First, it is the student who declares the degree to which he understands. Second, the answers to the group questioning reflect an actual behavioral change exhibited by the practitioner. (This reminds me of what Jesus said, “You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles? Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit.”)

 

By Angel Roberto Puente

The question of being enlightened (awake is the more precise term) is easy to answer. Yes!

We are born with all the characteristics of being awake. It’s our upbringing that slowly replaces our natural heritage with contrived ideas about how we are supposed to be.

Some Buddhist traditions are not helpful in regards to being comfortable with our meditation experiences. Especially those that insist that they belong to an unbroken chain of highly enlightened individuals whose experience has to be matched if you want to belong. “Only I can approve you,” seems to be their bottom line. Interdisciplinary research is unthinkable for this kind of organization. The orthodoxy simply cannot be challenged, even when an effort is made to study Buddha’s original teachings.

Having had a Christian upbringing, I am not surprised by this point of view. There are literally hundreds of Christian denominations that claim to follow Jesus, yet stand in direct contrast to what Jesus taught. We see the same phenomenon in Buddhism: the actual words of the Buddha are replaced by conventions that originated at another time. Most of the time these reformulations are made to preserve authoritarian tendencies and the continuation of power structures.

In the sutras¹ of Early Buddhism when a mendicant (bhikkhu) pronounced himself an arahant—one for whom “rebirth is ended, the spiritual journey has been completed, what had to be done has been done, there is nothing further for this place.” He was questioned by the group regarding his experience of the four expressions taught by the Buddha: “Saying you’ve seen, heard, thought, or known something, and you have. How does the venerable know and see regarding these four kinds of expression so that your mind is freed from defilements by not grasping?”

The mendicant’s answer had to be:

“Regarding what is seen, reverends, I live without getting involved or shying away, independent, untied, liberated, detached, with mind free of boundaries. Regarding what is heard … thought … or known, I live without getting involved or shying away, independent, untied, liberated, detached, with mind free of boundaries. That is how I know and see regarding these four kinds of expression so that my mind is freed from defilements by not grasping.”

The Chabbisodhana Sutta (Majjhima Nikāya 112, “The Sixfold Purification” or “Cleansing), outlines this line of questioning that include aspects of the five aggregates of form, the elements, the six interior and exterior sense fields, and the knowing and seeing that eradicates “I-making, mine-making” and the underlying tendency to conceit. All these are aspects of the teachings of the Buddha.

What can we, as 21st century practitioners, learn from this sutra in regard to our progress toward manifesting our awakening?

First, it is the student who declares the degree to which he understands. Second, the answers to the group questioning reflect an actual behavioral change exhibited by the practitioner. (This reminds me of what Jesus said, “You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles? Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit.”)

The arahant represents the culmination of practice but there are also guidelines for the first steps of development; for the “stream enterer ² (sotāpanna).” It stands out that for this stage the standards are far lower and the Buddha provided a “diagnostic framework for self-assessment” by confirming four unshakeable qualities (sotāpattiyanga) within one’s own mind:

1. A profound, experiential trust in the Buddha’s enlightenment. It is no longer blind faith; they have “seen” the truth of the path for themselves.

2. Utter certainty that the teaching is well-expounded, timeless, welcoming of inspection, and directly realizable.

3. Perfect trust in the community of noble disciples who practice well and uprightly.

4. They possess ethical conduct (the Five Precepts) that is “untorn, unbroken, unspotted, and unblemished”. This morality is no longer a rigid rule they force themselves to follow; it has become an organic, structural expression of their transformed mind. (Observe that from the start, there is a commitment to the truth. Above all, don’t lie to yourself.)

There is a definitive “seeing” that marks stream entry: “by seeing the boundaries of the conditioned world, the mind momentarily touches or glimpses the unconditioned—the deathless element (amata-dhātu) where arising and passing away cease.” In the Dīghanakha sutra³ Buddha leads a sceptic to a glimpse of the unconditioned. It is a detailed guide for those that are beginning practice or are “stuck”.

In another sutra,⁴ the Buddha described how he reached his awakening by developing a flawless internal calibration:

•When the mind was sluggish, he gently energized it.

•When the mind was overly excited, he gently calmed it.

•When the mind reached a perfect, effortless balance, he simply observed with equanimity (upekkhā), refusing to interfere.

In conclusion: Your experiences are yours. The sangha-spiritual friendship will provide a check on wishful thinking versus actual experience. Avoid the teachers who want to exercise control by demanding that their personal standards for awakening be met. When in doubt, go directly to the sources; there are many scholarly organizations and sites where an effort is made to understand the Buddha’s original teachings.

Be happy! You are the latest in an immeasurable line of Buddhas. Even in a small measure you can sing like him under the bodhi tree:

“O builder of this house you’re seen,

you shall not build a house again,

all your beams have given away,

rafters of the ridge decayed,

mind to the unconditioned gone,

exhaustion of craving has it reached.”⁵

(Research aided by AI and corroborated by direct sources.)

 

1.https://suttacentral.net/mn112/en/sujato?lang=en&layout=plain&reference=none&notes=asterisk&highlight=false&script=latin

2.https://accesstoinsight.org/lib/study/into_the_stream#intro2

3. https://suttacentral.net/mn74/en/sujato?lang=en&layout=plain&reference=none&notes=asterisk&highlight=false&script=latin

4.https://suttacentral.net/mn128/en/sujato?lang=en&layout=plain&reference=none&notes=asterisk&highlight=false&script=latin

5.https://www.buddhanet.net/dhammapada/d_oldage/

Photo: Pixabay

Editor: Dana Gornall

 

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