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Lal:
‘Anyway, this is the basic idea. As one makes progress on the Ariya Path, one is AUTOMATICALLY prevented from doing dasa akusala, first at strong levels (capable of leading to births in the apayas) at the Sotapanna stage;
‘Of course, one MUST forcefully stay away from any dasa akusala when one realizes one is about to do one. If one realizes that ONE JUST DID SUCH AN ACT, one must make a determination to avoid it next time.’ Your post, April 22, #5What of the kamma vipaka generated by akusala 1) done BEFORE setting out on the Path and 2)by the ones while on the Path? Will that determination to avoid it in the future be in itself of any direct consequence in preventing it coming to the fore at the cuti-patisandhi moment? How is that to be prevented in both cases ? Is frequent Ariya Metta Bhavana, or anything else, advised?
Here I am reminded of the instance where Angulimala had killed a thousand people, yet still attained Arahanthood.
Thank you.
y not
Lal:
Thank you.
‘A Buddha is ALWAYS born in what is called the “Madhya pradesa” close to the equator, in a country that speaks Maghadi (predecessor to Pali), which is the “natural language” of the brahmas in the abhassara brahma realm.’
That will do.
..’However, some of these things will become clear as one proceeds, even without thinking directly about them.’ Yes, some others (related and not) already have.
y not
Lal,
5 Buddhas are associated with the mahakalpa we are in now.
Going down the list of Buddhas antecedent to those 5, the names of the towns and parents and personal attendants etc. of those Buddhas are also Indian-sounding. How is this? How does it come about that previous generations of the solar system produced the same culture(s), not to say the same locations present now? Judging by the physical dimensions and lifetimes of those Buddhas (and therefore of the humanities at various times) the constitution or fabric of those planets must have been very different.
And those Buddhas go back mahakalpa before mahakalpa indefinitely..so the scientific claim that the Sun is a second-generation star is a gross understatement. Is it possible that a number of those Buddhas appeared instead on other planets in the 10000 world system associated with the Sun?
Thank you
y not
Lal:
My ‘grabbing onto’ what Saket said, or what I understood by it (if the two be different) was because I saw in it a refutation of the Mahāyāna concept of absorption,evaporation, non-differentiation amounting to (individual) non-existence…’the dewdrop merging into the shining sea’.
This is by way of showing the ground of what I wrote. Thank you for wanting to resolve the matter here. At any rate, Nibbana exists.For myself I would rather dedicate what time I have left to getting There, or nearer There, tackling whatever may stand in the way of that, as you well know.
y not
Yes Lal:
You had mentioned this in reply to a question of mine. That is why
I MADE IT CLEAR that one should not steer away from Puredhamma.But even so ..come to think of it, I will only ask questions from now on. The least of my intentions is to cause confusion.
thank you
y not
Embodied:
For pragna read PRAJNA.
If you are or were familiar with the Gita, it is the third way of Yoga(yes of mind, intellect) . The other two are there refered to as the way of action Karma, and the way of devotion, Bhakti.
This is not to deviate your attention from Puredhamma to the Gita,TO BE SURE. That is how I deduced what ‘pragna’ must mean, that is all.
And….I must add,this is in no way ‘higher expertise’. It is just that I came across the terms about 20 years ago
y not
I do not pretend to be able to clarify, but to at least give more substance to the question, in order that any answer may be more comprehensive. I hope it is relevant. Thus:
In English at least, we take space to mean that which contains, the Infinite Container, to put it that way. Now ‘dhatu’ already implies matter ,in however fine a form (space ELEMENT)so it too will be contained. So a difference there must be.
Also, Infinite Space cannot be, strictly-speaking, a container, because all containers are limited in their outer dimensions, hence they can contain within those dimensions. But Infinite Space has no such limits. Another word or term will have to be coined, if it hasn’t been aleady.
By extrapolation, even Nibbana will lie within that Infinite Space, for Infinity, by definition, means that there can be nothing beyond it.
y not
Saket:
Thank you.
‘-So my stream of consciousness is different from your stream of consciousness.’ and
‘-And each individual stream of consciousness had NO BEGINNING (always existed in Sansara).’
So this means that the individuality (of every singular ‘mind’ ) persists after the attainment of Nibbana… and also, it is not that that individuality, or that individualization was acquired through sanasara by the assimilation into it of qualities that in time gave rise to that individuality. Rather, the individuality, that which distinguishes every ‘mind’ from another (in the sense of those streams of consciousness) was always there, and the whole process is only one of
removing the defilements; much like an uncountable number of pebbles covered in mud. The pebbles are inherently different in shape and colour from one another, all are unique. The process (sansara) just removes the mud so that the pebbles may shine in their true glory.This puts to rest other conflicting theories I had been grappling with for a long time, found mainly in Mahāyāna or Mahāyāna-related literature, which never really sank in.
Yes,your post DID help,
thanks again
y not
SengKiat:
I had an idea of these four modes of birth through reference to them in the book of Dzyan.
There they are listed as:
-the sweat-born
-the egg-born
-the womb-born
-the ‘sons of Will and Yoga’
along with the progression from one mode of ‘birth’ to another as the human race ‘evolves’….the last, I now see, refers to opapatika ‘births’
y not
Eric:
Greetings,
See where and what you have stumbled upon!! yet not even that is by chance.
It is not a common thing to come across something like this. What you- and all of us – have been given here is no mere advice to someone in need; it is a one-page manual, simple, concise, eloquent, yet comprehensive on the greatest fight of all.
I myself can add nothing. Except,let us be grateful. One thing I have found out for myself though: in time there is no one left in what Saket classifies as category 3. This is so as to encourage you on, and it is the only thing I can contribute.
may you attain serenity,
y not
Hello Lal:
I undertand. I will wait. I am writing now only because my interest will switch to other topics as well by that time and I may forget what I have in mind now.
"one could not ELIMINATE future suffering that way, even if one could get temporary jhanic bliss"....except in the case where one had attained magga phala before getting to those realms.I had touched upon this in some earlier post months back: that beings in the higher realms (except the arupa lokas) will be of two ‘classes’ or ‘categories’, so to speak: those who had attained some stage of magga phala (and so have already eliminated the worst kinds of suffering in the future and are ‘paying’for the temporary bliss there by the subtle suffering they go through only while there) and those who had not, and these last are there only because of the temporary rewards of jhanas and are liable to fall back into the lower relams later. Clearly the distinction is there.
Now the possibility arises: what of the case where someone with magga phala (leading to a brahma realm) INTENT on reaching that brahma realm, aware that it is temporary, aware of the subtle suffering and of death eventually, NEVERTHELESS asks for instructions how to get there, DESPITE all advice to abandon all that and strive for the Ultimate now?
Is this what this sutta is all about?
Lal:
‘Once one starts comprehending Tilakkhana (and becomes a Sōtapanna/Sōtapanna Anugāmi), one’s sila (moral conduct) will become UNBREAKABLE: It is called Ariyakānta sila.’
Yet, from the post: What is the only akusala removed by a Sotapanna (Introduction, right before # 1) :
.Thus, a Sōtapanna MAY — under some conditions — BREAK the five precepts. It is only an Arahant that will absolutely not break five precepts or engage in any of dasa akusala.’ Now the 5 precepts and Dasa Akusala constitute moral conduct, and only one (Miccha Ditthi) is completely removed at the Satopanna/Satopanna Anugami stage.
How to reconcile the two statements??
Thank you
y not
Embodied:
Reading through again you ARE right.
But how is it that the Buddha is giving instruction on how ‘attain’ the realm of Brahma? Which is also a trap in the sansaric journey?
I saw another goal which actually was not what the sutta is about apparently.
Thank you
y not
Embodied:
I had thought of that possibility. You could be right.
But see… we come to a particular realm because we had created the causes for it and grabbed onto the bhava for that. If, according to what is being stated, ‘When the heart’s release by love has been developed and cultivated like this, any limited DEEDS THEY’VE DONE DON’T REMAIN OR PERSIST THERE.’ can only refer to the consequences of those deeds done there, – and not to the deeds in themselves as past events; they are done already anyway – which consequences in turn are the causes of the kamma vipaka for which we WOULD HAVE HAVE HAD to return there were it not for the practice dealt with in this Sutta.
That is, if we eliminate here and now the causes of being born there again, the possibility of being born there cannot arise. But that will involve the debts we carry with beings we came in contact with there, and we can eliminate those even here and now. This is what I make out.
We will have to wait.
Metta
y not
