Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
Upekkha100:
I have reason to believe that those lines were referring to the saddha of anariyas, for they were arranged after paragraphs describing Arahants, Anagamis, Sakadagamis, and Sotapannas in that order, from the most developed beings to lesser developed ones.
However, how much is enough faith and love in The Buddha? Perhaps these qualities need to be cultivated to very high levels, and that can only come about through a deep understanding of Buddhadhamma, as Lal has pointed out. Still they offer hope to anariyas, though anariyas should still strive hard to practise the Path and develop their understanding of Buddhadhamma.
…Upekkha100, please listen and consider carefully what I am going to write next.
A future Buddha is coming! He is Buddha Metteyya, the last Buddha in our current maha kappa. However, at least 2400 years need to pass before He arrives, when the current Buddha Sasana ends. After Him, I do not know when the next Buddha would arrive. Maybe it would be incalculable aeons later, for there are aeons in which there is not even a single Buddha.
Do you see now that if you became a Brahma being during the time that Buddha Metteyya appears in the human realm, you may not have the chance or desire to learn the Dhamma from Him? The lifetime of a Brahma being seems to be calculated in aeons, and could most certainly coincide with the arrival of Buddha Metteyya in the human realm.
In my opinion, as your second goal, it should be having the chance to hear the pure Dhamma from Buddha Metteyya and to attain magga phala there and then, or even in the intervening years before He arrives in the human realm, which seems to be better than to be reborn as a Brahma being.
There seems to be instances in the commentaries of suttas in which The Buddha refers to the Brahma realms as the ‘inferior Brahma world’, presumably with regards to the ultimate goal of attaining Nibbana.
In fact, in the Dhanañjani Sutta (MN 97), The Buddha chided Sariputta for not guiding Dhanañjanin to magga phala just as Dhanañjanin lay dying, and instead only guiding him to the Brahma realms where he was reborn in, and would have to abide there for an extremely long time before being reborn as a human again, subjected to much dukkha. In the meantime, Dhanañjanin would still have to undergo aeons of very fine dukkha as a Brahma being. This was in the case of Dhanañjanin, a very highly developed being who was ripe for magga phala if only the necessary conditions were present. (Results may vary for other beings.)
Perhaps you are thinking: Even if you could listen to the pure Dhamma of Buddha Metteyya, you may still not have the necessary conditions to attain magga phala. Then, every time you perform dana (such as donating to The Sangha or bhikkhus), sila (such as helping others in need), metta (such as treating others with kindness and good will), and bhavana (such as reading and further contemplation on Dhamma concepts), you ‘should’ make the following determination if you remember to do so: May the meritorious kamma of this deed as well as other kusala and/or punna kamma that I have accrued enable me to attain magga phala either in this lifetime, or before Buddha Metteyya comes to this human realm, or at the very least during the time of Buddha Metteyya.
The power of making determinations when performing kusala and/or punna kamma can be tremendous. For example, The Buddha pointed out that When, for instance, Kondañña-the Knower in a previous life gave almsfood nine times during a single harvest, he did not aspire to Chief Discipleship; his aspiration was to be the very first to penetrate to the highest state, Arahatship. And so it came about. But when Sariputta and Maha Moggallana many aeons ago, at the time of the Buddha Anomadassi, were born as the brahman youth Sarada and landowner Sirivaddhaka, they made the aspiration for Chief Discipleship. Hence both Sariputta and Moggallana became the Chief Disciples of The Buddha.
Upekkha100, if you would carry out these steps faithfully, I am sure that you will most probably be preparing yourself very well indeed for the attainment of magga phala, don’t you agree?
Lal: Thank you very much once again for your lengthy explanation. It is helpful to me.
Upekkha100: I am really extremely glad that you cooled down after reading my post. It is good that I was able to offer some comfort as a Dhamma friend. Just knowing that made it well worth writing the post. I think you will meet other helpful individuals in this forum too.
y not: May you attain peace too.
However, I would like to hastily add that having sufficient faith and love in The Buddha is definitely no substitute for diligent practice towards the goal of Nibbana. Hopefully faith and love can be something to fall back on when one seems to be making very slow progress, but it should be taken in the context of all the steps that one can take towards Nibbana, i.e. sila, bhavana, panna and The Eightfold Path. Nothing should be neglected.
In addition, thank you very much in advance for your responses to my question above!
Upekkha100,
It is great that you have taken the initial necessary steps to attaining the Sotapanna stage. I am happy for you. Do what you can, and do not worry too much over things you may not have much control over.
Next, I would like to address the following question(s) to Lal and anyone who knows:
In the Alagaddupama Sutta (MN 22), it was stated (in the second last paragraph just before the footnotes, as translated by access to insight):
“In the Dhamma thus well-proclaimed by me — clear, open, evident, stripped of rags — those monks who have a [sufficient] measure of conviction in me, a [sufficient] measure of love for me, are all headed for heaven. This is how the Dhamma well-proclaimed by me is clear, open, evident, stripped of rags.”
Also, in the Sarakaani Sutta (SN 55.24), it was stated (in the third and second last paragraphs just before the footnotes, as translated by access to insight):
“Take the case of another man. He is not even endowed with unwavering devotion to the Buddha, the Dhamma, the Sangha. He is not joyous and swift in wisdom and has not gained release. But perhaps he has these things: the faculty of faith, of energy, of mindfulness, of concentration, of wisdom. And the things proclaimed by the Tathaagata are moderately approved by him with insight. That man does not go to the realm of hungry ghosts, to the downfall, to the evil way, to states of woe.
“Take the case of another man. He is not even endowed with unwavering devotion to the Buddha, the Dhamma, the Sangha. He is not joyous and swift in wisdom and has not gained release. But he has just these things: the faculty of faith, of energy, of mindfulness, of concentration, of wisdom. Yet if he has merely faith, merely affection for the Tathaagata, that man, too, does not go to… states of woe.
Does this mean that as long as one has sufficient faith and love for The Buddha, one will not go to the apayas and may even go to the heavens (which I take to be the deva realms)?
These two suttas seem to offer hope that those who are not Ariyas may still escape the apayas, at least in the very next bhava, if I am not wrong.
Hopefully the answers to these questions can offer comfort to those who wonder and worry where they are bound after this life, if they have not, or are not certain if they have attained the fruit of sotapanna.
May you all attain happiness and peace and make much progress on the Path to Nibbana!
May I add that after I wrote that Sariputta and Moggallana attained Arahanthood after listening to one or more stanzas from The Buddha, I tried to further find out if what I had written was indeed the truth. I do not normally pay attention to The Buddha’s disciples’ attainment, preferring instead to learn the content of The Buddha’s teachings. Hence I was very concerned that I had been mistaken in this regard.
It turns out that both Sariputta and Moggallana needed to contemplate further after initially hearing from the Arahant Assaji (in Sariputta’s case) and later from The Buddha. In Moggallana’s case, he even cultivated the Ariya jhanas before attaining Arahanthood. However, the 250 or so followers that Sariputta and Moggallana brought with them became Arahants after listening to The Buddha, and there was no mention of them cultivating jhanas. Hence jhanas are not a prerequisite to the attainment of Nibbana, and those who find it hard to abide in the jhanas should not be overly concerned. These are my thoughts.
One more thing, Upekkha100.
Please do not misunderstand Akvan. I fully believe Akvan is a sincere and helpful fellow being. He has often offered advice which I highly respect and found beneficial. So I was pleasantly surprised to see his post today.
He probably wanted to point out to you the danger of being caught up in the pursuit of anariya jhanas. If successful, that could lead to rebirth in a Brahma realm where lobha, dosa and moha are only temporarily suppressed. The Brahma being may fail to realise dukkha and the urgent need to continue any more practice to attain Nibbana, so comparatively blissful to the human realm is a Brahma realm. Even in the human realm which has so much more suffering, many people refuse to see dukkha in their lives; what more can we expect in the Brahma realm? At the cuti-patisandhi moment, he may come to grasp a bhava in the apayas, due to previous kamma vipaka ripening.
I agree with Akvan that it is better to strive for magga phala than attainment of anariya jhanas, and partially agree with y not.
y not stated: “Neither the development of jhanas nor formal meditation techniques are necessary to attain magga phala”. The former is true, but in my opinion, the latter may or may not be true. It depends on the individual, and the stage of magga phala that is in question.
For the attainment of sotapanna magga phala, formal meditation techniques are not necessary as one can listen to a desana by a knowledgeable Ariya. There were those in The Buddha’s time that attained Arahanthood after listening to one or more short verses from The Buddha, such as Sariputta and Moggallana. However, others could only attain the stages of Sotapanna, Sakadagami, or Anagami, and had to put in more effort (most probably through formal meditation techniques) to attain Arahanthood.
y not, please do not get frustrated with the fact that I am correcting you. I am not sure that I have done it in a tactful manner so I seek your kind understanding on the matter. :)
Upekkha100, in my opinion, it is good to practise in such a way as to reduce avijja and tanha, since they can strengthen each other. You may reduce avijja by reading dhamma or hearing desanas from a knowledgeable Ariya. You may reduce tanha by cultivating metta. Metta is very closely related to the adosa cetasika, which is one of the universal sobhana cetasikas, while tanha is closely related to lobha and dosa, two asobhana cetasikas.
Since sobhana and asobhana cetasikas cannot arise in the same citta, you can gradually change your gati for the better by cultivating metta to weaken one aspect of tanha, which is dosa. Since some people find it difficult to attain jhanas, probably the best way to cultivate metta would be through informal daily activities on a continuous basis. This would be Satipatthana in action. You would also be cultivating the sati cetasika, which is another universal sobhana cetasika. Doing so would probably embark you on the Mundane Eightfold Path (if you are not an Ariya), which would bring you very gradual progress. This might be a more comprehensive and suitable approach.
What are your thoughts? It would be great to discuss them.
Christian, do not think that trying to find out what Nibbana is is merely baseless and meaningless speculation.
It is true that until we ourselves attain Nibbana, we can never truly experience it for what it is. However it is important to have a roadmap (the Fourth Noble Truth) and to have at least a somewhat limited understanding of our destination (the Third Noble Truth) if we are to motivate ourselves to pursue the goal of Nibbana.
So long as we do not spend our whole lives speculating wildly about the nature of Nibbana, but instead put in effort to be mindful of our thoughts, speech and behaviour, as well as in learning Dhamma, we would be making productive and wise use of our time.
So many people turn away from Buddhism because they do not truly understand its important message or else they are misled by pseudo versions of Buddhism, and wonder why they do not feel very much different afterwards. They very much need to know what kind of reward they can expect if they were to adhere to the advice of the Buddha.
This is what I think. Nibbana is not non-existence. But I think parinibbana (which happens during the death of a being who has attained Nibbana) is non-existence.
I think the Buddha would have advised us to strive for permanent non-existence rather than rebirth as a deva or brahma, to be very direct and blunt. This seems to be a very important message of the Buddha, although most people resist that and find that to be depressing and contrary to their beliefs. That is also why the message of the Buddha is so hard to comprehend and accept.
Thank you very much y not for your response.
I will have to ponder very carefully on your words. I am still confused so it will take some time. Actually that was also the reason why I took longer to reply.
Hi Lal,
I think it is this post:”Gati to Bhava to Jāti – Ours to Control“.
The information is found under the section: What Are Āsāvās (Cravings)?
Specifically: …explained that indeed āsāvās contribute to avijjā, and vice versa. and: …four of the eight “basic units of matter” in a suddhāshtaka arise due to avijjā and the other four due to tanhā (which arise due to āsāva). Avijjā and tanhā are called “bhava-mūla” for this reason.
Thank you very much once again for always helping to answer my queries!
In one of Lal’s earlier posts, I think it was mentioned that tanha arises from asavas and that avijja and asavas strengthen each other. It is unfortunate that I cannot recall the title of that post nor can I find it even when I do my best to search for it.
It was also mentioned in the post “The Origin of Matter – Suddhāshtaka” under #8 that “…wherever there is avijjā there is tanhā, and vice versa.” Does this happen only because avijja gives rise to tanha, even though tanha does not give rise to avijja?
Since the annamanna paccaya does not work for vedana paccaya tanha, can PS indicate the pathway in which tanha and asavas strengthen avijja?
Thank you very much for your responses in advance.
Lal, since you are discussing cuti-patisandhi in your last reply,
1) Is it possible for a being to have its kammic energy for the current bhava totally exhausted when it is still a gandhabba waiting for a solid body to be born in?
2) Is it also possible for a human to have its kammic energy for the current bhava totally exhausted when it is still very young and healthy, such as when it is still a child? In that case, does the being die for no apparent reason in its childhood?
Thank you very much in advance for your answers.
With no offense, actually I am asking about annamanna paccaya, specifically the backward condition, in which the links in PS give rise to the preceding link, in addition to the successive link, e.g. nama rupa paccaya vinnana.
