PDA

View Full Version : A account of someone reaching the deathless state



Eelco
7th January 2014, 07:09
I recently came acroos this blog.

http://comemeditate.webs.com/apps/blog/

It is a series of letters written from 1981 to 1986.
Someone beginning to meditate and reaching buddha's promis 6 years later.

here's a part of the foreword..
----------------------------------
The Buddha’s discourse on the four foundations of mindfulness – The Maha Sattipatthana sutta- is remarkable in that it opens with an initial assurance and concludes with a final guarantee. The assurance is that they constitute a Path that goes One Way – and One Way Only – and that is to the purification of beings, to the surmounting of sorrow and lamentation, to the disappearance of pain and grief , to the attainment of the true way, to the realization of Nibbana . The guarantee is that if anyone were to develop them at most, for seven years or at least for seven days, one of the two fruits could be expected for him : either Final Knowledge here and now or , if there is a trace of clinging left, Non – return .

Unlike in the heyday of Buddhism , the significance of these two striking features of the discourse are not fully appreciated by many who take up this practice of Satipatthana today. For them, it is only a half – hearted pre-school training for attainments in some Buddha Sasana to come – a mere preference to be credited to some future account .Hence if someone rediscovered the relevance of the Buddha’s assurance and guarantee even to the present day by treading the Path in earnest , it will indeed serve as some heartening news to many.

The ' Upasika' whose devotion to the practice if Satipatthana forms – as it were – the central theme of this work, is one such rare witness to the validity of the Buddha’s assurance and guarantee. Though born in a non –Buddhist family, she developed such a profound interest in meditation that she found the need to re-assess her convictions in the light of Buddhist scriptures.She discovered her first 'Kalyanamitta' in her own household assistant who gave her the first lessons in Anapanasati. It was in her early seventies that she found her next 'kalyanamitta' and guide, in the Meditation Master of Mitirigala Nissarana Vanaya. From then onwards, it was for her a fully devoted and whole – hearted endeavour to attain the Highest. As to how she attained what she attained in seven years of striving amidst household chores, maternal duties and infirmities of old age, her letters themselves will bear testimony.

inspiring as her letters are, we have some hesitation in placing them before the public at large- and this for two reasons. Firstly, there is a section of public opinion which looks down on such publications ,casting serious imputations upon the persons concerned. This attitude is very often prompted by either puritanism or obscurantism. Secondly, there are the risks involved in publicity, in the case if a meditator. Charlatans as well as the over- enthusiastic will flock in , in their hundreds out of cheap curiosity , with little or no regard for a meditator’s love for solitude.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

WIth Love
Eelco

Spiral
7th January 2014, 12:14
Hi Eelco, I don't understand the long non English words so I don't get what they are saying, do they mean they will not die, or do they mean that their consciousness will pass over intact rather than fracturing into hundreds of separate egos, or some thing else entirely ?

Eelco
7th January 2014, 13:53
Just a quick answer as i am on a phone. a lot of the non english terms are pali concepts/words found in the sutra's and can mean several things.
The deathless in the title is what I used but means enlightenment in this context. Which by the way has 4 stages in buddhism.
stream entry / first path
once returner / seccond path
? / deathless
Arahat / Full enlightenment / Buddhahood

with love
Eelco

Eelco
7th January 2014, 15:45
For a slightly more in depth look at the theravadan model of the stages of enlightenmen have a look at
www.vincenthorn.com/2008/11/19/the-stages-of-enlightenment-a-revised-version/

With Love
Eelco