Upāsaka Cattasallā (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
cattasalla) wrote2025-03-29 08:57 pm
cattasalla) wrote2025-03-29 08:57 pm
fruits of stream entry
The Buddha spoke of four progressive stages of enlightenment. The final stage is that of the arahant, who has completely eradicated all causes of suffering, and is unfettered by craving and ignorance. Long before that, though, one must reach that first stage, which is commonly referred to as "entering the stream." This stage is marked by the arising of right view, and it marks the true entry onto the noble eightfold path. Until the breakthrough of stream entry, the student doesn't really understand what the path is about.
I want to make something clear at the outset: These "attainments," these stages of enlightenment, do not involve getting something. They do not involve acquiring anything. Instead, they are about letting go. They are about causes of suffering weakening and falling away as the aspirant matures in their practice. Things that impeded understanding and motivated unwholesome actions are removed.
Stream entry is marked by the arising of right view. How does right view arise? The texts tell us there are two factors: hearing the Dhamma from someone else, and paying attention to the right things in the right way (yoniso manasikāra, which is not what I want to write about here and could be an entire other essay...or probably a whole book!).
For anyone except a buddha, one who discovers the Dhamma in an age when it has been forgotten, the path to enlightenment begins by hearing it from another and contemplating it. This might be a random encounter (although perhaps that encounter was karmically conditioned), part of a systematic study of world religions (which is how I, personally, learned about it), because a therapist recommended looking into it, because one has encountered a Buddhist and was impressed by their general countenance of happiness and tranquility, or something else entirely. For whatever reason, upon exposure, the Buddhist-to-be will sense, either conceptually, intuitively, or both, that there's something there worth exploring further. Something that could bring value to their life.
So they begin to practice sincerely. They take on the basic ethical rules, learn meditation so that they can bring clarity to their awareness, and reflect on what is causing their suffering. As their practice progresses, a force stirs. A deep sense of what needs to be done starts to form, a sure knowledge of how practice should unfold. It might not be something that can be precisely articulated, but as the path is cultivated, it starts to take on its own life. At this point, it becomes more a matter of getting out of its way than actively doing anything!
As this happens, they start to understand what "wrong view" really means. Before this understanding, we often think of "view" as simply the beliefs or opinions that we know we have. But that is far from the full extent. In fact, the fullness of view encompasses everything we know and believe about ourselves, the world, and truth. And it's less about the specifics of what those beliefs are as it is the attitudes towards those beliefs: that they are substantial, real, true. It's all fabricated. This also includes any belief that anything is substantial.
As a brief aside, just because something is an invention with no real substance does not mean it does not have a very real impact on the world. Race is a social construct, but knowing that does not erase the legacy of centuries of racism. Money is made up, but that doesn't mean you can go without it, outside of certain specific lifestyles, such as that of a monastic. The effect of the realization of the insubstantiality of all thoughts about everything doesn't mean you will not still have views. Indeed, Bhante Sujato has pointed out that those who teach "no view" very often actually mean "no view but my view" and are leaders of cults, or of fascist regimes (which really are just another type of cult). What it does mean is that the stream enterer will no longer see any value in clinging to any view. They will retain no investment of their identity in the view, and no feeling of being personally attacked when the view is challenged. It's not about shedding all views, but about being free from being trapped by views. This freedom is one of the fruits of stream entry.
Once wrong view is cleared away, right view is what remains. For a moment, there is complete relinquishment of all things in the mind. This is complete understanding of the full extent of suffering, its causes, and what it feels like for those causes to be completely absent. The stilling of all karmic formations, all habit energies, and an experience of the unconditioned, the unborn, the undying, the uncreated, the island beyond which you can go no further. At this point you no longer have any doubt that the Buddha's teachings are real. Dispelling of doubt is one of the fruits of stream entry.
At this point, there is enough clarity that the aspirant can truly enter the noble eightfold path. Everything before that was stumbling about with only a vague sense of direction. After this attainment, that sense of direction is refined. However, this clarity doesn't mean the total elimination of suffering. Any trainee has lifetimes feeding the causes of suffering, and those habit-energies will continue to push on their mental activity. They are liable to get lost again along the way. But once right view is known, it can never be un-known. It can never be forgotten, even if the trainee does get off-track. Eventual freedom is guaranteed at this point. That's what it means to say one has entered the stream. Wrong view is what was holding the defilements in place. Wrong view is what was preventing the trainee from really seeing them for what they are, and how deep they go, and that it's possible for them to be swept away. Once that is removed, everything starts to unravel of its own accord. A foundation has been knocked away and the tower topples. And this is another of the fruits of stream entry.
Finally, there is the "virtue of the noble ones." This doesn't mean perfect moral behavior at all times. It does mean that one can distinguish the wholesome and unwholesome, and that one won't delude themselves into thinking unwholesome things are actually wholesome. The stream enterer is unable to connect to any intentions to harm oneself or others. Deliberately breaking one of the five precepts will never come naturally to them again. This is a fruit of stream entry.
So this is what it means to reach that first stage of enlightenment. Removing wrong view so that right view can arise. Once that is done, one can start going deeper, peeling away the various manifestations of craving, drilling down to that core reflexive grasping function that appropriates things to fashion a sense of self.
I want to make something clear at the outset: These "attainments," these stages of enlightenment, do not involve getting something. They do not involve acquiring anything. Instead, they are about letting go. They are about causes of suffering weakening and falling away as the aspirant matures in their practice. Things that impeded understanding and motivated unwholesome actions are removed.
Stream entry is marked by the arising of right view. How does right view arise? The texts tell us there are two factors: hearing the Dhamma from someone else, and paying attention to the right things in the right way (yoniso manasikāra, which is not what I want to write about here and could be an entire other essay...or probably a whole book!).
For anyone except a buddha, one who discovers the Dhamma in an age when it has been forgotten, the path to enlightenment begins by hearing it from another and contemplating it. This might be a random encounter (although perhaps that encounter was karmically conditioned), part of a systematic study of world religions (which is how I, personally, learned about it), because a therapist recommended looking into it, because one has encountered a Buddhist and was impressed by their general countenance of happiness and tranquility, or something else entirely. For whatever reason, upon exposure, the Buddhist-to-be will sense, either conceptually, intuitively, or both, that there's something there worth exploring further. Something that could bring value to their life.
So they begin to practice sincerely. They take on the basic ethical rules, learn meditation so that they can bring clarity to their awareness, and reflect on what is causing their suffering. As their practice progresses, a force stirs. A deep sense of what needs to be done starts to form, a sure knowledge of how practice should unfold. It might not be something that can be precisely articulated, but as the path is cultivated, it starts to take on its own life. At this point, it becomes more a matter of getting out of its way than actively doing anything!
As this happens, they start to understand what "wrong view" really means. Before this understanding, we often think of "view" as simply the beliefs or opinions that we know we have. But that is far from the full extent. In fact, the fullness of view encompasses everything we know and believe about ourselves, the world, and truth. And it's less about the specifics of what those beliefs are as it is the attitudes towards those beliefs: that they are substantial, real, true. It's all fabricated. This also includes any belief that anything is substantial.
As a brief aside, just because something is an invention with no real substance does not mean it does not have a very real impact on the world. Race is a social construct, but knowing that does not erase the legacy of centuries of racism. Money is made up, but that doesn't mean you can go without it, outside of certain specific lifestyles, such as that of a monastic. The effect of the realization of the insubstantiality of all thoughts about everything doesn't mean you will not still have views. Indeed, Bhante Sujato has pointed out that those who teach "no view" very often actually mean "no view but my view" and are leaders of cults, or of fascist regimes (which really are just another type of cult). What it does mean is that the stream enterer will no longer see any value in clinging to any view. They will retain no investment of their identity in the view, and no feeling of being personally attacked when the view is challenged. It's not about shedding all views, but about being free from being trapped by views. This freedom is one of the fruits of stream entry.
Once wrong view is cleared away, right view is what remains. For a moment, there is complete relinquishment of all things in the mind. This is complete understanding of the full extent of suffering, its causes, and what it feels like for those causes to be completely absent. The stilling of all karmic formations, all habit energies, and an experience of the unconditioned, the unborn, the undying, the uncreated, the island beyond which you can go no further. At this point you no longer have any doubt that the Buddha's teachings are real. Dispelling of doubt is one of the fruits of stream entry.
At this point, there is enough clarity that the aspirant can truly enter the noble eightfold path. Everything before that was stumbling about with only a vague sense of direction. After this attainment, that sense of direction is refined. However, this clarity doesn't mean the total elimination of suffering. Any trainee has lifetimes feeding the causes of suffering, and those habit-energies will continue to push on their mental activity. They are liable to get lost again along the way. But once right view is known, it can never be un-known. It can never be forgotten, even if the trainee does get off-track. Eventual freedom is guaranteed at this point. That's what it means to say one has entered the stream. Wrong view is what was holding the defilements in place. Wrong view is what was preventing the trainee from really seeing them for what they are, and how deep they go, and that it's possible for them to be swept away. Once that is removed, everything starts to unravel of its own accord. A foundation has been knocked away and the tower topples. And this is another of the fruits of stream entry.
Finally, there is the "virtue of the noble ones." This doesn't mean perfect moral behavior at all times. It does mean that one can distinguish the wholesome and unwholesome, and that one won't delude themselves into thinking unwholesome things are actually wholesome. The stream enterer is unable to connect to any intentions to harm oneself or others. Deliberately breaking one of the five precepts will never come naturally to them again. This is a fruit of stream entry.
So this is what it means to reach that first stage of enlightenment. Removing wrong view so that right view can arise. Once that is done, one can start going deeper, peeling away the various manifestations of craving, drilling down to that core reflexive grasping function that appropriates things to fashion a sense of self.