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Signs of Stream Entry
mettafou
Veteran
How can you tell if you have been a stream enterer in a past life? In general?
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Check if your feet are wet?
now will you answer? :viking:
...........not unless you can give me a map reference or spacial co-ordinates.
Apparently it's in Singapore. And you grow man-boobs. AHH THE HORROR. :eek2:
MN 38 http://www.what-buddha-taught.net/Books9/Bhikkhu_Bodhi_Mahatanhasankhaya_Sutta.htm
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The standard Pali that is (inaccurately) translated as "lives" is nivāsaṃ.
the scripture is called the "breakthrough". the stream enterer must breakthrough "seven more times at most".
this is what the sutta states
in other words, there are seven more fetters to break
if you are interested in stream entry then this is how you must view things, namely, according to their reality
to enter stream entry, words must be seen as words, a book as a book, the body as body, feelings as feelings, perceptions as perceptions, mental fabrications as mental fabrications and consciousness as consciousness
all things are seen as mind objects, merely elements (dhatu)
a stream enterer breaks the 2nd fetter of unverified superstition
currently, stream entry is not possible for your mind
best wishes
a stream enterer is enlightened but tendency to defilement has not been uprooted
if your mind was that of stream entry, you would not be asking these questions
:crazy:
sotapanna [sotaapanna]:
Stream winner. A person who has abandoned the first three of the fetters that bind the mind to the cycle of rebirth (see samyojana) and has thus entered the "stream" flowing inexorably to nibbana, ensuring that one will be reborn at most only seven more times, and only into human or higher realms.
whether i really believe in hell lokas is irrelevant.
only children could see those picture with ease
the normal pictures on the walls were for adults
it does not say "lives" in it
please read again
just because the translator includes lives it does not mean the Pali states "lives"
give up your preaching and start practising
if you are prepared to listen rather than talk, I can instruct your mind on stream entry
:eek:
look up MN 117
you are laughing & joking although you are destined for hell :rarr:
the suttas say:
i recommend you read the Devaduta Sutta, pronto.
God-speed friend.
:om:
Here the Buddha states even morality cannot save you.
Basically, it is the 4NTs or nothing.
Abandon all 'self-view' now, immediately.
Regard all things, mental, physical & nibbana, as merely elements of nature, empty of self.
then your mind will be saved and enter the stream 'Zen style'...in a flash
whether or not i've experienced what your talking about, it is silly to state i'm doomed to hell. even those who have not passed through experience of nibbana can practice the divine abidings and achieve "higher" rebirth. do you agree the product of stream entry is perfect morality? can someone who has entered the stream fall ethically? can a stream enterer masturbate? drink? insult someone?
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maybe there is no skillful or practical reason to identify oneself as a stream enterer. only to know what to repeat one more time (3rd time something beyond they say). so to discern mind as mind and mind and matter as matter and break through with a satori-esque discernment^. is this really related or on the right track?
can some "was that stream entry?" arise after, and from that point of identification produce a gradually decline from such discernment? i.e. subtle identification out of stupidity, a gradual decline from insight, and into delusion because of identification, doubt, etc. and no ultimate or significant shift in behavior or consciousness...
so what, repeat?
what then stops one form screwing himself or herself, intellectually, physically, emotionally; through affectation, repetition, and gradual becoming?
another repetition of the process you described?
i shifted my perspectives and practices to a jhana based model of stream entry. to what extent is the view that stream entry must arise from advanced jhanas valid? i still don't know what qualifies as jhana anymore, or if it must precede such discernment anyway...
Could you use some spacing/paragraphs please mettafou ? I find it very difficult to read dense blocks of text as in the previous post.
Thanks.
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Do not make yourself into anything.
Do not be a meditator.
Do not become enlightened.
When you sit, let it be.
What you walk, let it be.
Grasp at nothing.
Resist nothing.
Ajhan Chah
nibbana comes from vipassana and not from letting go
one must have a 'small nibbana' to reach a big nibbana
buddha described right concentration has having relinquishment as it sole object
there is beginners relinquishment and final reliquishment
it is all relinquishment, just different in profundity & subtlety
that is what i advised
this is not nibbana
just the start
:smilec:
forget it
it is not important
no, but when one is moral it will be perfect
due to meditation, S.E will have very strong natural hiri ottappa due to insight of abandoning postiveness & negativeness
but a stream enterer still has ignorance about certain things
possibly (but it would not be somethhing habitual...probably a one-off for whatever reason)
:smilec:
yes...sounds fine
not really, if practise is maintained (unless attacked by external Mara and cannot defeat external Mara)
certainly...a S.E is not an arahant
real jhana happens after stream entry
there is opportunity for a alot of insight before jhana
just start letting go
no positive, no negative, no craving, no seeking out a meditation object, no grasping at insight & progress
just let go & keep letting go
the mind naturally will find the meditation object
any kind of striving (craving) or looking for a meditation object cannot fulfil stream entry
HAHAHA this is so true. I have seen a few myself in Buddhist temples as well
It's not really surprising that some of my normally well-informed friends describe some forms of Buddhism as "mediaeval". Those schools that go in for this sort of iconography really do resemble the old 'Dooms' in churches. This is a detail from the Coventry Doom.
I had no idea there are two Maras btw
Thought I'd weigh in here and tell you how you can get stream entry. Become aware of the Stages of Insight. I used the practice of Mahasi's noting. I previously did many years of the Goenka method but I found that with the inclusion of noting all phenomenon as they arose within the mind and body, that I was able to objectify it all, including the sensations/images that made up the illusion of Self, of "I". Become aware of how the sum of these sensations and mental images "blip" in and out very rapidly over any other bare sensate experience creating the illusion of "I" am observing this, these are "my" sensations.
Start objectifying the "I".....ask yourself what is it? Where is it? What is it doing? See how those sensations and images are just the three characteristics...there is no duality....there is only object. When you start objectifying the "I" and seeing it for what it is...just a dance, a flow of sensations and mental images, so anicca, so anatta, so dukkha.......You cannot get rid of the sensations of "I"...but they can be seen for what they are....just sensations like all the rest on the body....subject will become object....All this will become easier to do once you get to the Equanimity of Formations stage, The 11th stage in the Progress of insight. To get there, all you need to do is continue meditating long enough but correctly.
Remember to become aware with bare awareness or through noting of ALL the subtle states that prop up the "I".... anticipation, boredom, spacing out, space, intention, fascination etc...EVERYTHING must be seen as just the three characteristics. Objectify it all! There really is no "I" there. The job is to see it for what it really is. Just a sum of mental images and sensations.
Keep meditating, using whatever technique to see everything arise and pass away.....get up to Equanimity of formations...don't crave it...craving holds you back....note the craving...include it in the meditation...note everything....you might get up to high equanimity but fall back down into the re-observation stage...get back up and fall down again....This is part of how you get stream entry. U Ba Khin gave the analogy that you need to swing on the rope to get to the other side of the bank of the river. But you have to swing back and forth, each time getting some more height...until you can just let go to reach the other side. Keep swinging! Keep practicing but remember to be aware of the totality of the experience. Note it or just bare awareness of it....eventually you will get to the point where it becomes automatic and then out of the blue...you might experience a very brief moment where the mind turns off and then turns back on...you wont remember what it was as consciousness ceases to function in that brief moment. Then you will get a bliss wave some seconds after, and you'll ask yourself what was that?...if you were aware of something happening. Anyway, there is more to say, but I'll leave it at that.
Keep Swinging on the rope!!!!!
The truth that there is no self, that the "I" is an illusion is seen in it's totality...but you ain't no arahat yet, the illusion of "I" is still in tact to a degree....it still is "read" as an "I"...but one knows that it is an illusion.The "I" is still sticky in a sense. As you progress through the stages of enlightenment, it becomes less and less sticky eventually not sticking at all at the stage of arahat. One can still identify with the self at stream entry level, as the illusion is still intact...that is why one can still react negatively even as a stream enterer. They are still caught in the stickiness of "I"...but one knows that it is not real, and this allows one not to crave and have as much aversion as before as "letting go" of things becomes much easier.
Hope this helps!
Did you get this information from some book or is this your own experience pls? I'm curious since AB gives a similar explanation but I always wondered if he is explaining some absorption kind of meditation in his book
This is the second sasana after all. More and more people should be and in my opinion ARE getting it done!
Forget all distractions of the has-been or will-be, concentrate on the now and focus on practicing the path rightly, including meditation. Otherwise you're missing the present, failing to make progress in the present, and for all you know... it is all you have.
In the end, the answer to this question is a moot point. You must attain each level of awakening in a single lifetime, one after another. They are a successive and systematic abandonment of the fetters that blind us to reality and bind us to the Non-Self. It's not as if you attain stream-entry in a past life and in this life you're going to skip to once-returner.