“Sothapanna” (Stream Enterer)
From TheBuddhism.Net
The journey through the ‘life – death cycle’ (Samsara) with its unseen beginning is full of suffering. Being born, experiencing illness & diseases, aging, and dying on the 31 planes of existence belonging to the three worlds; ‘Sensuous world’, ‘Fine material world’ & ‘Material world’ continues till one attains the enlightenment (Nirvana). The beings tend to forget their eternal suffering because of the passing delights, making them go on and on in this “Samsara”.
“Samsara” is a dangerous place. It changes constantly. A person who lives happily in a heaven today may suffer in hell tomorrow. A king today would be a pauper tomorrow.
We have seen it happen during our lifetime which is an infinitesimal period of time considering our endless passage through “Samsara”.
There is no solution other than divesting oneself from this unpredictable, depressing and treacherous “Samsara”. For this, one should realize that “Samsara” is full of misery and recoil from it. Then, enter the path to eliminate suffering. Elimination of suffering is ‘Nirvana’, for which one should follow the Noble Eightfold Path with a proper understanding and insight.
The beginning in the process of attaining ‘Nirvana’ (the elimination of suffering) is reaching “Sothapanna”.
“Sothapanna” means ‘the torrent that flows towards Nirvana’. The torrent is the ‘Noble Eight-fold Path’ which shows the way to the person who seeks and strives for Nirvana.
The most difficult is getting caught in this torrent. The person who gets caught would be entering the passage to the everlasting contentment freeing himself from his eternal suffering through Samsara.
The person who enters the passage to the everlasting contentment has the following characteristics:
a) He firmly believes that there were, are and would be, Buddhas, Passekha Buddhas and Arahanths, who have attained Nirvana following the ‘Noble Eightfold Path’. This belief makes him want to follow in their footsteps.
b) He becomes proficient in the ‘Noble Eightfold Path’.
c) He properly abide by the ‘Noble Eightfold Path’.
d) He understands and worship our Great Buddha.
e) He becomes proficient in our Great Buddha’s teachings.
f) He properly abide by our Great Buddha’s teachings.
According to ‘Duthiya Sariputta Sutta’ of ‘Samyuktha Nikaya’, the person who wants to attain “Sothapanna” should cultivate and exercise four entities.
They are:
- Associating virtuous people
- Listening & learning our Great Buddha’s teachings.
- Always act with a conscious mind (“Yonisomanasikara”)
- Restraining one’s mind, body & word
When a person cultivates and exercises the above, he becomes conscious of the reality of this world. As the result, he eliminates three fetters out of the ten, which binds a person to this “Samsara”.
They are:
1) Self IdentificationView (Sakkaya Ditthi).
Believe mistakenly that the five aggregates (form, sensation, perception, mental formations, consciousness ) as ‘self’.
2) Doubt or uncertainty (Vichikichcha)
Doubt about our Great Buddha’s teachings.
3) Ritual attachments (Silabbathaparamasa)
Attachments to false rights & rituals.
The person who attains “Sothapanna” has the following qualities:
- Has complete confidence in the three Gems, “Buddha, Dhamma & Sangha”.
- Adheres and follows our Great Buddha’s teachings appropriately.
- Generous and virtuous.
- Guide others to attain “Sothapanna”.
- Not hiding his wrongdoing if one happens and fixes it.
- Never doing the five immediately effective heinous crimes (pancanantariya karma)
The person who attains “Sothapanna” has the following benefits:
- Free of four hells (the worlds of Animals, Pethas, Asuras & Niraya)
- Free of being an infidel (would not believe in other religions or visions other than the Buddha’s teachings)
- Would be born only seven times more or less before attaining Nirvana.
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Samsara is indeed a dangerous place, more dangerous than most of us would like to admit. Stream Enterer to me corresponds to the medium scope, the small scope is for the motivation to having better rebirths.
This is fascinating and I think being a stream-enterer or sottapana more or less correspond to the lowest scope of the Lamrim, in which the motivation is towards the liberation from suffering for ourselves. According to Kyabje Pabongka Rinpoche, this is a good motivation but it does not ensure that we will reach full enlightenment because the motivation is still tainted with the notion of self.
Therefore, Kyabje Pabongka Rinpoche recommends only the highest motivation and that is the wish to benefit all sentient beings, that we engage in Dharma practice or Dharma work. Although it is just a contrived motivation but when it is propelled by the merits that we have accumulated through our formal practices, Guru devotion and so on, it will eventually lead to full enlightenment.