Nibbāna 30—Stream Entry (First Path)

This video is classified Vivartha-vāda | Rāja-yoga | Suśupti | Ājñā-cakra “There is that sphere, monks, where there is no earth, no water, no fire, no air, no sphere of infinite space, no sphere of infinite consciousness, no sphere of nothingness, no sphere of neither perception nor non-perception, no this world, no world beyond, neither Moon nor Sun. There, monks, I say there is surely no coming, no going, no persisting, no passing away, no rebirth. It is quite without support, unmoving, without an object—just this is the end of suffering.” — Paṭhamanibbānasuttaṁ (Udāna 71) https://suttacentral.net/ud8.1/en/ana... The quote above describes Nibbāna. And this Nibbāna is realized in four stages or paths: Nibbāna is realized in four stages or paths: • sotāpanna—stream-winner: First Path • sakadāgāmin—once-returner: Second Path • anāgāmin—non-returner: Third Path • arahant—perfected, fully Self-realized saint: Fourth Path (equivalent to ajata-vāda in the Vedic system) The First Path of attainment is termed stream-entry (sotāpatti-magga), which cuts the first three fetters: self-view, doubting the Dhamma and clinging to external doctrine and rituals. The person who experiences it is called a stream-winner (sotāpanna). The sotāpanna attains an intuitive grasp of the Dhamma—Right View—and thus has opened the “eye of the Dhamma,” because they realize the fundamental truth: yaṃ kiñci samudayadhammaṃ sabbaṃ taṃ nirodhadhammaṃ “Whatever is of a nature to arise, all that is of a nature to cease.” — Dhammacakkappavattanasutta (SN 56.11) https://suttacentral.net/sn56.11/en/b... The following standard phrase announcing a new Arahant is found in many suttas: yassatthāya kulaputtā sammadeva agārasmā anagāriyaṃ pabbajanti, tadanuttaraṃ brahmcariyapariyosānaṃ diṭṭheva dhamme sayaṃ abhiññā sacchikatvā upasampajja vihāsi “In this very life he realized by his own higher knowledge and attained to that supreme consummation of the holy life, for the purpose of which clansmen of good family rightly go forth from home to homelessness.” — Acelakassapasutta (SN 12.17) https://suttacentral.net/sn12.17/en/b... Now why does the Buddha say that one attains to Nibbāna by the completion of the holy life? This Noble Eightfold Path is a straight path: ujuko nāma so maggoabhayā nāma sā disā “This path is called ‘the straight’ and the direction it goes is called ‘the fearless’.” — Accharāsutta (SN 1.46) https://suttacentral.net/sn1.46/en/su... The Itivuttaka expresses this idea more vividly: sekhassa sikkhamānassa, ujumaggānusārino, khayasmiṃ paṭhamaṃ ñāṇaṃ, tato aññā anantarā “To the learner, learningIn pursuit of the straight path,First comes the knowledge of destruction And then immediately the certainty.” — Indriyasutta (Itivutakka 62) https://suttacentral.net/iti62/en/sujato The fruit of Arahantship gives him certainty of the attainment of Nibbāna. The concentration proper to the fruit of Arahantship is described as: ānantarikā samādhi “The attainment of the fruit is immediate.” — Peṭakopadesa, Hārasampātabhūmi https://suttacentral.net/pe8/pli/ms Here the word anantarā, ‘immediately’ has been used. The fruit of attainment occurs as soon as one develops Right Concentration. Though it is certainly so in the case of the Arahant, one may ask “What about the stream-winner, the sotāpanna?” There is a general belief that a sotāpanna’s vision of Nibbāna is like a glimpse of a distant lamp on a road with many bends, and the sotāpanna has just negotiated the first bend. But in accordance with the Dhamma, the norm of immediacy is applicable even to First Path realization. Anyone who attains the fruit of stream-entry may be a beggar, illiterate, or a seven-year-old child. But like Arahantship, the only qualities required for stream-entry are Right View and Right Concentration. Therefore, the Suttas give a long series of the qualifications of the sotāpanna: diṭṭhadhammo pattadhammo viditadhammo pariyogāḷhadhammo tiṇṇavicikiccho vigatakathaṃkatho vesārajjappatto aparappaccayo satthusāsane diṭṭhadhammo—he has seen the Dhamma, the truth of Nibbāna. pattadhammo—he has reached the Dhamma, he has arrived at Nibbāna. viditadhammo—he has understood the Dhamma, which is Nibbāna. pariyogāḷhadhammo—he has plunged into the Dhamma, he has merged into the Dhamma, which is Nibbāna. tiṇṇavicikiccho—he has crossed over doubts. vigatakathaṃkatho—his waverings are gone. vesārajjappatto—he has attained to proficiency. aparappaccayo satthusāsane—he is independent of others — Ambaṭṭhasutta (DN 3) https://suttacentral.net/dn3/en/tw_rh... ========== Dharmasār Video Series Index: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1EZFq... Four States of Consciousness Diagram: https://drive.google.com/file/d/13OWr... Dharmasār Complete Archive Library: https://archive.org/details/dharmasar...