(EA05)-01-Stream-Entry-Equal-to-Attaining-Right-View

Tonight, I'm going to talk on this topic, how to become an Arya. This topic was suggested by Brother Nyingchai here. Also, I think you can see that it's a very important topic because everybody wants to become an Arya. Now, we all know have to practice the Noble Eightfold Path, the way out of samsara, the spiritual path. In Buddhism it is called the Noble Eightfold Path, in other religions it is not so called. And this Noble Eightfold Path consists of eight factors, beginning with Right View, then Right Thoughts, etc. These eight factors of the Noble Eightfold Path can also be broken up into three sections, sila, samadhipanya, moral conduct, concentration and wisdom. So these eight factors of the noble path, the view perfect or the eight factors a totally liberated person. But if you cultivate even parts of the Noble Eightfold Path, you can become an Arya. But provided you cultivate it in the right sequence. For example, there is a section on Sila. And the Sila section consists of right speech, right actions, and right livelihood. So if you just practice the Sila path, you cannot become an Arya. In the Majjhima Nikaya, I think it's 117. The Buddha stated that to practice the Noble Eightfold Path, you have to start with the first factor, which is Right View. That is the way to enter the Noble Eightfold Path. So if you don't have Right View, then you have not entered the Noble Eightfold Path. And even if you were to practice the other factors for many years, you will not be making progress. That's why several years ago, we had one Buddhist, quite a prominent Buddhist in Penang. She practiced meditation for 20 over years, and was even teaching meditation. But at the end of 20 over years, she got fed up with Buddhism and changed her religion. That shows her understanding of Buddhism is simply not there. So the Buddha also said that all Aryans, all noble persons, possess right view. So when you attain right view, that already makes you an Arya, the lowest stage Arya, that is the first path So we find that during the Buddha's time, he stressed very much on listening to the Dharma, so much so that he wanted his disciples to know that it is so important that he said that all his disciples, whether monks or nuns, So that's the first thing we have to do when we want to practice the Noble Eightfold Path, get Right View. So we refer to the Suttas, how do we get Right View? And we find in Majjhima Nikaya, I think Sutta 43, the Buddha said that there are two conditions to attain right view. The first one is to listen to the utterance of another person. And the second one is to have yo niso manasikara. So you see here, actually these two factors does not concern meditation. The most important one is to listen to another's utterance. It also means to listen external source. It is very important to learn the Dhamma from an external source. Some people have been taught that by meditating they look inwards and they can attain stream entry. But no, because it is the suttas, by yourself you cannot get right view. continuous, so you can never get right view. You must keep this right view from listening to the dharma from somebody from an external source. And then the other factor is yoni-so manasikara. This word yoni-so manasikara, yoni-so comes from the word yoni, which means womb. or the place where something is born, the source. And manasikara basically consists of two Pali words, mana or mano, which is the thinking mind, thinking faculty, and kara, which is work. So manasikara means work. So uniso manasikara means you contemplate something until you go to the source of the problem. So for example, if you hear two persons arguing and each of them are trying to tell you that they are right, then you listen to their argument and then you can contemplate right to the source of the problem. Then you can see who is right, who is wrong. So to have that fields of mind where you can see right to the source of the problem. So you can translate it as thorough consideration or thorough attention.

(EA05)-02-Listening-to-Dhamma

Now, the first one, listening to the Dhamma. Listening to the Dhamma, or studying the Dhamma, or investigating the Dhamma. During the Buddha's time, there were no books. So that is why the Buddha said, listening to another's utterance. But nowadays, we have books, we have CDs. We have recorded talks, either in audio or video. So it's not just a matter of listening, you can also read. So listening also includes feeling. And listening to the Dhamma, what Dhamma is this? This Dhamma refers to the original teachings of the Buddha, the authentic teachings of the Buddha, because nowadays our Dhamma is very mixed, very roja. So the authentic teachings of the Buddha refer to the earliest Nikayas, the four Nikayas, namely the Deepa Nikaya, long discourses of the Buddha, the Majjhima Nikaya, middle-length discourses of the Buddha, the Samyutta Nikaya, the topically grouped discourses, and the Anguttara Nikaya, arranged discourses. Now these are the earliest four Nikayas. The Kutarka Nikaya now has 15 books according to Thailand and Sri Lanka. But in Burma they recognize 18 books. So out of these many books, only six do not contradict the earliest Nikayas. So these six can be relied on as the earliest teachings of the Buddha also. And what are these six books? The Sutalipata, the Kittibhutaka, the Udana, the Dhammapada, the Theragata, the Therigata. So these six books plus the earliest four inquires constitute the original teachings of the Buddha. Now this Dhamma only refers to the suttas, the discourses of the Buddha, because in one discourse, I think it is Buddha Nikaya 4.180, the Buddha said that if any monk says that such and such is the Buddha's teachings, the Buddha said you should neither accept it nor reject it. You should compare it with the suttas and the Vinaya. If it agrees with the sutras and the Vinaya, then you can take it to be the Buddha's teachings, original teachings. Also, when the Buddha was about to pass away, Ananda asked him, after you are gone, whom should we take as our teacher? And the Buddha said, after I am gone, Take the Dhamma, Vinaya, as your teacher. So the Vinaya only concerns monks and nuns. So for lay persons, your teacher is the Dhamma. And the Dhamma, just now as I mentioned, the Buddha said, if anybody says such and such is the teachings of the Buddha, you refer to the suttas. So actually, the Dhamma refers to only discourses of the Buddha. So that is the Dharma. That is the meaning of listening to another's utterance or investigating the Dharma, which means the same thing.

(EA05)-03-Yoniso-Manasikara

Now this Yoni So Manasikara is having thorough attention. Now not everybody is able to have thorough attention. Most of us the Digha Nikaya called the Samanyapala Sutta, where King Ajatasattu came to see the Buddha. This King Ajatasattu had just become a king, and he became a king by killing his father in order to take the father's throne. And because of killing his father, who was a very good man and a disciple of the Buddha, This Ajatasattu regretted it and every night he was troubled by the thought and could not sleep. So one of these nights he went to see the Buddha and asked the Buddha certain questions like, what's the benefit of becoming a monk? So the Buddha explained to him that this is the gist of the Samanya Bala Sutta. So he was satisfied with the Buddha's answer, and he left. After he had left, the Buddha told his disciples. The Buddha said, this foolish man killed his father in order to become a king. And his father was a just and good man. So the Buddha said, if he had not done so, I would have taught him the Dhamma tonight, and he would have seen the Dhamma. And at the instrument tree. So because the Buddha saw that his mind was very troubled, the Buddha did not even try to teach him the Four Noble Truths. So this is one type of person who does not have yoni-soma-na-sikhara. His mind cannot focus, cannot concentrate. So in other words, If we have a troubled mind, we cannot listen properly to the Dharma. And what is the cause of a troubled mind? One simple cause is sila. If we do not practice sila, moral conduct, then we break the precepts like kill, steal, commit adultery, lie, etc. Then we suffer remorse and our mind is troubled. have a basic sila to become an ariya. In other words, we do not harm other living beings. In the Noble Eightfold Path, sila is defined by these three things, as I mentioned just now. Right speech, right action, and right livelihood. Right speech consists of four things. Right speech means not to lie, not to carry tales and cause people to quarrel. In other words, you hear A talking about B, you don't want to tell B, you know, last night A said this and this about you. You make the two of them quarrel and fight. So that is the second precept in the verbal conduct. not to carry tales. The third one is not to have coarse speech. When we have coarse speech, we speak very coarsely, loudly, or we use vulgar words, etc. When we give advice to somebody, or we point out the mistake of somebody, if we speak loudly, people cannot accept it. But if we speak gently, somebody, but you put it in a gentle way, that person can accept. So that's why the Buddha said, write speech. You should speak gently, not use coarse speech. The fourth part of this right speech is not to engage in idle gossip. Idle gossip is to speak unnecessary words, time-wasting words. Time is very precious to us. We don't have much time. Much of your day you use up in trying to earn a livelihood, doing all your various duties. So you have definitely very little time each day. So you should use it wisely. So right speech consists of these four things. Not to lie, not to carry tales, to cause disharmony. in coarse speech and not to engage in idle gossip. And then right action consists of the three precepts concerning the body, not to kill, not to steal, and not to commit adultery. This is right action. And then right livelihood is to earn your livelihood in a way that does not harm other living beings. For example, the Buddha said lay people should not rear animals for slaughter. And then we should not sell liquor. Lay people should not sell engage in trade of liquor, should not buy and sell these weapons and guns. And then the fourth one is insecticide that kills. The fifth one is not to rear animals. And the fifth one is not to engage in the trafficking of human beings, like buying and selling slaves. Nowadays, it's done, but illegally. So this is one of the biggest traits that a layperson should not engage in. So when you earn a livelihood, You should also remember that other people are also trying to earn a livelihood. So you should not obstruct somebody else from earning a livelihood. We should have what they call a win-win situation where you earn a visible livelihood and you allow other people to earn a visible livelihood. So this is right livelihood. So these three things, right speech, right actions, and right livelihood, mix up for the sila part in the Aryan Eightfold Path. So if you keep this Aryan sila, you don't harm other living beings. And so your mind is not filled with remorse. So when you listen to the Dhamma, then you can understand. It is also very helpful if you meditate. During the Buddha's time, meditation was mainly concerned with attaining jhana. In other words, during the Buddha's time, they always practiced samatha meditation. Because in the sutras, Ananda was asked, what type the first jhāna, the second jhāna, the third jhāna, the fourth jhāna. So you can see here the aim of Buddhist meditation is to attain the jhānas. And some people don't understand why jhānas are important in the Buddha's teachings. In fact, jhānas are extremely important because when you practice Samatha meditation, you train your mind to focus. We train our mind to focus. Our normal mind is very scattered. So you have to train it to focus. And you train it to focus by putting your attention on one object all the time. The mind tends to run away. Our attention tends to go out through the six sense doors. To see, to hear, to smell, to taste, touch, and think. So, because our mind is constantly going out through these six sense doors, the normal mind is quite scattered. So we have to train it to focus. When you are able to focus your mind, then you have strength of mind. And the Buddha says, you are able to see things as they really are. So, also when we attain some samadhi, the hindrances come down. There are five things called panca nivarana, five hindrances that envelope our mind. And when they envelope our mind, we cannot see properly. It's just like when you use dark glasses. When you use dark glasses, then I show you a piece of cloth. That cloth is green in color. When you have dark glasses on, you look at the cloth, you might think it's blue. And then I tell you it's green. And then you argue it's blue, because you see it's definitely blue to you. But when I remove your dark glasses, then only you see that it is green, right? So when we have these dark glasses on, we can't see clearly. In the same way, when the five hindrances envelop us, we cannot see things clearly as they really are. So the Buddha says we have to get rid of these five hindrances, and the only way reduce the five hindrances. So when you are able to reduce the five hindrances, you can see things very clearly. I give you a classic case. In the Theradatta, I think, it is mentioned that the Buddha started to gather disciples of the Buddha. So there was one layman. He was from a very rich family. He was a young man. He had four wives and many slaves to entertain him. And every day, since his father was so rich, he didn't have to work. Every day, he would enjoy himself by getting drunk and watching his slaves dance and sing for him. So one day he was in his usual condition, quite drunk and watching his slaves, and the Buddha walked in front of his house. So when the Buddha walked in front of his house, he saw the Buddha, and something from the past stirred him. So when he looked at the Buddha, he concentrated, he focused on the Buddha, and because his mind Then he went to the Buddha, bowed to the Buddha, invited the Buddha to his house, and from there he became a disciple of the Buddha. And later I think he renounced and became a parahant. So you can see here the power of a focused mind. You can just shake off this drunkenness like that. So the Buddha said in the same way, if a person has a focused mind, When he teaches them the Dhamma, they can attain Arahanthood. There are many cases of this which I will mention later. So that is the advantage of having a focused mind. That's why we want to train in Samadhi. So to have Yoni Soma and Sikara first, you have to keep Sila. You have to have moral conduct so that you don't I have a remorseful mind, I don't suffer from remorse, I have a troubled mind. And then if you can meditate, then it is even better. If you practice Samatha meditation to focus your mind, then when you listen to the Dhamma, you can see it very clearly, understand it very clearly. So these are the two Namely, listening to the Dhamma and having yoni-sokana-sikkha. But this Dhamma actually is concerned with the Four Noble Truths. Because the Buddha says in the suttas that there are two types of right view. One is worldly right view and transcendental right view or Aryan right view. the law of kama vipaka, intentional action and its result. If you understand the law of kama vipaka, then you will not harm other living beings. You will keep your sila naturally. So this is having worldly right view. Aryan right view is understanding of the four noble truths. And the Four Noble Truths are concerned with Dukkha, suffering, the characteristic of the world, and the arising of suffering, the ceasing of suffering, and the path going to the ceasing of suffering. Now, this suffering, the Buddha says, what is suffering? Being born is suffering. Becoming old is suffering. Becoming sick is suffering. Dying is suffering. Not getting what one wants is suffering. Getting what you don't want also is suffering. Being separated from the ones you love is suffering. Being close to your enemies, those you dislike, is suffering. In short, the Buddha said, the five aggregates is the source of suffering. These five aggregates consist of five things. body, feeling, perception, volition and consciousness. The last four are basically the working of the mind, feeling, perception, volition and consciousness. So the five aggregates are simply body and mind. So the body and mind which we take to be the self, the I, the ego, that is the source of suffering. and get right view. Basically, you have to listen to the Dhamma that concerns suffering, the cause of suffering, the ceasing of suffering, and the path going to the ceasing of suffering. And since suffering concerns the five aggregates, so also need an understanding of the five aggregates. And because Suffering comes about because of impermanence and change in this world. So you also need to understand independent origination, how everything arises and ceases due to conditions. And also because the world is suffering, we have to understand that the world arises through consciousness, and consciousness means the working We also need to understand the six senses, the outer sense objects, the senses itself and the inner consciousness, etc. So when we listen or investigate the Dhamma, it concerns the four noble truths, the five aggregates, dependent origination, the six senses, etc. The Buddha calls the 37 bodhipakya dharmas, the 37 factors of enlightenment. What are these? The four right efforts, the four satipatthana, the five faculties, the five powers, the seven bhojangas. the Eight Noble Paths, etc. These are the thirty-seven Bodhiya Pathkaya Dharmas. And these basically also are the eight factors of the Noble Path. So all this is the Dharma that we have to learn. So basically, we either investigate the discourses of the Buddha or You have right view. So that is how to attain right view or meditate, stream and tree.

(EA05)-04-Ariyan-Stages

Now, after you attain stream entry, how do you attain the first fruit, or sotapanna? In the original discourses of the Buddha, the Buddha said that after you attain stream entry, or the first path, you have not eliminated the three factors yet. It takes some time normally for the path to ripen and turn to fruit. And after some time, your wisdom ripens, and you attain the first fruit. At the latest, the Buddha said, before you pass away, or at the moment when you are passing away, the path will naturally turn to fruit. And when you attain the first fruit, Sotapanna, the tree, What are these three factors? One is Sakaya Ditti, another one is Silapata Paramahamsa, and the third one is doubt. The first one, Sakaya Ditti, is the view that the body and the mind is the self. So when you eliminate Sakaya Ditti, you can see that the body and the mind is not the self, although you still have a self. not the cell. Science tells us that this body is made up of cells, billions and billions of cells, even trillions and trillions of cells. And these cells are rising and passing away all the time. Some cells are born, some cells die, some cells are born, some cells die. And so we are constantly changing our cells, so much so that it seems that every seven years all the cells in our body have changed. Every seven years we practically get a new body. So when we think of these cells in our body arising and passing away, the simile the Buddha gave is like foam. You know when you wash your clothes, you use fat and you stir the water, what happens? A lot of bubbles form, right? This is the foam. Now if you look into the foam, you find that bubbles, new bubbles are formed, old bubbles, But there is nothing solid inside that form, nothing that you can identify as I, nothing that is unchanging, right? In the same way, in our body, there is nothing that you can say, this is me, because it's changing all the time. The moment you say one particular cell is you, it passes away, dies, a new cell forms, right? So the body is changing all the time. The mind, the Buddha says, is changing even faster than the body. You see, the mind is changing all the time. Sometimes you decide to do something, the next moment you decide not to do. That's why the Buddha says, when you decide to do something good, you should do it quickly before you change your mind. When you decide to do something bad, like scolding somebody, the Buddha says, delay, delay. put your mouth on hold. After some time, you change your mind and you won't scold that person. So from here, you can see the body and the mind is changing so fast that you can't take it to be the self. So that is the first factor. If a person becomes a Sotapanna, he eliminates this factor. He can see clearly that the body and the mind is not the self, although he still has a self. Only the Arahant is no-self. Then the second factor that the Suttapanna eliminates is Silabhata-paramasa. Silabhata-paramasa is clinging to sila and rituals, rules and rituals. What is the purpose of doing it? We just don't follow because somebody else says that it's the standard. It's always done. You should do it. That's the second factor. The third one is doubt. Doubt about the teachings of the Buddha, Buddha, Dharma, Sangha. So the Panna eliminates these three factors. Now, the second part. How do you attain the second part? The Buddha says, what is the difference between a Sotapanna, the first fruit, and a Sakadagamin, the second fruit? Sakadagamin means once eternal. When she comes back to the human birth, only one more time, and then we enter Nirvana. Now the difference, the Buddha says, is that the Sakadagamin, the second fruit person, has reduced greed, hatred, and delusion. the greater the degree of hindrances we have, the higher the hindrances, and our greed, hatred and delusion is more. So to reduce the greed, hatred and delusion, or to reduce the hindrances, you've got to have a bit of samadhi. Not necessarily jhana, but threshold concentration, or excess concentration, upacara samadhi. So if you are able to understand the Dharma, to have right view, and then you need to meditate. You need to meditate and have some concentration. So when you have that assessed concentration which is near to Jhana, near to one-pointedness of mind, then you can reduce your greed, hatred and delusion. So from here onwards, you see some Samatha is needed. So when you attain the second path, I believe in the same way, it takes some time to ripen into fruit and turn into the second fruition. But also, before he passes away, he will turn to fruit. So to attain the first path, sleep entry, is not that difficult. And to attain the second path, path and the third fruit is very difficult. Why? Because the Buddha says the difference between Sakadagamin and Anagamin, the third fruit person, is that the third fruit person has perfected the Samadhi. He has the four jhanas. And the four jhanas are quite difficult to attain. go for retreat ten days, they say they have jhanas. It's a bit difficult to believe because we find from the Theragatha, the Therigatha, sometimes the Buddha's disciples, they practice for many years before they attain the jhanas. The anagamin, the third fruit person, has perfected samadhi, which is very difficult to attain. That's why it's very difficult to find people who are anagamins and arahants. So to attain the third path, I believe you need to have these four jhanas. And after you have attained the third path, it takes some time to turn to the third fruit. At the latest, before you die, you become fruit. And then, the same way, both path and both fruit, you need to perfect the Noble Eightfold Path. So when you perfect the Noble Eightfold Path, you have perfect Samadhi. You also have perfect Sapti, et cetera. Then only you can the fourth path which after some time turns to the fourth fruit. Now to perfect the eightfold path on top of sila and samadhi, you need this samatha vipassana, both samatha and vipassana. Samatha is tranquility meditation, basically meditation. Vipassana is contemplation. And in the Aguttara Nikaya, the Buddha says that to attain perfect knowledge, you need both Samatha and Vipassana, not just one. And also in the Aguttara Nikaya, when the Buddha had passed away, Venerable Ananda spoke this discourse, and he said that all the monks and nuns who had attained Arahanthood and they came to report to Venerable Ananda, because the Buddha had entered nirvana. So, Venerable Ananda said that all of these people who attain Arahanguna, they attain by four ways. The first one is they practice Samatha first, then only Vipassana. The second one is Vipassana first, then Samatha. The third one is Samatha and Vipassana. And the fourth one, they fix their attention internally, when you put your attention internally, you go back to your source of consciousness until the mind becomes one-pointed. Then you will know the way to liberation. So all these four ways, you find that they need both Samatha and Vipassana concentration as well as contemplation. That is why we find that this present day Vipassana only vipassana without samatha. This vipassana is contemplation. That means either you listen to the dhamma when you are not meditating or when you come out of meditation and you contemplate on the dhamma. This dhamma is extremely important to attain arya-bhutana because there is one sutta where the Buddha says there are five occasions when a person becomes liberated. In other words, a person becomes an Arahant only under five conditions, five occasions. The first one, the Buddha says, is when that person is listening to the Dhamma and he becomes an Arahant. The second one is when he is teaching the Dhamma. When we repeat the Dhamma, like during the Buddha's time, they had no books, so they kept repeating the sutras they had heard. This is equivalent to our reading the sutras again and again and again. So when you repeat the sutras also, the Dhamma, you also become enlightened. The fourth one is when you reflect on the Dhamma that you have heard or you have read. You reflect on it and you become enlightened. And the fifth one is during meditation, when a person contemplates on the samadhi nimitta, the sign of concentration. So from here, you can see out of the five vocations, have psychic power and yet they cannot become enlightened simply because they did not listen to the Dharma. Somebody like Jesus Christ has great psychic power and yet he cannot become enlightened because he did not have the chance to hear the and attained psychic power. And then he looked into his past lives. When he looked into his past lives, he realized that he was a disciple of the Buddha Kassapa. So when he remembered that life, all the Dharma that he had heard from Buddha Kassapa came back to him. He remembered the Four Noble Truths, et cetera. And then he used that Four Noble Truths. He contemplated on the Four Noble Truths So you see, without him remembering the Four Noble Truths, he could not have become enlightened. That is why the Dhamma is so important. So that is the way to arahanthood, the way to liberation. out of samsara. One is listening to the original dharma, the teachings based on the original sutras of the Buddha. And the second thing is to practice samatha meditation, so that you focus, you cleanse your mind of the five hindrances, these defilements of the five hindrances. Aliyahullah.

(EA05)-05-Ariyan-Cases-from-Vinaya-Books

Now I will try to recall from the Vinaya books those disciples of the Buddha who were helped by the Buddha through enlightenment, the persons the Buddha chose as his disciples. We find in the Vinaya books that the first disciples the Buddha went to were his five disciples, the five monks who were his disciples. And beneath his disciples, since he had attained jhāna, he must have taught them to attain jhāna. So when he went to them after his enlightenment, he did not ask them to meditate. He simply asked them to sit down and listen to him. So they sat down. The first sutta the Buddha discoursed to them was the Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta, the turning of the wheel discourse. Listening to this, Anya Kondanya, Kondanya that the monk understood, and he attained stream entry. That's why he was called Anya Kondanya. Anya means knowledge, because he exclaimed, I know, I think. So after that, the Buddha continued to discourse with these five monks, and over a period of days, The last sutta he spoke to them was the Anattalakkhana Sutta, basically about Anatta, no-self. And upon hearing this discourse, all five of them attained Arahant Buddha. Siddhu never asked them to meditate, just sit down and listen to him. So this is the Vipassana part. They had already cultivated the Samatha part. listening to this Dhamma was a very personal partner that led them to enlightenment. After these five arahants, the Buddha made this Yasa come to him. Yasa was the son of a very rich man in town and he had four wives and many slaves to entertain him. And every night these slaves would sing and dance for him and he would watch, watch until he grew tired and he fell asleep. Now, when he fell asleep, the other slaves who were so tired, they also fell asleep. So, probably the Buddha make him wake up in the middle of the night. He woke up in the middle of the night, he saw these slaves sleeping in front of him. You know, when they dance for him, they are half naked and all that, you know, very beautiful and all that. But when they fell asleep, their bodies were quite exposed and all that. He must have been ascetic in the past life who contemplated corpses. When he looked at these women half-naked, he thought of corpses. So Dukkha came to his mind. He kept muttering, Dukkha, Dukkha. So he walked out of the room. He didn't want to see them. He walked out of the room and something made him walk towards the gate of the city. At night, the gates are locked. But when he came to the gates, the gates opened by themselves. So the Buddha must have used his psychic power. So he kept walking, walking, walking until he came to the forest where the Buddha was. So when he came to the Buddha, he was still muttering Dukkha, Dukkha. So the Buddha told him, Yasa, come and sit down here. There is no Dukkha here. So when he heard that, happily he sat down beside the Buddha. Then the Buddha preached to him, a gradual discourse ending with the explanation of the Four Noble Truths. When he listened to this discourse the first time, he attained spirituality. So he was very happy, he stayed with the Buddha. The next morning, his father was looking for him, practically looking for him, because he was the son of the richest man in town. He thought something happened to him, a kidnap or something. So he walked out all over looking for him and walked out of the city gates and then saw his sandals along the way. Then realized his son had walked this way. So he continued walking until he came to the Buddha. Yasa was sitting next to the Buddha, but the Buddha used his psychic power to shield him from the father. So the father could not see him. So the father asked the Buddha whether he had seen Yasa. So the Buddha said, sit down, in a while you will see Yasa. So when he heard that, he happily sat down. So the Buddha gave him the same gradual discourse, ending with the Four Noble Truths. And he heard it, he also attained spirituality. And Yassa, hearing it the second time, became an Arahant. Then, Yassa's friends, 54 of them could have been his fellow ascetics in the previous life. They heard that Yassa had renounced, and they scratched their head. son of the richest man in town, becoming a monk. Surely his teacher must be somebody special. So they went to see him and the Buddha. In the same way, the Buddha preached to them. One by one, they attained Arahanthood. Including Yaksa, 55, plus the five monks, 60 Arahants. So when the Buddha had 60 Arahant disciples, he asked them to walk roads and teach Dharma for the benefit, for the good, the happiness of the many folk. So they went. Then after that the Buddha contemplated whom should he go and teach. Then he found there was a group of ascetics living by the banks of the river. They were called Jatilas, method hair ascetics. They kept their hair very long. Then they worshipped the fire and they had this wrong view that they could cleanse their sins by bathing in the river three times, putting their whole body immersed in the water of the river three times in the morning and three times in the evening. So, despite their wrong views, the Buddha went to them. great psychic power to them. They were so impressed that they all shaved off their hair and became his disciples. So when they became his disciples, he preached to them one sutra called the Fire Discourse. He knew because they like to worship the fire, they like to hear about fire. So the Buddha said the whole world is on fire. The eyes are on fire. The ears are on fire, the nose is on fire, the tongue, the body, the mind is on fire. What fire? The fire of greed, hatred and delusion. And then slowly from here the Buddha talked about no-self. And just listening to one sutra, one thousand of them became arahants. You see? So after that, the Buddha brought them to Rajagaha, the city of Rajagaha. Because before the Buddha was enlightened, he had passed through Rajagaha. And King Bimbisara was very impressed with him and asked him to stay there. But he refused because he was searching for enlightenment. So King Bimbisara made him promise that if ever he became enlightened, that he should come back and teach them. That's why the Buddha came back. So when King Bhisisara saw the Buddha and the thousand arahants, he was very impressed and he called all his people of Rajagaha to come and see the arahants and he threw a big dana for them, a lunch for them. Then after the meal, the Buddha as usual gave a talk and the Buddha gave a gradual discourse ending with the Four Noble Truths. And according to the Vinaya books, 120,000 people attended, came to listen to the Buddha. And all of them attained stream entry. Can you believe that all of them meditated? They are ordinary people. So that is the way to attain stream entry, by listening to the right discourse. The Discourse concerning the Four Noble Truths, the Five Aggregates, Dependent Origination, the Six Senses, etc. In other words, the earlier suttas of the Buddha. So from here, you can see these are the arahants mentioned in the Vinaya books. And then two more. Who are the two more? Sariputta and Moggallana. Sariputta and Moggallana were disciples of an external sect teacher. And then they were good friends, very good friends. So one day Sariputta, I think he was on alms round, walking in the path. And then he saw Venerable Asaji. Venerable Asaji is one of the earliest five arahants. So when he saw Venerable Asaji, he was very impressed. Venerable Asaji looked very serene, and there was a certain brightness around him. So he came to Venerable Asaji and asked him, who is your teacher? What Dhamma does he teach? Then remember Asaji, having heard very few discourses, he couldn't teach very much. So he told Sariputta, he said, I have just come into this Dhamma. I have newly ordained. I don't know much Dhamma. I can't tell you in detail. But if you want, I can give you the gist of it, very short. And Sariputta said, whether long or short, it doesn't matter. Please explain your teacher's dharma to me. Then he gave this famous discourse. The Chinese like to say, chufa yin yan shen, chufa yin yan me, or for ta saman, something, something. So just listening to this, basically what it means is that all dharmas arise through conditions. And they all cease through conditions. That means everything in the world arises to conditions, and they all must cease. These conditions don't hold anymore. And just listening to these few words, he attained stream entry. And he was very happy that he found out where the Buddha was. And he quickly went to tell Venerable Moggallana. And then he repeated what he heard to Venerable Moggallana. And Venerable Moggallana, upon hearing the same thing, also attained stream entry. So you see, just now we heard that Right view is attained through the utterance of another person. Somebody teaches you the Dharma, then you attain sweet entry. So the two of them went to tell their external sect teacher that they are leaving, they're going to become the disciples of the Buddha. And they said, of course, the external sect teacher was very unhappy. So they went to become the Buddha's disciples. After they had become the Buddha's disciples, the Buddha taught them the meditation, taught them the Dharma. This Moggallana, he made a lot of effort in his meditation. In fact, both of them also made effort and attained the four jhanas. But it is mentioned in the Vinaya books that Venerable Moggallana, he didn't sleep. Seven days he didn't sleep. So because he didn't sleep, there was one time that he was nodding his head. In the middle of the night, he must be very exhausted, nodding his head, trying to fight sleep. Imagine, can you try to fight sleep for seven nights? So he was nodding his head, and the Buddha used his psychic power and came to him and told him, be mindful, don't keep nodding your head. Then suddenly, he realized that the Buddha must be watching him, like watching TV. So he, of course, did not become sleepy. So he put even more effort. Within seven days, he became a Narada. And then, Venerable Sariputta, he also attained the four jhanas. So because he was so eager to serve the teacher, one day he was fanning the Buddha. So he was standing beside the Buddha, fanning the Buddha. And the Buddha was talking to an external ascetic. So while the Buddha was talking to this external ascetic, Venerable Sariputta was listening to the Dharma and reflecting on it. Then when he reflected on it, he understood. And then it became an arahant. So from here, Venerable Sariputta, because of listening to the Dharma, he attained enlightenment. He is called liberated by wisdom. However, Mughalana, because he attained enlightenment through meditation and reflecting when he came out of jhana, he is called enlightened by mind or liberated by mind, liberated two ways. Two ways means by mind and by wisdom. So it doesn't mean a person liberated by wisdom does not have jhana, like some of the later books, the commentaries like to believe, Burmese monks like to believe. Sariputta attained all the eight jhanas. So as the Buddha says, all the arahants and anagamins must have four jhanas before they have become anagamins or arahants. So from here, you can see all these cases, how important it is to There are five conditions that are helpful for you to become an arahant. First one is sila. Second one is dhamma-savana, listening to the dhamma. Third one is dhamma-sakaccha, discussion of the dhamma. You know, sometimes when you listen to the dhamma, you're not very clear. You discuss with other people who know, so that you can understand better. And the fourth one is samatha. The fifth is vipassana. meditation and Vipassana contemplation. Just now I mentioned to you the five occasions when a person becomes an Arahant, liberated. The first four, listening to the Dhamma, teaching the Dhamma, reflecting on the Dhamma, repeating the Dhamma. These four are actually concerned with Vipassana. This is Vipassana, not the type of Vipassana meditation that nowadays people learn. is based on the Visuddhimagga, the 16 Jnanas, which was created very, very much later. And the recent Vipassana meditation was started with Masi Saido, who created this Masi method of meditation 30 years ago, and then followed by Goenka and the rest. So all this is new invention. 50 years ago, 100 years ago, you talk to people about Vipassana meditation, nobody knows. you go back to the original words of the Buddha. Always remember, the Buddha says, in the future, when he's no more around, take the suttas as your teacher. He's our best teacher.