Sotāpanna

This is an ancient law.

At the end of the discourse, the Yakhini was established in Sotapatti fruition, or the first stage of enlightenment in Theravada Buddhism, and the long-standing feud came to an end.

The Buddha calls for a literal baby-killing demon to be admitted into the monastery.

The Yakhini then is no longer distinguished by hatred, but joins others on the path of enlightenment.

The Buddha enacted transmutation, not conquest.

He called the Yakini in and showed her the full history of her own hatred, every incarnation that hatred had traveled through, lifetime after lifetime.

The hatred moved along its own scale and became Sotapatti.

In a sense, this is the deepest meaning of atonement.

So if you fail today, well, tomorrow you just pick up where you left off and you wait for the next time or next opportunity.

So, you know, they say the Sotapanna, They just live with a mind of dhana.

It's just normal.

It doesn't mean to say they're always going off to offer food to Sangha necessarily, but it's in their thinking and in their view.

Lungpho.

Why do they say those monks who were Sotapanna at the time of the Buddha may have cried when hearing of the Buddha's Parinibbana, his death, whereas those who were Arahants, fully awakened, did not? Well, it's a distinction between the amount or the kind of an amount of what we call fetters or another word for fetter is defilement, mental defilements that have been abandoned.

Because obviously the cause of all emotional turmoil are the defilements.

So when talking about the noble ones, the Aryapugala, the Buddha, has these names, Sotapanna, stream-winner or stream-enterer, Sakadagami, once-returner, meaning will only return for one more life at most, Anagami, non-returner, won't be reborn again as a human if they die.

They'll attain Nibbana in the Brahma realms.

And then Arahant, somebody who's reached Nibbana.

So you have four classes of noble beings.

And each noble being has abandoned certain fetters that bind the mind to ignorance, delusion, the world, attachment to the world.

She'd come and tell the queen.

So the queen became Sotapanna, following her servant, who would teach her the Dhamma, what the Buddha had said over and over again.

You could say that's an act of metta, isn't it? Passing on Dhamma from a teacher.

It's the highest gift, giving the gift of Dhamma.

It helps, helps everyone.

We used to have a joke when I was a young monk, because in the monastery maybe with many monks, if there was one who was very mindful, restrained in their speech, only speak when they really need to, just get on with what they're doing, everyone would say, ah, this one must be a Sotapanna,

stream-enterer already.

Maybe they are, maybe they're not, but you say that.

That's very powerful.

Like Buddha said, someone who is ready for Sotapanna has that quality, is willing to abandon it, having seen Akusala, unskilled states.

And that is also a sign of someone who already has, you know, these path and fruit.

What he also says in Kausambya Sutta is that someone who does a transgression will own up to it.

They talk about the Kotarabhujana.

It's this jnana of, they call it the insight into the change of lineage from being Padujana to Ariyapugala, Sotapanna.

The preceding moment to the arising of Pala, the fruit of the practice, the preceding moment and the cause for the mind to change from being an unenlightened, ordinary individual to a noble one.

But he'd talk about not just one moment in time.

But some monks are very tough and very clear in their intent and they just do what needs to be done.

If I remember right, Lumbabuddha, who was a much-loved monk, considered to be an Arahant, became an Arahant within four years.

I think he was a Sotapanna very quickly after he ordained.

And he developed psychic powers out of his jhana.

Word in Pali is udāna.

Buddha uttered this udāna when the Venerable Koṇḍañña, the first of the five ascetics, uh, to whom Buddha gave this discourse, attained to stream entry.

So he, it, it was proved that his Dhamma is not only for the Buddha.

Others can become enlightened.

And we know our-- The very...

As a summary to begin with, I will touch on that sutta very briefly and then see what the barriers to our practice, and then where it will go, what are the requirements, and how we can develop the first fruits of the path.

What is the first fruit of the path? Stream entry.

I'm hoping to gear this talk towards that, uh, stream entry.