Question asked by Eli Levine
Good evening/morning dear Pastors,
I've been reading about Sakadagami (Once Returners). I'm asking because I see fighting Samsara as pointless, and would rather just be at peace within myself and not have to worry about Samsara or being reborn in it. I wish I could know whether or not I will be reborn, or whether I have cleared the necessary stages to be a Sakadagami. I'm not understanding why or how I am still here in this plane of existence and I want an accurate understanding of whether or not I will be able to pass soon onto Parinirvana. With all due respect.
Dear Eli Levine,
Thank you for your question. Once Returners are beings who have purified enough of their karma, both negative and positive to only need to take rebirth once again in the Six Realms to progress in their spiritual journey. This is a high stage of realisation within Samsaric existence, so these beings would know that they are at such a stage of spiritual development. According to the Theravadan tradition, this means that such beings have significantly lessened their Three Poisons: ignorance, desire/attachment and hatred/jealousy. As they have done so, when they do take rebirth they do not engage in actions from these three, which would necessarily lead to more negative karma.
Once Returners have identified the correct view of existence, and operate from this, namely that we are bound by our karma and that the only way to be free is to achieve enlightenment; within the path, they are no longer attached to various rituals of practice but can practice the teachings without use of them and; they have no doubt about the Buddha’s various teachings whatsoever. They have also lessened both their desire/attachment and hatred/jealousy to a great extent.
In order to have a greater understanding of these you must study the numerous Theravadan texts that describe this process in greater detail. However if one had achieved this state, they would necessarily know that they are on this particular stage of existence. If you are not sure that you reached this path, it means that you probably haven’t. Even though it is said that Once Returners have only one more rebirth, this is only true in the sense that they have only one rebirth within the Six Realms of existence. In fact once you have reached the stage of a Once Returner, you actually have to take rebirth a maximum of seven more times, of which on is in the Six Realms. Therefore attaining the stage of a Once Returner does not mean that your spiritual journey ends there, it is just a stage of realisation along a path of many. In the Buddhist scriptures the next stage after that of a Once Returner is not Buddhahood, but the stage of a Non-Returner, after this is the stage of an Arhat and following that one can achieve the state of enlightenment. This is from a Theravada viewpoint, however in the Tibetan Buddhist traditions, the ten stages of a Bodhisattva are more often discussed and illuminated upon. I hope this helps.
Thank you.