to stay alive as long as possible.
- Some say that Ven. Ananda’s mind was influenced by the Mara Devaputta. But I don’t want to speculate.
- This issue does not affect our efforts to attain Nibbana. It is better to focus on issues that are relevant to that goal.
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