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I had mistakenly provided a wrong link in the above comment. It should be “Anupada Sutta (MN 111).”
- I just corrected it in the above comment, too.
- My apologies for the confusion.
“But perhaps there is little one can know without exposure to Dhamma?”
- Yes. That is the key. Unless a Buddha or a disciple of the Buddha explains these concepts, no one can figure out the Buddha Dhamma, i.e., the ultimate laws of nature.
- These “ultimate laws of nature” (embedded in Four Noble Truths/Paticca Samuppada/Tilakkhana) can be discovered only by a Buddha. That is why the birth of a Buddha is so rare; it is not easy to attain the Buddhahood. Sometimes 30 maha kappas (i.e., trillions of years) go by without a Buddha appearing in the world.
- That is why we should not miss this opportunity. It is a “once in a trillion years” opportunity.
1. First, it is a good idea to link a sutta in the following format, where each verse is allocated a marker: “Anupada Sutta (MN 111).”
- If a Sutta Central sutta does not show the markers, type #1.1 at the end of the URL, and the sutta will be reloaded with the markers. For example, the URL in the link you gave has “script =latin” at the end. Just add “#1.1” to it to become “script =latin#1.1”
- Also see the URL in my link above to get the idea.
- Once you get that format, click on any specific marker number, and the URL will indicate that marker. (You can also manually change the marker number in the URL.)
- It will be helpful for EVERYONE to use this format, so we can refer to marker numbers to point out specific verses.
2. I set the link to highlight the start of your quote in your comment above (“For a fortnight he practiced discernment of phenomena one by one.”)
- @marker 3.1 it says he attained the first jhana (referred to as “first absorption” in the translation) “..paṭhamaṁ jhānaṁ upasampajja viharati.”
- @marker 5.1: He attained the second jhana and so on until @marker 19.1 it says Ven. Sariputta attained saññāvedayitanirodha: “..saññāvedayitanirodhaṁ upasampajja viharati.”
- That is when he became an ubhatovimutta Arahant!
- That sequence of events (where he went through all the jhanas and samapattis to get to nirodaha samapatti at the Arahanthood) happened two weeks (a fortnight) after he attained the Sotapanna stage.
3. So, I think you are confused in some way.
- If I missed anything, please refer to the relevant verse numbers/markers when explaining.
There is no mention of nirodha samapatti there. When clicking on the asterisk, it says the following:
- Ven. Sariputta attained the Sotapanna stage while listening to a single verse by Ven. Assaji (at that time he was a disciple of Sanjaya).
- Then he abandoned Sanjaya as his teacher and became a follower with the Buddha (became a bhikkhu.)
- A fortnight later, he attained the Arahantship.
Thank you, Jittananto.
“The fact that nothing is felt is precisely what’s blissful about it.”
- Most people do not realize the incessant suffering in the lower realms (apāyās) where a sattā (anyone below the Sotapanna Anugāmi stage) spends a lot of time in the rebirth process!
- Even in the human realm, our minds are stressed out most of the time. This becomes especially evident after reaching the Anagami/Sakadagami stages. In several suttas, Anagamis’ utterance of “aho sukhaṁ” (“how blissful it is”) is mentioned.
- See, for example, “Bhaddiya Sutta (Ud 2.10).”
P.S. Jittananto’s following comment above needs to be further clarified: “This is sutta central explaining : The fortnight between realizing stream-entry while still a student of Sañjaya (Kd 1:23.5.6) and arahantship while overhearing the Buddha teach Dīghanakha (MN 74:5.1).”
- Where in MN 74 those statements appear?
That’s a good point. “Anatta” refers to a characteristic of nature: Worldly things (and any perceived pleasures) are devoid of any substance (unfruitful) and have dangerous consequences for the future.
- Also, “sukha” is not a feeling (vedana). It is the complete absence of suffering.
- The post “Nibbāna “Exists”, but Not in This World” explains it: “Nibbāna sukha” is NOT a feeling. It is the absence of suffering. The closest analogy is the following: Suppose someone has had a chronic headache from birth. One day, it is cured, and he feels a great relief. That relief was not a new vedanā but the absence of “dukkha vedanā.”
Yes. It is.
- See the first discourse in “Three Marks of Existence – English Discourses.”
In a comment above, I wrote:
“In other contexts, paraloka could mean different things.
- When a human dies, the gandhabba comes out and stays in that state for many years until entering another womb. In that case, it is said that the person has gone to paraloka, meaning from the world we can see to “the world of gandhabbas.” This is a somewhat common saying in Sri Lanka.”
The following sutta gives an example of this usage: “Mogharājamāṇavapucchā (Snp 5.16).”
“Ayaṁ loko paro loko, brahmaloko sadevako; Diṭṭhiṁ te nābhijānātigotamassa yasassino.” OR
“Regarding this world, the other world, and the realms of Brahmas and Devas, I’m not familiar with that worldview of the renowned Gotama.”
- The first two refer to the human realm (with a physical body and “the other world” referring to the gandhabba state).
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I think religions based on a “Creator” attribute any such “imperfections” to “God’s will.”
- On the other hand, one’s destiny (whether one will go to heaven or hell FOREVER) is supposed to be determined by one’s actions. Yet, some babies die within days. How is their destiny determined?
Yes. There are many contradictions.
“Besides the part about Brahman, is Buddhism also about the fact that our Manomaya Kaya (in other words, the soul) is only just pure awareness experiencing reality?”
- Manomaya kaya is not a “soul.”
- The soul, by definition, is an everlasting entity.
- At the death of an Arahant, his/her manomaya kaya dies and a “successor manomaya kaya” is not generated.
P.S. This is the critical difference between Buddha Dhamma (Buddha’s teachings) and all other religions/philosophies. They all focus on pursuing a “permanent, suffering-free” existence in this world, either in a Deva realm (Creator God in Abrahamic religions) or a Brahma realm (Hinduism).
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Yes, Taryal. That is an example of the following interpretation of “paraloka” I stated above:
“When a human dies, the gandhabba comes out and stays in that state for many years until entering another womb. In that case, it is said that the person has gone to paraloka, meaning from the world we can see to “the world of gandhabbas.” This is a somewhat common saying in Sri Lanka.”
- In the case discussed in the video, gandhabba went to “paraloka” for a short time and came back to the same body.
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In other contexts, paraloka could mean different things.
- When a human dies, the gandhabba comes out and stays in that state for many years until entering another womb. In that case, it is said that the person has gone to paraloka, meaning from the world we can see to “the world of gandhabbas.” This is a somewhat common saying in Sri Lanka.
- I have also seen moving from the human realm to another realm called “moving to paraloka.”
- I have heard the second usage in some English translations but don’t recall the suttas.
I have not investigated such cases in the suttas. If you come across translations with the above meanings, we can look at them.
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As I said above, LGBT is primarily a mental issue (except for the kamma vipaka aspect).
- You are trying to explain it within “worldly ideas/perceptions.”
- Issues like this cannot be debated because you are arguing from a different point of view.
- The Buddha referred to his teachings as “not subject to debates” (“atakkāvacaro“). See, for example, “Bodhirājakumāra Sutta (MN 85).” “‘adhigato kho myāyaṁ dhammo gambhīro duddaso duranubodho santo paṇīto atakkāvacaro nipuṇo paṇḍitavedanīyo” OR “‘This Dhamma I have discovered is deep, hard to see, hard to understand, peaceful, sublime, beyond the scope of mundane logic, subtle, comprehensible to the wise.”
- That verse appears in several suttas: DN1, DN 14, SN 6.1, MN 72, MN 95, Iti 43.
P.S. Of course, someone can say, “I believe mine is the Buddha’s version.” So, it is up to each person to decide. I can only explain how I see it; your analysis may make sense in your mind. We have to leave it at that.
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Hello Jittananto,
As you point out, this sutta describes Nibbana: There is no earth, no water, no fire, no wind; no dimension of infinite space, no dimension of infinite consciousness, no dimension of nothingness, no dimension of neither perception nor non-perception; no this world, no other world, no moon or sun.
- Everything except paraloka in the verse describes all the realms associated with the Erath (our cakkavāla).
- There are billions of other cakkavālās in the universe. All 31 realms are associated with each habitable planetary system (cakkavāla). See #2 of “31 Realms Associated with the Earth.”
- Thus, paraloka (no other world) means none of those also belong to Nibbana.
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LGBT is primarily a mental issue.
1. There are two sexes in humans. However, abnormalities can occur in a tiny section of the population.
- There is also a tiny fraction born without any sex organs. That is comparable to being born without a sense faculty, i.e., some are born blind.
- All those are kamma vipaka.
2. When we grew up, this was not a significant issue. It has been the same throughout human history.
- How come some 10-20% of ONLY Western societies have this issue now? As I said, it is a mental issue.
- Teenagers are susceptible to all sorts of insecurities. It should be a crime for parents to allow sex change drugs and operations on their kids without careful consideration. For example, if a child has both types of sex organs (I don’t even know whether such cases exist), such actions make sense. But it is a drastic and immoral action to try to change the sex organs a child is born with.
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