Stream Entry, part two

As as a metaphor for enlightenment, “entering the stream” sounds rather bucolic doesn’t it? I Imagine a lovely meadow with a gentle mountain stream flowing nearby, as I step into its cool wetness. But I remember hearing a far less pleasant description at a one month retreat with U Pandita, as he compared the stages of enlightenment to a tree being struck by lightening. 

As condescending as it may sound (and for sure I was young and arrogant), I could not suppress a smile. There we were, some one hundred of us, sitting in rapt attention as this austere Buddhist monk talked about a powerful lightening bolt hitting an unsuspecting tree, minding its own wooden business in the forest. Wham! Most of its its limbs and branches are suddenly on fire! This is not the worse news for our friendly oak tree, however. A more powerful lightening bolt might strike the tree’s trunk, splitting it down the middle. But the most powerful lightening bolt can destroy a tree to its very roots. This is not a spot from which saplings will once again appear. 

We are, at least potentially, that tree; the lightning bolt is a flash of insight arising spontaneously in the mind; and the roots are the ten fetters that nurture a tree while holding it fast to the earth. 

Each of the four stages of enlightenment arise from the power of prajna or insight, which “happens” to us and cannot be willed or created by the rational intellect. Christians call it “grace;” and grace has always seemed like stream entry to me. Most likely, a single bolt “striking” a fetter, as if from above, could be so subtle as to go unnoticed. This is why I love Shinzen Young’s words, “Subtle is significant.” Sotopanna does not necessarily arrive with thunder and lightening, at least not that we must notice. There may be no glorious music coming from a heavenly choir as the clouds part. Dippa Ma, the wonderful Theravada teacher, once said that when some of her students would report an “odd” sensation during a sit, she would silently wonder if this odd moment might indicate stream entry. In Lumbini, I was always curious when U Vivekananda would get so excited if I reported a twinge of fear, or a slight pain. In truth, it felt overly dramatic to me, although I always appreciated the unbridled enthusiasm he showered on all of us at the retreat. As I reflect on Dippa Ma’s words, I understand that U Vivekananda was looking for indications of something far more subtle than an ego announcing it has seen the light.

Whether the personality is aware of subtle significance or not, one has become a sotapanna when he or she has experienced that bolt of lightening - insight or prajna - striking against the third fetter of sakkaya-ditthi. When an insight exposes the unreality of personality, even if for one brief moment, the first three fetters are released. 

The Theravada doctrine sees stream entry as a gradual path. It does not dismiss the reality of sudden and spontaneous insights such as in the famous Zen (Mahayana) stories of beings who experienced “mind transmission” suddenly. But for those of us, who seem remarkably similar to stubborn mules, the doctrine of stream entry is based on the fact that most hard lessons need to be repeated, over and over, not only in this life, but in ones to come. This process of transformation continues with the fourth fetter.  

4)  Kamacchandra  

In a more particular sense, the fourth fetter is sensual desire, but in the more general sense, it is one of the three poisons: Greed Hatred and Delusion. 

Kama is the Pali word for sensual desire, and chandra means “intention.” We know kamacchandra in our bones. It is, “I want this. I need that.” The Tibetan nun, Tenzin Palmo, says something wonderful about desire, 

“Many people come to me saying that they want to eradicate anger; it’s not difficult to see that anger makes us suffer. But very rarely do people ask me how to be rid of desire. ”

Of course, we want to get rid of anger! It feels “bad,” (people won’t like me if I’m angry!). It’s not that much of a mental stretch to see how anger usually ends in suffering. But desire? Who wants to get rid of desire?  It feels good to want something! In the Broadway play, “Company,” the cast sings a song to Bobby, whose life seems to be going in circles. “Want something, Bobby. Want something!” Desire is ego syntonic, which means that it feels “right.” Desiring something gives a person a sense of purpose. 

Kamacchanda, intention plus sensual desire, means not only the physical touch of sexual desire, or even the pleasure of a sensual massage, but it also means desire for beautiful objects the eyes can see, sounds such as music that the ears can hear, delicious food we can taste, and odors, such as fragrant flowers we can smell. Kamacchandra refers to all five senses: seeing, hearing, tasting, smelling and touching. 

But to make the plot more interesting, Buddhism includes desirable mental objects as a sixth sense. The expression “thirst for knowledge” captures the meaning of desire based in the sixth (mental) sense faculty.

Later we will see that desire does not end with physical or even mental objects. It reaches into the spiritual realm. But for now we move to the fifth fetter. 

5) vyapada 

Don’t ask. (My bet is “wa pa da) 

Just as greed still clings to a sotopanna at the first stage of enlightenment, she or he can still hate. This amazes me. One who has experienced the first stage of enlightenment can still hate?  I suppose, if a priest can be a pedophile, surely a sotopanna can still hate. 

One translation of the Pali word, vyapada is “to hit against.” Just as the mind says, “I want,” it also pushes against what it does not want. Aversion slips into ill will;  ill will slips into anger, and lurking behind anger is the dark shadow of hatred. We do not simply dislike those on the other side the political spectrum, we hate them, and pretend it’s okay, since everyone else on our side is doing the same thing.

Sakadagami

sa - ka - da - ga - mi .

At some point in the process of stream entry, a sotapanna arrives at the second stage of enlightenment. My linear mind imagines that this would have to occur in a life to come, but that is not correct. A second experience of enlightenment which makes one a sakadagami, can occur in this very life. That sounds like a rather strong lightening bolt! A sotapanna who has arrived at the second stage of enlightenment is now called a “Once Returner.” Obviously, this means that she or he will return to a human existence only one more time. No more seven lifetimes are needed to complete the process.

We saw in Part One, that while the first three fetters were released with stream entry, the next two fetters of greed and hatred still remain as tight manacles around his or her ankle. As I perhaps overly repeat, this helps me understand just how profound the parasites of greed and hatred are, and how tenaciously they resist deep cure. Perhaps it is beyond naive to think that loving one’s neighbor, who happens to be a conservative or a liberal, is likely to happen tomorrow, as if by magic, particularly, when one considers the reality of how deeply ingrained the fourth and fifth fetters really are.

Now, unconscious resistance to cure becomes far more obvious. At this second stage of enlightenment, when one has experienced prajna-insight profound enough to transform him or her into a Once Returner, what happens to the two fetters of greed and hatred? They still cling! While permanently weakened, and suppressed, they are not released. This means that he or she might notice thoughts of greed or hatred arising occasionally, but such thoughts or intentions will not manifest into actions, and certainly not as obsessions. It may seem strange to say that his or her mind is “relatively” pure, but this is precisely the meaning of stream entry, which is a gradual process of mind purification. A sakadagamin’s mind is so near to purification that it needs only one more lifetime to complete its journey from the unreal to the Real. 

Anagami

a - na -ga- mi

Now we are high up on the food chain.  A person who has experienced the third stage of enlightenment has become a “Non-Returner.” Again, please note that the third stage of enlightenment can be experienced within one lifetime. The anagamin has passed from sotapanna to sakadagamin to anagamin. He or she is completely free from sensuous desire, hatred and ill-will. A Non-Returner, will not be born again in the human realm. Although the anagamin is not a fully enlightened being (which means that she or he has some more polishing to do), rather than in a human realm, an anagamin will work out what remains to be done in a higher non-physical realm. As I mentioned in Part One, in the West, we don’t imagine that angels in heaven or humans in hell are basically in “workshops’ working out what remains to be done, but perhaps this is what happens to anagamins once they pass from the human realm. They go to workshops to finish the wondrous work of art that they always were. By the way, this scenario of an anagamin in a workshop comes entirely from my imagination, with no stamp of approval from a Theravada monk or scholar.

Let’s review: 

1) A Sotapanna (Stream Winner) has been released from the first three fetters, those manacles around his or her ankle. 

2) A Sakadagamin (Once Returner) has been released from the power of the next two fetters which have been permanently weakened.

3) An Anagamin (Non-Returner) has been released from the first five lower fetters.

Now only one stage remains, and with it the upper five fetters are released. The fourth and final stage of enlightenment occurs when the sotopanna has become:

Arahant

a - ra - hant

This is the fourth and final stage of enlightenment, according to the Theravada doctrine. 

An arahant is a “perfected person;” one who has attained nirvana. His or her work in the human realm is finished, with no more workshops in a higher plane. The roots of the old oak tree have been destroyed by a tremendous bolt of lightening. We humans want to ask, “So what comes next after becoming a Saint?” Every really good movie deserves a sequel doesn’t it? Mahayana Buddhism has created more than one fascinating story about enlightened beings who return to the human realm for our sake, but the classical Theravada doctrine remains completely silent about “next,” reflecting the Buddha’s own admonition that questions that have no answer are just the ego’s clever way of keeping the story going. “What happens after one attains nirvana?” A Zen master might reply, “Go there and bring us back the information!” Years ago, a dear friend recounted how she and her sister played games before bedtime with their English nanny. They particularly loved evenings when the nanny would present a puppet show for them. Then, when it was time to go to sleep, the nanny would say, “The show is over. The monkey’s dead. Don’t throw any roses!” I suspect their nanny was a Theravadin! 

As the lower five fetters slowly release their grip on the sotopanna, he or she moves on through three stages of enlightenment. Now, as one becomes an arahant, the upper five manacles are released. 

In part one, we saw that an insight into the core belief in personality signals the release of the first three fetters, thus one enters the stream of Dharma. He or she has become sotapanna. But if the fetter of sakkaya-ditthi has been hard wired into the human mind, stretching back to a past so ancient as to be long erased from memory, how powerful must an insight be to dispel such a psychological delusion? 

The answer lies in the upper five fetters, which are released as one becomes arahant. Specifically, the conceit of “I Am” is not released until the eighth fetter, even if the sotapanna had insight into a belief in personality. But even more specifically, delusion remains as the most tenacious fetter of all. It remains until its very roots are completely destroyed, and the tenth fetter vanishes for all time.

We will explore the upper five fetters, in Part Three.