Datasets:

carecodeconnect

/

jhana-sentences

like 0

Now, lets say they come along.

They grab you the stuff you in a Soyuz.

They blast you in the space.

You go to the International Space Station.

You look out and you see its round.

They explain that its a sphere

and they explain gravity to you and how,

And then you come back to Earth and you go back to the beach and you look out.

It looks exactly like it did before.

But you dont conceive of the edge of the world.

The ship goes sailing over the horizon.

You dont think it fell off and everybody died.

Right Your friend says, have a sailboat.

Youre going to sail down to Lisbon.

Well, maybe you dont go because you get seasick, but youre not going to say, no, well fall off the edge of the world.

You have penetrated the illusion and youre no longer making decisions based on something thats not real.

Because when we crave, we want it for me.

But if youre not conceiving of a me or an or a mine, yeah, no craving and clinging.

So, how do you penetrate the illusion of self Insight.

You get enough insight into the nature of reality.

You get enough insight either into either an itch or duke or anata.

If you get enough insight you might just be convinced to let go.

Now, what you got to let go of is this grasping at a self.

If you get enough insight into the ever-changing or unsatisfactory or empty nature of reality you begin to realize that your normal way of interacting with the world has got problems.

And that it would be much better if you understood the deepest truth possible.

And, furthermore, that youre willing to give up everything to experience that truth.

If you get enough insight it might be kind of rocky along the way but you can get to a place where yep, want the deepest truth possible and Im willing to give up everything to get it.

And then you might actually be able to let go and have an experience without an experience or.

In other words, you experience what its like to not be thinking of a self.

It said that a stream interer uproots three of the ten fetters that bind us to the wheel of samsara.

It uproots the fetter of belief in a self wrong view of self.

Up to that point you still think theres somebody here

right It just seems like it.

But then you have the experience.

An experience without an experience might be kind of brief but its so profound that you know, oh, there really isnt anybody home.

And so you no longer believe theres a self.

Now it still feels like theres a self.

But you go out and you try and walk outside of time and you keep falling back into time.

Times are much easier illusion to penetrate than the sense of self.

But now you at least know theres not really a self.

This also uproots the second fetter of belief in rights and rituals or belief in the efficacy, the effort of rights and rituals that rights and rituals can make you enlightened.

Because you didnt get there by bowing or lighting candles or anything.

So you know, okay, okay to do them.

And then the third fetter thats uprooted is doubt.

You did what the Buddha told you to do.

You got the results he said you were gonna get.

It is said that one who is a stream-enturer has greater faith in Buddha, Dhamma, Sangha.

It is also said that a stream-enturer has morality dear to the noble ones.

Now some people interpret this as a stream-enturer can never break a precept. would say that its probably more likely a stream-enturer can never unknowingly break a precept.

If the ants get in your kitchen and theyre taking over and nothing is working to get them out, and you finally resort to getting out the spray, it hurts to spray it.

You know, this is a bad thing.

So youre much more aware of the precepts when youve had this breakthrough.

It is also said that a stream-enturer will be reborn at most seven more times before waking up fully.

And furthermore that when theyre reborn these seven times you will never be lower than the human realm.

Theyre safe from the animal realm or the ghost realm or the hell realms.

You can take it for what you want.

But its a good place to be because youve really got a good orientation now and much desire to really practice and take this further.

Now you might be able to once again get to a place where you let go and have another experience without an experience there.

It doesnt take you significantly further.

This might happen several times, which is actually a good thing.

These repeated fruit moments theyre called weaken the other fetters until someday you actually let go even more and you have a more profound experience.

And this weakens the two fetters of desire or passion for pleasure and ill will.

Greed and hatred we could say.

This is called being a once-returner.

If you die before full awakening it is said you will only have to come back to the human realm once before you attain full awakening.

Ayakima says that it reduces the greed and hatred by half.

Ive heard other interpretations all it says in the sutas is it reduces greed and hatred or reduces passion for pleasure and ill will.

And again you might repeat this at several occasions and then have a much more profound insight.

This is called non-returner, the third stage of awakening.

This uproots the passion for pleasure and the ill will.

It is said that a non-returner if they die before becoming fully awakened will not be reborn in the human realms but one of the highest heavens and will attain awakening from there.

Now the conceit doesnt mean youre conceited.

It means youre conceiving of a self.

And thats really the key one.

The desire for form and desire for formless well shall we say the scholars debate that.

Some say its desire for rebirth in worlds of form, the lower heavens, and desire for rebirth in formless worlds, the higher heavens.

Other people say its like maybe you want things really nice.

but you know its nice when things are nice.

And then ignorance, you are ignoring the fact that theres not a self to be found.

And restlessness because youre still conceiving of a self, then the self can get restless.

And now you know theres not a self, but it still feels like a self.

And so you still conceive of a self.

Its like youre standing at the edge of the ocean and you say, you know, if you go out miles youll fall off.

And youre like, really Sure looks like it.

You sure He doesnt know what hes talking about.

Youre not sure, right Just havent really got it yet.

Although you had an experience without an experiencer, you dont have the feeling inside.

But once again, you keep practicing, you still get more insights and hopefully you let go even more.

And at that point it uproots the sense of self.

And now experiences are had, but theres nobody there to have them.

And the illusion has been penetrated and theres no more dukkha.

So this is the illusion of self and what needs to be done to overcome it, to achieve freedom.

In the teachings, how far can one get among the four normal ones with intensive practice of the Brahma Viharas So in the sutras, how far of these four steps can one get with practicing the Brahma Viharas

There are some people like Richard Gombridge and John Peacock who would say you can get all the way to full awakening with Brahma Vihara practice.

And they have some pretty good arguments.

But decided to check in the sutras and see what could find out.

Traditional understanding is that Brahma Vihara practice can only lead to rebirth in the Brahma worlds.

That it cant give you any breakthroughs.

But decided to really look at the sutras where Brahma Vihara, metta, compassion, Udhita, Upaka, where these practices are given.

And my reading of them would indicate that they can at least take you to the third level.