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Right VISION (Samma Ditthi) is achieved first that it is NOT FRUITFUL to take, “this is not mine, not who i am, not myself’ AND all formations and states are impermanent, cannot be kept to ones satisfaction, are unsatisfactory, and without essence or self”.
I have explained this many times before. But here is another way to say that.
One who has SEEN the truth of that is a Sotapanna. That is called getting rid of wrong views about this world or “ditthi vipallāsa”.
But that person still have two more stages to overcome: Saññā vipallāsa (wrong perceptions) and Citta vipāllasa (wrong way of thinking based on such perceptions which continue as “habits”). That is why a Sotapanna may still enjoy sense pleasures.
It is sort of like someone being able to convince for oneself that smoking is bad for one’s health. But that person may still continue smoking (with less and less frequency) until he gets rid of that habit one day.
See: “Is It Necessary for a Buddhist to Eliminate Sensual Desires?“.
A Sotapanna not only has NOT gotten rid of the sense of “me” (which happens at the Arahant stage), but still likes to enjoy sense pleasures (which goes away at the Anāgami stage).
This is one of those in the “grey area”.
If a fetus in the womb is aborted, that is definitely “killing a human being”; see, “Buddhist Explanations of Conception, Abortion, and Contraception“.
I Googled “ectopic pregnancy” and the following are bits of information from there:
- “ectopic pregnancy — happens when a fertilized egg gets stuck on its way to the uterus”.
- The pregnancy may not even be detected until either “The structure containing the fetus typically ruptures after about 6 to 16 weeks, long before the fetus is viable..”
- There have been few cases where the fetus grows outside the womb and the baby is delivered (but the pregnancy had not been detected): “Ectopic pregnancy“.
- So, it seems ectopic pregnancy is detected when the mother starts bleeding, and then the normal procedure is to remove it to save the mother.
– So, the fetus does not get to the uterus.
– So, normally pregnancy is detected when that structure ruptures and the mother is taken to a hospital.
– Then the doctors remove that fetus anyway, to save the mother’s life.We must also realize that there are many instances where it is impossible to live without harming other beings (not humans, unless it is a special case like this).
– When we apply medicine to a wound, for example, numerous microscopic beings are killed. When we take medicine for a stomach-ache the same.
– So, sometimes it is unavoidable to avoid these things as long as we are in this rebirth process.Glad to hear you are making progress, Aniduan.
I think you have figured out the solution to your remaining problem: “I still get angry at work place when someone does a mistake and tries to blame me for that. My anger is causing vaci shankara(keep hating them in my mind) and kaya shankara(displaying anger at them using words)…”
You have understood vaci sankhara and kaya sankhara correctly.
– As long as one keeps generating conscious thoughts of anger (vaci sankhara) and expresses that with speech and bodily actions, it will be hard to control.
– This where the “effort” or “viriya” comes in.Try to control anger at them, even if it is their fault that makes you angry.
– Try to reduce interactions with those who annoy you, if possible.Also try to do mundane metta bhavana specifically towards them first (wishing them be happy, peaceful, and healthy). Picture them in your mind as you do that. It may be hard to do at first, but you may be pleasantly surprised in the long term.
– Then also do Ariya metta bhavana towards all beings. Think about the suffering of those beings in the lower realms (including the animal realm) and wish them to be released of such suffering.
– Another thing is to think about bad consequences of generating bad thoughts/speech/actions, AND the possible good consequences of being able to suppress them.Hello Nikita! Welcome to the forum!
Those “bodily feelings” are nothing to worry about. They could be related to jhanas too.
Yes. Even breath meditation or mundane kasina mediation can easily get one to experience such things (including jhana), especially if one had cultivated jhanas in recent previous lives as a human.
– Then one could have even been born in a brahma realm, and may have come back to the human realm.As we know one can be born (jati) as a human many times within a given human existence (bhava): “Bhava and Jāti – States of Existence and Births Therein“.
So, those who had cultivated (anariya) jhana in the recent past may easily experience such “bodily feelings” or even jhana. It is those who also can easily experience “out-of-body” experiences where the “mental body” (gandhabba) can come out. Those who can do “astral travel” do that by coming out of the physical body with the gandhabba.
However, those previous jhana experiences are NOT likely to be Ariya jhanas. If they were one would not be coming back to the human realm or even deva realms. That is because one’s kama raga would have been REMOVED; see, “Mundane versus Supramundane Jhāna“.
In any case, Nikita is on the right track. As he says, one should not be satisfied (complacent) with any jhanic experiences. Those are temporary. We all had cultivated not only jhanas, but also supernormal (iddhi) powers in our deep past.
I always point out to the fact that Devadatta had cultivated jhanas and iddhi powers, but he lost all that and born in an apaya.
– On the other hand, being able to get to any jhana is a good thing (and may not be easy for some). That means one is able to at least suppress kama raga temporarily, and thus get to a better state of mind.
– However, it is not necessary to cultivate jhana in order to attain magga phala.Yeos post was in the spam folder and I just “unspammed” it.
If your post does not show up, please send me an email: [email protected].
I am not sure why it happens sometimes. But I can easily recover them.
I don’t think this book has those details. This is a good book that I recently mentioned in a post. But it has very little information before the Buddhahood.
It is surprising to me that there does not seem to be any English textbooks on the life of Prince Siddhartha in general.
Such information is unlikely to be in the suttas, but could be in the Vinaya Piṭaka. I have not had time to look at the Vinaya Piṭaka (I only started reading suttas after the Parinibbana of Waharaka Thero; until then I just relied on his desanas).
When I was growing up in Sri Lanka, these details on Buddha’s life before Enlightenment (i.e., Prince Siddhartha’s) were taught in school. There were books written in Sinhala. So, it never occurred me to even look into this aspect all this time.
After seeing upekkha100’s post, I looked into it a bit, but could not find much online or in textbook form.
If anyone knows any text books or online info, that would be very beneficial.
No problem, y not.
You said: “So then, a new-born’s character will be overwhelmingly influenced by its own gathi , as well as by its own free will later on in life, and to a lesser degree by the gathi of its parents(lodged in their genetic code).”
As was discussed, there are many factors. But ALWAYS one’s free will is at the forefront.
One has to make a determination to change the course for the better or the worse.
But sometimes (when one has a weak mind and does not pay attention), one may just “go with the flow” according to one’s environment.
– This is why parents must always be on the lookout on what kind of friends a child has. Friends can be a huge influence on a child.
– This is also true for adults. One must get away from those who pull in wrong directions, and make new associations along “good directions”.Siebe sadi: “mayebe in some way or the other, information from former lifes, which comes with the gandhabba, as blueprint for the new life, plays a role in activating certain inhereted genetic codes or causing them to be deactivated?”
Of course. The genetic code will be determined by a combination of that AND the parents.
According to the Wikipedia article Phenotype:
“An organism’s phenotype results from two basic factors: the expression of an organism’s genetic code, or its genotype, and the influence of environmental factors, which may interact, further affecting phenotype.”So, that does not take into account one’s sansaric gathi at all.
In Buddha Dhamma those sansaric gathi actually DETERMINE one’s birth. Once that first step is complete then of course one’s parents (genetics) and the environment that one grows up, will play roles.
But one’s parents are also determined by one’s sansaric gathi, so that plays the key role.
Of course, one’s gathi (or gati) could change significantly if one’s environment (especially friends and associates) changes drastically. So, that is also an important factor.
Above two key factors are discussed in the following posts and in the links therein:
Buddhist Explanations of Conception, Abortion, and Contraception AND
The Law of Attraction, Habits, Character (Gati), and Cravings (Asavas)Exactly!
“PAHANAsaññā, virāgasaññā, nirodhasaññā..”, all those seven types of saññā are what one cultivates — and ends up with — with “nibbida”.See, “Saññā – What It Really Means“.
“Becoming fed up with some things is oke, not bad, don’t you think so?”
Yes. That is good.
When one starts comprehending Tilakkhana, one can start seeing that somethings are just not worthwhile doing. The examples you gave are good.Many current English translations translate nibbida as “revulsion” but that is not correct.
It is more like an adult not enjoying making sand castles on the beach anymore (which one used to enjoy as a child).
One does not need to forcibly give up such activities. One just is not interested in such activities anymore. So it comes automatically through wisdom (panna).
This is an issue that is do with the beginning of the humans. This is not the right time to discuss it.
– We have enough more important issues to worry about.I am going to repeat what I just mentioned in another topic:
I have been writing a series of posts at the following discussion forum.
I am trying to present a systematic presentation there, starting at a basic level (a suggested sequence of posts was published only a couple of days ago):
The teachings of Ven. Waharaka Abhayaratanalankara TheroSince it is hard to present such a systematic approach at puredhamma.net, I plan to continue that series.
It is not possible to perceive beings in higher realms with our own experience.
– “Brahma bodies” are unimaginably small.
– They have attained “brhama bhava” by giving up cravings for not only sex but most sense pleasures in preference of jhanic pleasures.I have been writing a series of posts at the following discussion forum. I recently wrote about this issue there.
I am trying to present a systematic presentation there, starting at a basic level (a suggested sequence of posts was published only a couple of days ago):
The teachings of Ven. Waharaka Abhayaratanalankara TheroSince it is hard to present such a systematic approach at puredhamma.net, I plan to continue that series.
From MN 115:
– ‘Aṭṭhānametaṃ anavakāso yaṃ itthī arahaṃ assa sammāsambuddho, netaṃ ṭhānaṃ vijjatī’ti pajānāti; ‘ṭhānañca kho etaṃ vijjati yaṃ puriso arahaṃ assa sammāsambuddho, ṭhānametaṃ vijjatī’ti pajānāti. ‘Aṭṭhānametaṃ anavakāso yaṃ itthī rājā assa cakkavattī, netaṃ ṭhānaṃ vijjatī’ti pajānāti; ‘ṭhānañca kho etaṃ vijjati yaṃ puriso rājā assa cakkavattī, ṭhānametaṃ vijjatī’ti pajānāti. ‘Aṭṭhānametaṃ anavakāso yaṃ itthī sakkattaṃ kareyya … mārattaṃ kareyya … brahmattaṃ kareyya, netaṃ ṭhānaṃ vijjatī’ti pajānāti; ‘ṭhānañca kho etaṃ vijjati yaṃ puriso sakkattaṃ kareyya … mārattaṃ kareyya … brahmattaṃ kareyya, ṭhānametaṃ vijjatī’ti pajānāti.Not possible for a female to be a Sammasambuddha, only a male can be a Sammasambuddha. Similarly for cakkavattī emperor (who would rule the whole of the Earth from time-to-time), Sakka (King of Devas), Mara Devaputta, and a brahma.
Except for the brahmas, all others are from kama loka. It is quite clear that a female would not be able to become any of those within that lifetime. That does not mean a woman in the current life cannot become a Buddha or any of the above in the future. In fact, I think when our Bodhisattva started the paramita process, he was a woman in that life.
The statement about the brahma is a bit confusing, since there are no female brahmas. It may just mean that a woman has to attain the “male qualities” to become a brahma. For example, a female cultivating jhana in this life, would acquire “male qualities” at that point. That just means the mindset has been elevated, not a sex change. Even if it is an anariya jhana, one would keep that “elevated mindset” until that kammic energy is exhausted at the death of that brahma.
Regarding the questions:
1)What is meant by “purisa gati”. Is it the personality traits (mental traits) of a male?
-it is an “elevated mindset”. It appears to be easier for a “conventional purisa” or a man to attain.If the other questions do not have satisfactory answers above, we can discuss more. Furthermore, others may have more ideas or a better interpretation.
