[alvino96]

• I want to add my own personal experience if I may; I just watched a desana by Venerable Handapangoda Nivathapa Thero: https://youtu.be/x0J8IC_13CQ?si=ju-bNZ5ThVQtuQNJ&t=5491  (we would need to watch the first minutes or so)

• I want to highlight this quote:

That’s called realization. Understanding and realization.

We first of all we understand after that we realize when you understand you become a Sotapanna; now you have a permission to meditate until that you don’t have a permission to meditate.

• I vividly remember coming accross this website in 2018-2019, I read the post on the real meaning of anicca, dukkha, anatta multiple times but can’t quite understand it, until I try my favorite way to learn a new concept: pretend we are teaching someone. Based on the meaning Mr Lal wrote, I created a few examples of how anicca creates dukkha to teach myself. One which I remember the most is:
  • Imagine we are holding a glass of the most delicious and precious milk in the world, we would feel very happy and satisfied, but there are so many ways it can go wrong (and out of our control), that could cause suffering.
  • If the milk has gone bad, then we ‘lost’ the milk — suffering arises;
  • If we drank the milk until its last drop, the moment we finish the milk, it is ‘lost’ — suffering arises;
  • If the milk got spilled on the ground, or got stolen by someone else, we would definitely felt the suffering as it arises;
  • Even if somehow we could prolong the lifespan of the milk by many, many years, suffering COULD still arrises;
  • We could suddenly got sick and or develop hormonal imbalance, which makes milk taste bad to our tongue (or lost the sense of taste altogether), or even develop a severe allergy to diary, see how the milk is “lost” to us?
  • Even if we could avoid all those scenarios, we could simply die the next minutes and didn’t get to enjoy the milk!
• I remember the moment I almost finished ‘teaching’ this example, I could feel a switch clicked in my mind (I don’t remember ever experiencing it before), it was so fast, it almost felt like nothing but still felt quite memorable split second moment to me; I am aware that claiming something not true is musavada and bad kamma, but I’m making an educated guess that it was possibly my ‘aha’ moment, or at least the start of Sotapanna Anugami moment.
  • I also ‘clicked’ with the concept of sanna when contemplating with myself during a meditation session, by giving myself examples of events, experiences and person I care about in my life.
• The point I want to share is, understanding is the very first thing to get to before engaging in many many hours of meditation.

[alvino96]

https://puredhamma.net/forums/topic/how-the-meanings-got-lost-and-how-to-interpretate/ 

Thank you very much for the response Mr Lal🙏. Additionally, I still have a question:

Once the last Sotapanna on Earth dies, that is the end of the current Buddha Sasana. All the books of the Tipitaka will still be there, but there will be no one who can use the “keys” to explain the key concepts.

I was reading this part, and it got me thinking, this comes back to the discussion of “reading can get us to sotapanna” vs “we still need to hear from an ariya”. By creating this website to uncover the hidden meanings of suttas, does it create more sotapannas directly (and subsequently those ariyas spread the meaning further, liberating more people, or just ‘triggered’ the hidden sotapanna level on its readers?

Thank you🙏🙏🙏

[alvino96]

I would like to share some experiences of mine if I may:

So a few times I have ‘dreamed’ a couple of pieces of information about other beings, including humans; the most notable examples are:

1. There is this one time when I half woke up in the morning, and I saw (not with physical eyes) my relatives’ home abroad was filled with black smoke; I then try to ‘navigate’ the house to see if the children are okay. After I woke up I told my father, he says something bad is going to happen to them. At that moment more details suddenly came to my mind, someone is trying to hurt them using local black voodoo priest (I can even tell where the priest come from), the second information is that they would need to prepare a glass of water, recite Namakara Gatha and Tisarana, then pour the water along their fence as a protection. It happened aroud 5 years ago if i remember correctly, and the events are confirmed to be true, my relatives are having some business issues, and their rival is trying to hurt their family and business using black magic.

2. Second example just happened a few months ago, I was almost asleep (but it felt like I was already sleeping!), then a sight of an old house came to my mind, with wooden furnitures and all, with maybe around 10 person inside (I cannot see their faces clearly, I just somehow knew they’re all deceased), and I instinctively knew these people might have some coonections with me in the past lives, and they’re asking me indirectly to transfer merit to them. I still have the crude sketch of the room that I made shortly after.

The point is, I think when half-asleep, our mind is slipping back into bhavanga state, and in this state, relevant information from other realms (possibly more than just devas?) might enter our minds to show past events/possible future events and even interrupt them.

I also don’t have people to share these experiences with, so this might be useful.

[alvino96]

Could all above comments be concluded by this?
In case 1, the intention is to only WALK and meditate, it has no direct connection to any other beings (including the insect etc), we can safely say the dying of the insects is purely collateral damage, we can coarsely commpare it to a bolder rollong down a hill (the boulder just moves because of gravity, it has no intention towards any being or anyTHING). This explanation makes much more sense.

Here’s another case similar to the one above: Some people like to guilt other people for eating meat, since it causes suffering to the animal, but they might not realise even consuming vegetables kills animals (there are bugs, worms and snails killed in the process from planting to harvesting); but the dying of the bugs is again, COLLATERAL, we just consumed the stuff and indirectly cause the unwanted effect.

In case 2, the intention it to INFORM other party, which directly affects the person B, we cannot say it is collateral damage; A knows B will probably overreact, so kamma is indeed created.
In case 3 the same happened; Grandmother want to effect baby to not suffer (grow up healthily), but due to ignorance or lack of knowledge about nutritions she caused more suffering instead (failed kidney). Kamma is definitely created.

It all comes to intention AND parties involved. If the intention involves other party directly, and also directly causes more suffering to them, then we can safely say there is he/she will be responsible in the future. Do please discuss this issue even further.

To Lal:
Thank you very much for creating this website, I always find ‘holes’ in people’s view everytime, especially during a 3 year period where I spent a good portion of my spare time studying many major religions and philosophical view, until I stumbled upon this website when researching Citta and Abhidhamma. Not only I found myself automatically sucked into contemplate deeper and deeper concepts, I also felt a burst of joy everytime I stumbled upon newly “rediscovered Dhamma concepts” and after a quick contemplation realised it is in sync with my previous existing Dhamma information, truly the world view puzzle is heading in the right assembly direction.

[alvino96]

Thank you for the initial response, I’ll be monitoring this thread should any discussion appear.
I read the last part about insane people not creating kamma (if the action is due to their insanity, I guess?)
I think it is consistent within Buddha Dhamma, since medically insane people has a brain with broken wiring here and there. Refering to other post about Ghandhabba, and the simile about how manomaya kaya (ghandabba) is like the driver of a tank, if the tank somehow malfunctioned and suddenly start shooting random people, the driver won’t be charged for any crime; that’s the reason medically insane people would not accumulate bad kamma in this case.

I am still really curious about the 2 cases mentioned in the first comment though.

[alvino96]

Thank you for the explanation.

I read the story of Upatissa and Kolitha (Ven. Sariputta and Moggalana) becoming Arahant in one lifetime (by attaining stages after stages on different occasions), therefore it should be possible to attain Arahanthood in one lifetime (in this case one human jati).

If it is correct, then Ven. Sariputta and Moggalana and Ven. Angulimala must have cultivated good kamma that allows them to live in the same time as The Buddha himself which combined with good kammas for them to be born with good conditions (physical, mental, living conditions etc) which in the end allowed them to contemplate Dhamma and attain Arahanthood., therefore they all haven’t attained any stages of nibbana before, and be born many different realms (including apayas) within that waiting time.

Another interesting point also arises from this (this partly is my opinion, so please correct me if I’m wrong):
The urgent goal in this lifetime for us REALLY IS attaining Sotapanna stage, because it acts as a “brake” from this Samsaric Circle in which we have suffered for too long. This is in line with your other article (I do not remember which one).
The Arahants mentioned above must have started on the path long long ago, but for some reason hasn’t yet attained any stages, which results in a really long wait time. Unfortunately there is nobody who can accurately tell us whether we have reached any stages or not, so we should keep striving to stay on the path.
This sense of urgency has been on my mind for quite some time now, and whenever I thought of people I care about, I felt the same urgency for them, given how rare it is for any being having the chance to listen/read true Dhamma, and contemplate on it.

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