Okay, good evening everyone.
Welcome to our weekly Sutta Dhamma session where I try to find something that I think is beneficial for specifically people who are interested in
cultivation of mindfulness and insight and peace, peace, happiness, freedom from suffering.
So tonight we're looking at the topic of declaring or
Affirming one's enlightenment, one's level of attainment.
It's an important part of the practice, so it's something that's important to talk about.
And it brings up at least a couple of important issues.
The most important issue that it brings up is what we call reification.
It's a really good English word.
I don't think we use it enough.
Reification, as I understand the word to mean, and how I'm going to use it, is when you affirm the existence of something.
You affirm something to be.
You basically call it into existence with your mind.
It's a very important part of our cognitive process, reification.
We tend to reify this place as a meditation center.
In fact, it's just a house.
And you know, it's not even a house.
That's a reification itself.
And you really realize that anything you come up with, you may have walls and a floor, but even the walls aren't really walls.
So all the time our mind is constantly creating concepts.
to form an idea and to categorize and to relate to our experiences in incredibly complex ways.
If we compare the way our cognitive process works to that of the Buddha and how the Buddha described reality,
Again and again reminding us it's only seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, feeling, thinking.
That really enlightened being is aware of that, is clear about this reality that this is seeing, hearing, this is hearing, this is smelling.
Whereas an ordinary experience of reality is, oh, this is a person, this is this thing, that thing, and much more importantly, good, it's bad, it's me, it's mine, I like it, I don't like it, and so much.
So many problems.
So the problem with this, the reason why it creates problems is, well, basically these things aren't real.
But more specifically or more clearly, what the problem is, is that because they're not real, they lend themselves to conceptions of permanence, stability, satisfaction.
You can be satisfied by concepts or you can have the delusion that you're being satisfied by concepts, that they're satisfying.
Take a person, for example.
We have my cousin.
Poor Nicholas.
He's now being used as my dharma example now that he's died.
He died.
He died in...
I guess it's a year now, is it?
No.
Did he just die?
He died.
Pretty sure it was a year ago.
Boy, time flies.
Maybe it was just this January.
What is it?
It's March now.
No concept of past.
It was either this January or last January he died.
And of course this was incredibly upsetting for his parents, particularly his sister as well.
because of their conception of this person and their attachment to it.
Our loved ones are things that we depend upon and we really love, we really appreciate, but the truth is that we're really attached to.
There's a sense of this person.
And so there's of course this utter despair when you lose because it's on a very deep level.
It goes against what you think should be or what you believe to be.
So they lend themselves to clinging because they appear, give the appearance of
of permanent satisfaction and possessibility or controllability, all these things associated with self, right?
These three things being the exact opposite of what reality is.
Reality is impermanent, unsatisfying, and uncontrollable, unpredictable, undependable, unpossessable.
You can't say it's me or mine.
And unfortunately, all of the concepts, all of these things, the house, the person, the meditation center, they're all dependent upon reality.
And because they're really just a mishmash of experience.
When I look, I see the center.
When I feel, I feel the wall.
But it's just an experience.
And these experiences are unpredictable, undependable.
How does that relate to declaring enlightenment?
Well, it doesn't directly relate to the Sutta, but it's very important for us to talk about.
A person, no, it does relate to the Sutta, the Buddha does mention, but there's more to it.
There are two kinds of people.
So Sunakata is this guy, he comes to the Buddha.
He's heard that there's a bunch of monks who have declared
declared the enlightenment in front of the Buddha.
They came to the Buddha and said, we're enlightened.
So he asked the Buddha, he said, does everyone who declares this, are they all enlightened?
And the Buddha said, well, of course some are and some aren't.
And so then Sunakata asks him to explain and he does something
So we'll back up a little bit before we get into explaining all that stuff I just talked about.
The Buddha describes several types of people, which I think is useful.
Useful for us to understand because it's important to understand that just because you think you're enlightened doesn't mean you are, right?
I suppose that goes without saying, or should go without saying, but I get often, or from time to time, people will contact me and say things like, I've become enlightened, I'm free from suffering, I've become this.
Sometimes they'll tell me they're a sotapanna, or a streamender, or this or that.
And certainly, I mean, it's certainly possible.
I don't doubt that it's possible, but
I think it's actually much more likely or it's probably much more common to overestimate your practice.
Especially if you're contacting me by email.
I would think enlightened beings would perhaps not be so open about that.
Anyway.
So it is an issue here that we have to discuss.
More importantly, it's an issue for all of us because it's a big part of our cognitive process as we're practicing.
You practice for a while and then you wonder, what am I at?
Where am I at?
Am I close to being enlightened?
Am I closer to being enlightened?
Am I enlightened?
Very dangerous question, you know, problematic.
So Buddha talks about different types of people.
If you want to, first of all, to dispel the idea that this sort of person is the same as that sort of person.
First they have a person as someone who is intent upon sensual pleasure.
Intent upon material things, worldly things.
So I wouldn't say there's a lot of spiritual people who think that that could possibly, would mistake that for enlightenment.
But I would say there are people in the world who think that they are healthy, they have a healthy mind, who are engrossed in sensuality.
They might be so confident that they've got everything worked out.
We all know such people.
I certainly know some of these people who appear outwardly to have it all figured out.
They feel or they appear to feel for themselves that everything is fine, that they are healthy.
And of course these are the sorts of people who
Well, first of all tend to manipulate and without realizing it will always find ways to maintain their calm, their peace, their stability in life.
Often even in unethical ways at the expense of their morality.
More importantly, these are of course the people who become very much attached to worldly things and of course it's not enlightenment and it's considered to be limited and limited value because it's impermanent.
I mean I've seen such people in desperate straits, crying, totally devastated.
But then the next day, back thinking that they're on top of the world, thinking that everything's good.
Tend to be, you know, not evil, evil people.
I think evil people tend to be messed up in mind.
Their minds are not stable.
But it's quite possible to, it's a good example of overestimation.
You think you're happy, but anyone looking at you with a discerning eye could be quite clear that you're not all that happy overall.
Again, it's one thing to think you're on top of the world.
It's sometimes another thing to actually be.
Which is really the topic of the sutta.
The second type of person is a person who enters into the jhanas.
I'll go quickly through them.
We'll group them all together.
There's three different ones.
Three different ones.
But it's all about jhana.
This is much more common.
It's very common to attain some high spiritual state and think you're enlightened.
A person who's attained some kind of absorption where their mind is just so still.
Very quickly, very easy to jump to the quick conclusion that you've become enlightened.
So it's important to distinguish between two types of spiritual practice.
There's tranquility, where your mind becomes very calm, very peaceful.
And then there's insight, where, honestly, you become very calm and very peaceful, but much more to the point, you come to understand reality, which I think
has to be stressed and explained because I think a lot of people, I've met people who have clearly just practiced tranquility and think that they do understand reality.
Again, it's what this confidence does to you when you become something.
you reify, you create this confidence, this sense that you are attained to something.
It comes along with the idea that you understand, you understand the right way.
But we have to emphasize what it means to understand reality because it's not just some simple or
conceptual thing where, oh yes, having attained this, that means I understand everything.
No.
It really means that you have investigated deeply into the admittedly very simple objects of reality or aspects of reality, what is real.
Basically seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, feeling, thinking.
You've done
deep, prolonged, extensive, usually extensive and prolonged training in observing and understanding these things.
It's quite specific.
You can't just claim to understand things.
It really is a scientific investigation.
And it's that scientific investigation that allows one to then
Be sure or make the claim that they understand reality.
It's quite simple.
You've investigated, therefore you understand.
You've investigated until you understood.
And so it's much more common for people to have some experience and then just get a feeling that they're enlightened.
A feeling that makes them think they're enlightened.
And so a good way to know whether it's real or not real is have you really investigated and understood the details of your experience as being what they are, as being not worth clinging to.
That's what the Buddha is going to end up in a sutta saying.
And truly enlightened beings such as one who
has investigated to the point, and this isn't intellectual, you can't skip steps and say, okay, well then let me intellectually understand that.
No, it's not like that.
You keep practicing until
knowledge, clear understanding comes to you, nothing is worth clinging to.
Not intellectual, not something that you can just assume having attained some peaceful state.
So he says, a person who attains these peaceful states is intent upon them.
It's impressive because they're no longer at all interested in sensuality.
But that's one of the big reasons why they then think they're enlightened is because, well, being intent upon that, being, you could say, attached to that, and certainly becoming somewhat egotistical about it in the sense of clinging to it as I am this or I am that.
No longer interested in sensuality.
But any meditative attainment is impermanent.
The only thing that is really lasting, we would say, is this waking up of insight, where you see clearly that nothing is worth clinging to, or you experience that.
And so then he says, there's two people.
He talks about these two people.
One person comes to me and, or no, one person hears, well, the Buddha has taught that craving is, craving is an arrow.
Craving is like an arrow in your side, a poisoned arrow.
But that arrow has been removed from me.
I've gotten rid of all the poison.
I am one who is completely intent on Nibbana.
But it's not true.
They believe this, but it's not true.
And he points out the danger.
And this is where we get into this idea of reification.
The danger is that because they think they're enlightened, they're going to stop with the intense urgency.
They'll stop putting out the great effort.
If you think you're enlightened, of course, you'll stop practicing.
It leads to complacency.
It should be familiar from what we said earlier about how when you reify something it creates contentment, it creates a false sense of security.
And the very same thing and probably one of the worst ways this can happen is in spiritual practice when you believe that you're enlightened.
It's one of the worst because it shuts the door for actual and true enlightenment.
I mean, we should remind ourselves of what we're doing.
We're not practicing to become anything.
The idea is not to stop and see, am I enlightened yet?
And then you can stop and rest.
If you still want to stop and rest, it's a sign you have some kind of clinging and some kind of aversion to whatever it is you think this work is that you have to do.
We're practicing mindfulness to become mindful.
An enlightened being is mindful.
So if you think, if you still have the idea that you can stop meditating because you've stopped being mindful because you become enlightened, that's a good sign that you're not.
But this is what happens.
People then become complacent.
He said it's like a person
who gets struck by an arrow, again the arrow of defilement, poisonous arrow, and then a doctor comes and cuts the arrow out and cleans the wound, patches them all up and says, okay, you're good to go.
You're all healed.
Just take care of, and he says, take care of the wound.
And the man goes home, but it turns out that the poison wasn't all taken out, and there's some poison.
And not only that, worse than that, he doesn't take care of the wound.
He doesn't look after it.
The doctor says, oh, make sure it doesn't get dirty and keep it clean.
He doesn't do that.
So he's doubly problematic, because the wound gets not only poisoned, but infected and all that.
The person dies.
And then he says, there's this other type of person who comes and hears that I teach.
I teach that craving is the cause of suffering.
Craving is a dart, is an arrow.
And they make a statement, wow, this craving is gone from me.
Not wow, but they make a statement that the craving is, I have eradicated the craving.
And it's actually true that they actually have.
So this is the person who claims to be enlightened and is enlightened.
And he says, this is like a person who is shot with an arrow, a poisonous arrow.
And then the doctor comes and cleans it all out and patches him up and says, well, take care of this wound.
It's all clean.
The poison's all gone.
He said that about the first guy as well, but this time he's maybe a little more sure.
And he says, take care of it.
So this person, they think, wow, my wound is healed, the poison's all out.
And they take good care of the wound.
They clean it.
They keep dirt out of it.
And as a result, they're perfectly healthy.
They have no death, no deadly suffering.
And so they're different.
These two people are different in two ways.
They're different because one of them still has the poison, one of them doesn't.
But they're also different in how they react to the wound.
The wound has been cleaned and treated.
An enlightened being has not just done the work that needs to be done.
They're a person who lives their life in the way that needs to be lived.
So this is again, an enlightened being doesn't say, oh, I've done all my work, now I can stop.
An enlightened being has become mindful.
The mindfulness practice that they did has reached a
A pinnacle.
It doesn't drop.
It doesn't stop.
And so that, at the very least, that helps us to focus on what's important.
Because again, we're not trying to become something.
And it leads me to the third thing, the third option that the Buddha doesn't talk about.
for whatever reason he's giving a talk to a specific person, but important to talk about here as well is a third type of person, and that's really Buddhist meditators who are on the path to become enlightened.
We hear about all these stages of enlightenment, sotapanna, streamenter.
I've had people come tell me they're anagamis,
Lots of different ideas.
I've had people ask me about how to become Sotapanna.
There's this urgency, this desire to become.
And there's the checking and people who read the texts.
I've talked to people who read the texts and say, well, going by the texts, I'm a Sotapanna.
I'm a stream-enterer.
Some of you probably never heard these words before, but they're basically someone who has seen Nibbana, but they're labels.
And they are useful, but they are also problematic.
Because they're a reification.
This is where I was getting at, what I was getting at.
I think a person who is a Sotapanna, who has seen Nibbana, is in very real danger
of reifying that state and becoming complacent.
You say, I am a sotapanna.
And again it becomes a thing.
You've created in your mind this thing, this concept that you apply to the self and to I.
While a sotapanna is actually free from views of self, they still have conceit.
They can become
Not greatly conceited, you know, they wouldn't be evil about it, but it can become a real hindrance and prevent them from progressing.
Because they cling to that idea of, oh, I'm safe, I've made it, I've done something good.
Something very good, something noble, in fact.
But if we think about what an enlightened being is like, how the end goal, this person is just always mindful.
It's like they're always practicing.
Then we should only see ourselves as climbing the mountain or cleansing the mind.
I think the best way is to talk about cleansing the mind.
You could say, oh look, boy, I've cleaned a lot, but you're still admitting that there's still stuff left to be cleaned.
You clean your house and you say, look, I managed to clean the center of the room and all the stuff around the outside of the room.
You just push everything up against the walls or you still have
rest of the house to clean, you clean one room.
And you say, wow, look what I've done.
I mean, clearly anyone would, anyone with any sense of cleanliness would say, oh no, you've still got several rooms left clean.
If you think of it in this way, we're not reifying anything.
We're not claiming any state.
Now again, it can be encouraging to think of the progress you've made.
It can also be in line with the person who is wrong about their practice.
And I think it really, so the point is it really doesn't matter whether you're right or wrong.
It's not something we should ever focus our attention on.
You think, my teacher would always say, do you still have greed?
Do you still have anger?
Do you still have delusion?
Then you still have work to do.
It's really the best way to look at it.
Because once you get rid of all three of those, then you're safe.
But you're safe from slacking off.
That's the point.
If you ever think, oh, I'm done.
Good, I can slack off.
You're not there yet.
Because an enlightened being doesn't slack off.
They're always energetic, always on the ball.
The Buddha says, suppose there were a cup with a liquid in it.
with a beverage in it, with a good color, a good smell, and a good taste.
Something that just looked quite appealing, but is mixed with poison.
And if someone came and knew that it was, knew that it was, that this wonderful drink had poison in it, would they drink from it?
And he says, no venerable sir.
Same with someone who is enlightened.
They will never go back to unmindful ways.
Never go back to the senses, sensuality.
Never go back to acquisition, he says.
And then he said, suppose there were a snake and someone who wanted to live, who wasn't fond of pain, would they stick their hand up to the poisonous snake?
No, venerable sir.
Likewise, an enlightened being would never go back to those bad ways.
If you read the Sutta, it's quite, it's a good one, I think.
I wanted to address this idea.
It helps give some perspective of what's important.
It's not important to become something.
It's the work that's important and the cleansing of the mind in increments.
We're very goal-oriented, I think is a big problem.
Rather than be goal-oriented, we
be process-oriented, doing our work bit by bit.
So that's the Dhamma for tonight.
Thank you all for tuning in.
I wish you all a good night, good week.