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Hello taryal,
1. You wrote: ‘The 5 aggregates are discrete, inconstant and illusory, i.e. they give the illusion of an “experiencer”. When one wakes up to this reality, they become enlightened.”
- That is not what the Buddha taught. Those who say those things are the ones who mistranslate “anatta” as “no-self” and further interpret that to mean there is no “experiencer.”
- There have always been two wrong views on two extremes: (i) One with uccheda ditthi believes that there is no rebirth, and with the death of the physical body, nothing remains or continues. (ii) The other extreme is to have “sassata ditthi“, i.e., to believe that there is a “permanent soul/aathma” associated with a person. Those are the only two views about existence in the absence of a Buddha.
- The Buddha rejected both. A “person” exists as long as that “lifestream” is sustained via Paticca Samuppada (i.e., until the root causes of greed, hate, and ignorance exist in mind.) Conditions brought about by sensory inputs trigger those root causes. At the end of the Noble Path is Arahanthood. An Arahant has no greed, hate, and ignorance left in mind. At the death of the Arahant, he/she attains Nibbana and will not be reborn anywhere in this world of 31 realms. See “What Reincarnates? – Concept of a Lifestream”.
2. This question is not applicable per #1 above. Any human has free will.
3. You wrote: “An arahant will lose the perception of self upon becoming enlightened.”
- This is obviously wrong. Didn’t the Buddha (and many Arahants) live for many years and function as anyone else? One cannot live without perception (sanna.)
4. You wrote: “It seems like an arahant’s mindset won’t be discernible to us till we become enlightened ourselves.”
- An Arahant‘s mind is not hard to comprehend. It is like any other mind, but without a trace of greed, hate, and ignorance.
5. You asked: “It is said that an enlightened mind can only be sustained by a dense human body. If so, how was Buddha able to travel to higher realms? I believe he used his mental body to do so. After leaving his physical body, should he not have instantly attained Parinibbana?”
- There is a subtle “manomaya kaya” that sustains the physical body. Until the death of the physical body, that manomaya kaya is intrinsically connected to that physical body. But it is possible for the manomaya kaya to “come out of the physical body” temporarily. The Buddha traveled to Brahma realms with the manomaya kaya. While his manomaya kaya was in the Brahma realm, his physical body was on Earth, but they remained connected. That is exactly what happens in NDE situations described in the link below. Those experiencing NDE have their manomaya kayas move out of their physical bodies.
- Even these days, many people can experience NDE. See, for example, “Near-Death Experiences (NDE): Brain Is Not the Mind.”
Buddha Dhamma is deep. It takes an effort to understand “previously unheard teachings,” as the Buddha stated.
Yash: “So this Panca Nivarana Suppression can act as a hindrance towards one path if one is ignorant of the Buddha Dhamma. One may suppress it to the extent that one may get to the 1st jhana, and his belief would become unshakable about the methods he used.”
- That is quite true. It is possible to get into jhanas by focusing on the breath (provided one abstains from immoral deeds and abstains from sensual thoughts for a long enough time.)
- Then they misinterpret that as getting close to Nibbana. Many yogis attained the highest jhanas and even cultivated supernormal powers even before the Buddha. They were not even close to Nibbana! They all were and still are puthujjana residing in Brahma realms right now.
- Buddhist meditation requires a solid understanding of Paticca Samuppada, Tilakkhana, etc.
- I will start a new series on that.
Gad: You are right. #3 is the first one to tackle. Until one gets rid of that, one is a puthujjana.
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It is good to contemplate such situations. But think through possible scenarios. In particular, you may have gone through such situations in the past. What happened in those situations?
- It would be better to discuss such actual experiences. From a philosophical standpoint, we can make up all kinds of situations, but those may not match/describe what happens in real life.
Think about what happened in an actual case where someone started verbally abusing you. There are many possibilities. (i) One could look away, (ii) One could walk away, (iii) One could try to explain to that person you have done nothing wrong, (iv) One could get confrontational, and the situation can escalate.
It would provide more clarity if you could describe what happened in such cases (even hypothetical cases).
For example, consider the case (i) above.
- X starts verbally abusing Y. Y looks away, but X keeps it up and becomes even more annoying. Doesn’t Y’s mind likely generate anger? At some point, Y may “blow up” and be likely to respond.
- But that is likely only in the case of an average human. If Y is an Arahant, no anger will arise, and he can sit there all day and “take that abuse” without generating any anger.
- If Y is a Sotapanna, anger may arise, and he will think about how to “diffuse the situation.” He may try to explain to X that his accusations do not have a basis. But if X disagrees and continues, Y may walk away from that situation.
The other situation also has many possible outcomes.
- If you can describe a specific situation (how the situation develops), we can discuss that.
- If someone hits you and even you don’t respond, doesn’t anger arise? How long can you take that abuse (which is worse than verbal abuse)?
All three activities you mentioned do not involve abhisankhara, which can lead to “bad vipaka.”
- “Bad/immoral kammas” involve greed, hate, and/or ignorance of their effects.
- Some may involve a little bit of ignorance (because of possible health effects), but they are not too significant.
Yes, niramisa sukha is felt on the way to Nibbana.
- However, a living Arahant may feel “dukkha vedana” due to the physical body born with. Such vedana can arise from injuries or sicknesses.
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The above comment applies not only to jhana cultivation but also to meditation in general.
- I forgot to emphasize that above.
Pathfinder: “Actually, this brings up another query I have: “Is there happiness in Nibbāna?”
Nibbana does not have anything that is associated with “this world of 31 realms.” Trees, water, mountains, or even thoughts or feelings (like happiness) are absent in Nibbana.
- It may be hard to grasp this initially. But the Buddha, with Paticca Samuppada, thoroughly explained that if any of those entities are present, they must come into existence due to root causes (greed, hate, ignorance) and conditions.
- Anything that comes into existence via root causes (greed, hate, ignorance) and conditions is impermanent (that is why any existence, including Deva or Brahma births, will not lead to “permanent removal of suffering”); but it is also more than impermanence (all such existence are of the anicca nature).
- “Nibbana 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 vedana but the absence of “dukkha vedana.”
See “Nibbāna “Exists”, but Not in This World”
- More posts in “Nibbāna.”
Buddhist meditation does not involve anything that has to do with this world. For example, breath or a kasina object like a clay ball for a water bowl is used by anariya yogis.
- Buddhist (Ariya) meditation is based on a Dhamma concept like Paticca Samuppada, the anicca nature of this world, etc.
- The following was extracted from the recent post “Jānato Passato” and Ājāniya – Critical Words to Remember.”
8. Cultivation of jhāna could be an important part of progresing on the Noble Path, especially if one is a bhikkhu. While the term “Ariya jhāna” does not appear in the Tipiṭaka, the Buddha clearly distinguished between jhānās cultivated by Ariyās and anāriyās. For example, when a bhikkhu named Sandha visited the Buddha, he was rebuked not to meditate like a mule (khaḷuṅka) but like a horse trained for battle (Ājānīya.) See “Sandha Sutta (AN 11.9).”
- It is good to read that whole sutta.
- @marker 2.16, the sutta describes how an anariya yogi cultivates a jhāna: “They meditate (with the mind focused on) earth, water, fire, and air. They meditate (with the mind focused on) the dimension of infinite space, infinite consciousness, nothingness, or neither perception nor non-perception.”
- Note that “breath meditation” (or anariya “kasina meditation” using a clay ball or fire) belongs to that category; it focuses the mind on the “air element.”
- How does an Ariya meditate? That is described @marker 3.13: “They don’t meditate (with the mind focused on) earth, water, fire, and air. They don’t meditate (with the mind focused on) the dimension of infinite space, infinite consciousness, nothingness, or neither perception nor non-perception. They don’t meditate (with the mind focused on) this world or the other world. They don’t meditate (with the mind focused on) what is seen, heard, thought, known, attained, sought, or explored by the mind.”
- We will discuss that further in the next post.
9. Several suttās compare the quality of Ariya and anariya jhānās to that between a well-trained horse and a lazy mule.
- In the “Bhaddāli Sutta (MN 65),” the Buddha describes the training of an ajānīya horse to have ten qualities, compared to an Ariya cultivating ten qualities. A similar description is in the “Gaṇakamoggallāna Sutta (MN 107).”
- Also, note that “jāna(to)” and “jhāna” are very different. Furthermore, it is a god idea to understand how to pronounce (and write with the “Tipiṭaka English” convention); see “Pāli Words – Writing and Pronunciation.”
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The following comment is from y not:
Going with what the Buddha says:Sansara has no (traceable) beginning; but also, avijja too has no (traceable) beginning: “A first beginning of ignorance cannot be conceived, (of which it can be said), ‘Before that, there was no ignorance and it came to be after”. So there can be no question as to the cause of its arising.The Path eliminates the defilements. If there were no Nibbana, it would lead to a suffering -free state, which would equatewith a neutral state only. In the mundane sense, the elimination of suffering in itself and by itself does not constitute happiness. It only leads to it. But in the case of Nibbana, since Nibbana is there already, the Pure Mind ( covered with raga, dvesha and moha), thus freed, automatically attains Nibbana, becomes Nibbana, ‘becomes’ what it intrinsically is.Compare: Someone is in pain, in time recovers from pain, and later enjoys a favourite activity, physical or mental. The first is suffering, the second relief and the third happiness. Here, recovery from pain is not the happiness, but is essential for happiness to follow. There can be no happiness where there is pain. With Nibbana, the attainment of happiness goes hand-in -hand with the elimination of suffering – there is no need to go in search of anything, for Nibbana is the Pure Mind itself shorn of defilements.Pathfinder: The pure mind never became defiled. I has always been defiled. And there can be no going back ‘to getting defiled’after Nibbana. Will anyone want to keep an item of food that made him sick in the fridge for later use?1 user thanked author for this post.
It is “Vimuttāyatana Sutta (AN 5.26).”
P.S. Even though he said, “Panca Vimuttāyatana Sutta,” it is “Vimuttāyatana Sutta.”
Yes. There is a sutta that describes that.
- I don’t recall the name offhand. If he did mention the name, let me know around what time, and I can listen and figure out the sutta‘s name.
No. That will not happen because once an Arahant dies (Parinibbana), he/she will be separated entirely from the world of 31 realms.
- There is no way to get another birth anywhere within “this world.”
- One would be “completely released” from any future suffering!
- As we have discussed (for anyone without at least the Sotapanna stage of Nibbana), one is not free of rebirths in the suffering-filled four lowest realms, even though one can be born in the “higher realms” with much less suffering on and off.
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“Upasampajja” is related to “sampajānakārī” and is about “coming to that state with mindfulness.”
- See “Mahāsatipaṭṭhāna Sutta (DN 22)“: “Puna caparaṁ, bhikkhave, bhikkhu abhikkante paṭikkante sampajānakārī hoti, ālokite vilokite sampajānakārī hoti, samiñjite pasārite sampajānakārī hoti, saṅghāṭipattacīvaradhāraṇe sampajānakārī hoti, asite pīte khāyite sāyite sampajānakārī hoti, uccārapassāvakamme sampajānakārī hoti, gate ṭhite nisinne sutte jāgarite bhāsite tuṇhībhāve sampajānakārī hoti.”
- Also, see “Kāyānupassanā – The Section on Habits (Sampajanapabba).“
P.S. When one cultivates mindfulness (“sampajānakārī“), one gets to “live with the resulting calm state” (upasampajja viharati.)
This is a deep issue.
- It is impossible to figure out WHEN any given mind got covered with defilements.
- The Buddha declared that tracing back to such an instance is impossible. Right after attaining the Buddhahood, he recalled his past lives at an unimaginably high rate for a long time (probably a few days? I don’t remember where that account is in the Tipitaka). But he said he could not find a “beginning.”
- The verse, “Anamataggoyaṁ, bhikkhave, saṁsāro,” OR “Bhikkhus, this rebirth process has no known beginning” appears in several suttas. See, for example, “Tiṇakaṭṭha Sutta (SN 15.1).”
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The Buddhist way of living is simple living.
- The Buddha taught that pursuing worldly pleasures is a waste of time in the “long term,” meaning in the rebirth process.
- Those who practice with understanding will have no incentive to live in mansions, look for oil, or fly/drive around for pleasure-seeking, for example.
- Buddhist practice is all about taming the mind. It does not require material wealth.
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