Wakefulness vs. Drowsiness (sutra)

The Buddha of Gandhara (1st cent.)

At one time the Buddha was staying near Sāvatthī at Jeta’s Grove, in the millionaire’s monastery.

Late in the afternoon, he came out of seclusion, went to the assembly hall, and sat on a seat prepared for him.

Likewise Venerable Sāriputta came out of seclusion, went to the assembly hall, bowed, and sat respectfully to one side. The great venerables Mahā Moggallāna, Mahā Kassapa, Mahā Kaccāna, Mahā Koṭṭhita, Mahā Cunda, Mahā Kappina, Anuruddha, Revata, and Ānanda did the same.

 

[As an example] the Buddha spent much of the night sitting in meditation, then rose from his seat and entered his dwelling. Soon after, the venerables each went to their dwellings.

But the junior monastics who had only recently gone forth from the home life to the left-home life, new to this Teaching and Training, slept until the sun came up and snored.

The Buddha perceived this with his clairvoyant vision which is purified, surpassing the human. He entered the assembly hall, sat on a prepared seat, and addressed them:

“Meditators, where is Sāriputta? Where are Mahā Moggallāna, Mahā Kassapa, Mahā Kaccāna, Mahā Koṭṭhita, Mahā Cunda, Mahā Kappina, Anuruddha, Revata, and Ānanda? Where have these senior disciples gone?”

They replied, “Soon after the Buddha left, those venerables went to their own dwellings.”

“Meditators, when those senior monks left, why did you sleep until the sun came up as you snored?

Vajrapani, Protector of the Buddha

“How do you see it, meditators? Have you ever seen or heard of an anointed warrior king, who rules his whole life and is dear and beloved by his kingdom, indulge in the pleasures of sleeping, laying around as drowsy as he likes?”

“No, venerable sir.”

“Good, meditators, nor have I ever seen or heard of such a thing.

“How do you see it, meditators? Have you ever seen or heard of an appointed officer… a hereditary officer… a general… a village chieftain … or a head of a guild who runs a guild his whole life, who is dear and beloved by his guild, indulge in the pleasures of sleeping, laying around as drowsy as as he likes?”

Is there a best way to sleep to get great rest?

“No, venerable sir.”

“Good, meditators, nor have I ever seen or heard of such a thing.

“How do you see it, meditators? Have you ever seen or heard of a wandering ascetic or Brahmin priest who indulges in the pleasures of sleeping, laying around as drowsy as he likes?

• Sense doors unguarded,
• eating too much,
• not dedicated to wakefulness,
• unable to bring forth skillful qualities,
• unable to pursue the cultivation and development of qualities that produce awakening into the evening and before dawn

Kushan, Brahma, Indra (Greco-Buddhist art)

who yet realize an undefiled freedom of the heart, freedom by wisdom, in this very life? Or that they live having realized the truth through their own direct knowledge and vision (insight) due to their destruction of the defilements?”

“No, venerable sir.”

“Good, meditators, nor have I ever seen or heard of such a thing.

“So train yourselves: ‘We will guard our sense doors, restrain ourselves in eating, and dedicate ourselves to wakefulness (mindfulness), bringing forth skillful qualities, pursuing the cultivation and development of qualities that produce awakening into the evening and before dawn.’ This is how to train yourselves.” More

• Adorable Sleeping Monks (BuzzFeed)
• Attānuvāda Sutta: Discourse on Four Types of Fear
• Dhr. Seven (ed.), based on Bhikkhu Sujato (trans.), SuttaCentral.net, Soppa Sutta: "Warm-Hearted: On Sleep"  (Numerical Discourses, AN 6.17.2), Wisdom Quarterly

Avoid the trap of 'spiritual delusion'

(The Theory of Samsara) Avoid falling into spiritual delusion. We need to know this if we're on the spiritual path, particularly within Tibetan Buddhism, a form of Vajrayana [a kind of Mahayana Buddhist Hinduism with yoga and lots of ritual, magic, and siddhis]

Who's really enlightened? (Doug's Dharma)

What is an 'enlightened' person?

Blissful, effervescent yogi as a result of persistent effort and letting go (yogatailor.com)

   

When I began, it wasn't easy then a breakthrough

In Buddhism a fully enlightened (bodhi) or awakened, a non-deluded or fully realized person is called an arhat (Pali, arahant). What does it mean?

It is the purification of view (ditthi), not personality. A person may continue to have his or her quirks, preferences, habits, and so on. The miraculous transformation that brings one from ordinary personhood into the Sangha of the Noble Ones (the Community of the Aryans) may not be visible at all to the casual observer. The Buddha said a person should not judge except after looking for a long time, reserving judgment and observing the person's character. It is not omniscience, not all-knowing awareness, not perfect perfection, not enlightened social views.

This is Buddhist "sainthood," but Buddhist saints are not like the saints of any other tradition. What is a "saint" to the world? It is someone who has temporarily suppressed the defilements and therefore appears "saintly" (moral, kind, wise, immaculate, and so on, often possessing mystic or magic powers to "prove" it. These things are all brought about by the jhanas, samadhi, and are very special but not necessary for full enlightenment.

It has a very precise meaning. Let us begin where we are -- in a state of delusion. We live in an illusion in the sense of not understanding what is actually there in front of us. What do we see? We see permanence, stability, solidity. We see enduring satisfaction, happiness, and fulfillment.

We see a self, identify with it, and imagine ourselves owners. An arhat is a spiritual practitioner who has realized four stages of attainment. The implications of the term vary based on the respective schools and traditions. The oldest surviving Buddhist school links these developmental stages to the dropping away of the ten bonds or "fetters" (samyojana). These are distinct from the Five Hindrances (nivarana), "taints" (asavas, cankers, inflows, outflows, biases), and defilements (kilesas).

1. personality-belief or the wrong view that there is, ultimately speaking, a self
2. pernicious skeptical doubt about the path
3. clinging to the belief that enlightenment can be gained by the practice of mere rules and rituals
4. sensuous craving or strong five-sense strand desire
5. ill-will or aversion
6. craving for fine-material existence
7. craving for immaterial existence
8. conceit, the subtle, persistent habit of conceiving in terms of self
9. restlessness
10. ignorance

The Buddha gave very exact meanings for each of these impediments as well as the stages of Buddhist sanctity as these ten bonds are uprooted and cut off. How this is accomplished is also not a matter of speculation. The Buddha laid out the path, and as one progresses one has a vision of what is path and not-path.
  
There is no entering upon the first stage of enlightenment without an experiential grasp of not-self or egolessness. This is the hardest thing. And it is on account of it that the Buddha did not recognize "saints" in traditions outside the Dharma he made known. Indeed, there were very great beings with great attainments in concentration, wisdom, and mystical powers -- yet they were not free, liberated, emancipated from the cycle of rebirth and suffering. They were, at best, only temporarily sojourning in exalted heavens to fall again after staggering lifespans.

In many Christian schools today, "saint" simply means someone in heaven or guaranteed to be reborn in heaven. There are relatively few, while we comfort ourselves that every nice person ends up among the elect. The sad fact is that this is simply a comforting belief we cling to because the truth, and our associated views, are too much to bear.

1. Meditators free of the first three bonds are stream-enterers or stream-winners -- capable of being reborn a maximum of seven more times, guaranteed to become arhats.
2. Those who have in addition abandoned the grosser forms of the fourth and fifth as well are called once-returners, who might return to (be reborn in) this world, the lowest good rebirth within the Sensual Sphere, no more than once.
3. Those who are fully freed from the first five "lower" fetters (binding beings to the Sensual Sphere) are non-returners, who do not return to (are not reborn in) this sphere.
4. Those who are freed from all ten bonds are called arhats, that is, worthy ones, perfected ones, "holy" (whole, with integrity, integrated, wholesome) or accomplished ones.

Later schools developed different goals, such as the bodhisattva ideal -- the idea that vowing to strive to be a teaching buddha was not only possible but preferable to the goal the historical Buddha encouraged and taught the way to, that of the arhat who reaches safety (the stream) in this very life. Becoming a stream winner (one who has glimpsed nirvana) means that for the first time in this beginningless samsara one has put a limit on suffering. With no more than seven lives to undergo, which can mean millions of years of suffering (i.e., being disappointed) in delightful sensual and fine-material (even a few immaterial) "heavens" before nirvana. The Buddha was an arhat.

In the Early Buddhist schools

Bodhisattva Simpson (Concerning Art)

A range of views on the relative "perfection" of arhats existed among early Buddhist schools. In general, the Mahāsāṃghika branch -- such as the Ekavyāvahārikas, Lokottaravādins,^[9] Bahuśrutīyas,^[10] Prajñaptivādins, and Caitika^[11] schools -- advocated the transcendental and supermundane nature of buddhas and bodhisattvas, and the fallibility of arhats.^[12] The Caitikas, for example, advocated the ideal "career" choice of the bodhisattva (bodhisattva-yāna) over that of the arhat (śrāvaka-yāna) and viewed arhats as fallible and still subject to ignorance.^[13]
   
According to A.K. Warder, the Sarvāstivādins held the same position as the Mahāsāṃghika branch regarding arhats, considering them imperfect and fallible.^[14]
  
The Kāśyapīya school also held the doctrine that arhats were fallible and imperfect, similar to the view of the Sarvāstivādins and the various Mahāsāṃghika sects.^[15] Moreover, the Kāśyapīyas believed that arhats have not fully eliminated desires, that their "perfection" is incomplete, and that it is possible for them to relapse.^[16]

  

How the word is derived

Guru Homer (livejournal.com)

The exact etymology and interpretation of Sanskrit words such as arhat remains disputed. In the Theravada tradition, and in early PTS publications, the word is interpreted to mean "worthy one."
  
This has been challenged by more recent research. Comparing ancient Indian forms arahanta and arihanta^[2] in Pali and early Jain Prakrit languages results in the alternative etymology "foe-destroyer" or "vanquisher of enemies."
  
This corresponds to the Jain definition.^[3] The latter challenges the assumption that the root of the word is Pali araha (Sanskrit, arha). Richard Gombrich has proposed an etymology of ari + hanta, bringing the root meaning closer to jina (an epithet commonly used for both the Buddha and Mahavira, the leaders of the Jains and Buddhists.^[4]

  

Arhat was translated into East Asian languages phonetically as a transliterated term, exemplified in the Chinese āluóhàn, often shortened to simply lohan. However, the Tibetan term was translated by meaning from Sanskrit as dgra bcom pa, which translates as, "one who has destroyed the foes of afflictions."^[5] This Tibetan translation of the meaning conforms with the Jain definition as well.

  

Arhat occurs as arhattā in the Rigveda^[6] and as the first offer of salutation in the main Jain prayer, the Namokar Mantra. Based on a possible Sanskrit etymology, Arhant can be translated as deathless since hant in Sanskrit means "death or killing" and ar is often used for negation, implying "cannot be killed" or "beyond death" or "deathless."

• Buddhist Podcast, June 10, 2025; Dhr. Seven, Amber Larson, Pat Macpherson (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly Wiki edit Arhat (Buddhism), 7/11/12

Bhikkhu Bodhi, what is enlightenment?

Bodhi ("enlightenment"), what does it actually mean? with scholar-monk Bhikkhu Bodhi

Isn't the homelife harder than the left-home life?

(Daniel Aitken) Watch the full episode at dharmachats.com. In this Dharma Chat, renowned American Theravada Buddhist scholar-monk and translator of the Pali canon Bhikkhu Bodhi (one of Wisdom Quarterly's root-teachers through his scholarship, BPS.lk editorship, and one-on-one communications, the New Jersey born/California-trained Jewish-Buddhist Dr. Jeffrey Block, Ph.D., Claremont, who still teaches us and leads us in meditation every Wednesday evening live from Chaung Yen Monastery in Carmel to our base in Los Angeles) sheds light on the meaning of his own monastic Buddhist name, "Bodhi." Join him as he unveils the multifaceted nature of the word bodhi (awakening to the ultimate truth and thereby realizing complete liberation as nirvana).

• What has Bhikkhu Bodhi translated and written?
• VIDEO: The truth about enlightenment (bodhi)

Bhikkhu Bodhi, if the Buddha means "the Enlightened One," what does buddha mean?

Expectations impede attainment of enlightenment

Enlightened (bodhi-fied persons) are not called buddhas because that term is reserved for two very rare and special types of awakened individuals, the private (nonteaching self-awakened) and public (supremely self-awakened teaching) buddhas. Other "noble ones" are noble disciples (enlightened students), whose experience of enlightenment is the same as the buddhas with the difference that buddhas have other additional knowledges and powers like the dasa-balas or "Ten Powers of a Tathagata") which distinguish a supreme (samma-sam-bodhi) teacher from his successful students who have awakened to the same ultimate truths by pursuing the path he has pointed out. It may sound like a technical difference between these three kinds of individuals, "Enlightened Ones," as it were but it is key to comprehending how extraordinarily rare a supreme-enlightened-teaching buddha is, how rare and extraordinary pacceka-buddhas (nonteaching buddhas with the same knowledge but not the capacity to teach), and how relatively less rare (but still extraordinarily rare) disciple-arahants ("enlightened beings") are.

What does "Buddha" mean? An article by Bhikkhu Bodhi may change some minds

(Doug's Dharma) Let's take a look at a recent article by American scholar-monk and Pali canon translator Bhikkhu Bodhi on the meaning of Buddha and his related realization.

Some contemporary scholars have argued that bodhi ("enlightenment") should be translated as "awakening" and the historical Buddha should therefore be understood to mean "the Awakened One."

Bhikkhu Bodhi prefers a different option, and we'll see why.

• 00:00 Intro to the dispute
• 05:17 1. English definitions of the terms
• 07:48 2. Looking at Pāli language usage
• 08:56 3. Early metaphors and similes
• 14:08 A hidden irony or contradiction [by analogy bodhi is spoken of as enlightenment or awakening, whereas 

NOTE: A recent article by Western Buddhist monk Bhikkhu Anālayo calls Bhikkhu Bodhi's translation of this term into question. Doug Smith has done a follow up video discussing that response here:

• What does "Buddha" mean: A Live Controversy...

✅ Articles mentioned

• Bhikkhu Bodhi, “On Translating ‘Buddha’” JOCBS 2020 (19). academia.edu/44864912...
• “In Defense of ‘Enlightenment’” Tricycle Magazine tricycle.org/magazine/enlight...

✅ Book mentioned

• Carl Sagan, The Demon Haunted World, Science as a Candle in the Dark — amzn.to/3yGFLgy

☸️ FREE MINI-COURSE at the Online Dharma Institute: onlinedharma.org.

🧡 Find this material useful? Check out Doug's Dharma's Patreon and get fun benefits like exclusive videos, audio-only versions, and extensive show notes: dougsseculardharma

🧡 Donations? paypal.me/dougsdharma

Facebook: onlinedharmainstitute. Twitter: dougsdharma

✅ Video mentioned: Gauging Progress on the Buddhist Path: The Traditional Four Stages — [of Enlightenment].

✅ Suttas (Pali canon sutras) mentioned: suttacentral.net/mn4/en/bodhi (Appears at 4.34) suttacentral.net/an3.53/en/bodhi

• Bhikkhu Bodhi (BAUS.org/en); Daniel Aitken, Jan. 26, 2024; Doug Smith (Doug's Dharma), Aug. 9, 2021; Dhr. Seven, Amber Larson, Ashley Wells (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

The Buddha's relics found in China?

"Relics" are so common now that replicas flood the market and found on Etsy. Real? 😒

Beyond Science with Brilliant Host

(Beyond Science) This name is especially familiar among Buddhists because Scythian (Saka, Shakyamuni) Prince Siddhartha Gautama went on to become the Buddha. Now 2,500-year-old relics (sariras, holy remains) of the Buddha have been found in a Chinese village.

• 

  The Buddha was an arahant but so much more.

  Siddhartha Gautama is THE Buddha because ordinary enlightened individuals, who are very rare and special, are called arahants, those who have achieved bodhi (enlightenment or awakening). But a buddha is far more rare in that "silent buddhas," known as pacceka-buddhas, discover the path, the Middle Way to enlightenment, on their own without a teacher. They are unable to teach that path. Supremely enlightened or samma-sam-buddhas not only discover the path but are able to effectively teach it and establish the Dharma in the world to benefit countless human and deva (shining ones, light-) beings. Although arahants might be called "personal buddhas," they are disciples of one of the extraordinarily rare supremely awakened buddhas. To call the Buddha "Buddha" is to fail to recognize his extraordinary rareness and diminish his importance in this world cycle. Indeed, there have been and will be other buddhas, but they come along so rarely as to be inconceivably precious.

This rare matter has the power to multiply.

In a stunning discovery, 2,500-year-old remains believed to be linked to the historical Buddha were uncovered in a remote Chinese village.

Archeologists and historians are calling this one of the most important spiritual and historical finds in decades. 2,500-Year-Old BUDDHA’s Remains Found in Chinese Village | Watch (MSN)

• Relics associated with the historical Buddha
• News: The Buddha's tooth relics to be enshrined (VisitBangkok)
• US hands over [precious] Tibetan Buddhist relics to China (Radio Free Asia)
• Tibet Rights Collective: China’s fake relics and the exploitation of Buddhism

Precious relics (sariras) in special containers

Such relics are widespread, having been apportioned into eighths and placed inside eight giant stupas (burial mound reliquaries) by kings of ancient Proto-India, and one off-planet. The relics multiplied and were spread throughout the world in countless stupas. To see a large, and growing, number of them in the Los Angeles area, visit MahaStupa.org

Wei Mountain, Rosemead, LA County, CA, USA (MahaStupa)

The Jewel Sutra (Ratana Sutta)

.

All beings gathered here

from earth and aether

may we all be happy at heart

to listen carefully to what is said.

All beings, heed:

Love human beings,

who day and night make offerings

and please protect them diligently.

There is no wealth here or beyond,

no sublime jewel found in heaven,

that equals the Enlightened One.

This sublime jewel is the Buddha:

By this truth, may all beings be well!

Cessation, dispassion, deathless, sublime

attained by the Scythian Sage in samādhi --

without equal is that Dharma.

This sublime jewel is the Dharma:

By this truth, may all beings be well!

The purification praised by the Buddha Supreme

is said to be the “absorption with immediate fruit.”

No equal to that absorption is found.

This sublime jewel is the Dharma:

By this truth, may all beings be well!

The eight individuals praised by the wise

are the four pairs of the Awakened One’s disciples,

worthy of offerings and all other courtesies.

For what is given to them is abundantly fruitful.

This sublime jewel is the Noble Saṅgha:

By this truth, may all beings be well!

I go for guidance to the Teacher, the Teaching, and the successfully Taught (tricycle.org)

.

Dedicated to the Buddha’s dispensation,

strong-minded, free of craving for sense,

they have attained the aim, plunged into deathless freedom

and enjoy a cooling they have thus gained.

This sublime jewel is the Noble Saṅgha:

By this truth, may all beings be well!

As a boundary-post set firmly in the ground

is unshaken by winds of the four directions,

I say a supreme person is just this way,

who knows-and-sees the enlightening truths.

This sublime jewel is the Noble Saṅgha:

By this truth, may all beings be well!

Those who fathom the enlightening truths [sacca]

taught by the one of deepest wisdom

do not undergo more than seven rebirths

even if they are extremely negligent.

This sublime jewel is the Noble Saṅgha:

By this truth, may all beings be well!

When they attain the eye of wisdom,

they give up three things:

personality view, skeptical doubt, and

any clinging to rules or rituals.

They are freed from four miserable planes

and cannot do six heinous (karmic) actions.

This sublime jewel is the Noble Saṅgha:

By this truth, may all beings be well!

Even if they do some unskillful deed

through body, speech, or mind,

they are unable to conceal it,

which is said of those who have seen the Truth.

This sublime jewel is the Noble Saṅgha:

By this truth, may all beings be well!

As a tall forest tree springing flowers

in the first month of summer

he taught the supreme Dharma

leading to cessation, to ultimate freedom.

This sublime jewel is the Buddha:

By this truth, may all beings be well!

The knower, giver, and bringer of the sublime

taught the most sublime Dharma.

This sublime jewel is the Buddha:

By this truth, may all beings be well!

The past is ended, nothing anew is produced:

Their minds hanker after no future rebirth.

Spent seeds desire no growth,

The ever-mindful become as still as this lamp.

This sublime jewel is the Noble Saṅgha:

By this truth, may all beings be well!

All beings gathered here

of earth and aether,

the Enlightened One is honored by devas and humans!

We honor the Buddha! May all be safe!

All beings gathered here

of earth and aether,

the Enlightened One is honored by devas and humans!

We honor the Dharma! May all be safe!

All beings gathered here

of earth and aether,

the Enlightened One is honored by devas and humans!

We honor the Noble Saṅgha! May all be safe!

• Dhr. Seven (trans.), Kalyani (ed.), Wisdom Quarterly

Ten Mental Defilements and Four Floods

Learn to surf, to "go with the flow," before the waves, before the flood (Sandra Dee/WQ).

Holy cow, the waves are coming to drown us in a flood of force we can't resist.

.

Fat Happy Budai loves to play through danger.

A "flood" (ogha) or taint (asava, lit. "influx") is another kind of defilement, of which there are four.

They are also referred to as "cankers, corruptions, or intoxicating biases" in Buddhism.

A list of four floods (as in DN 16, Pts.M., Vibhanga) exists, namely, the flood of:

1. sense-desire (kāmāsava)
2. [craving for eternal] existence (bhavāsava)
3. [wrong] views (ditthāsava)
4. ignorance (avijjāsava).

If waves are rolling in on us, what should we do? Run from the world or learn to surf?

.

Hey, I gotta get back to intensive surf training.

A list of three, omitting the "flood of views," is possibly older and is more frequent in the basket of discourses (Sutta Pitaka, e.g. in MN 2, MN 9, DN 33; A.III.59, 67; A.VI.63.

In the Vibhanga (Section 17, the Khuddakavatthu Vibhanga) both the threefold and fourfold division are mentioned. In addition to taints (asava), the fourfold division also occurs under the name of "floods" (ogha) and "yokes" (yoga).

Japanese Buddhists warned of tsunamis to come

Through the path of stream-entry -- the first stage of enlightenment (or initial phase of awakening) -- the flood of views is overcome.

Through the path of non-returning -- the third stage of enlightenment -- the third stage enlightenment -- flood of sense-desire (craving for sensual pleasures) is overcome.

Through the path of arhatship, the floods of craving for eternal existence and ignorance are overcome.

Cow-a-Bunga, I got this covered!

The "All the Taints Discourse" (Sabbasava Sutta, MN 2) shows how to overcome the floods, namely, through:

• insight,
• sense-control,
• avoidance,
• wise use of the necessities of life,
• and so on.

For a commentarial exposition, see Atthasālini (Tr. I, p. 63f: II, pp. 475ff).

Who's afraid of a flood, a tainted heart/mind?

Another name for a fully enlightened person or Buddhist arhat is khīnāsava, "one whose floods are overcome," "one whose taints are destroyed," or "one who is canker-free." This is a fully awakened individual.

The state of the arahat (Pali arahant) is frequently called āsavakkhaya, "the destruction of the taints."

Sutras concluding with the attainment of full enlightenment by the listeners often end with the words: "During this utterance, the hearts [minds] of the [hearers] were freed from the floods through clinging no more" (anupādāya āsavehi cittāni vimuccimsū'ti).

What are the Ten Defilements (kilesa)?

The great Theravada commentator Buddhaghosa compiles The Path of Purification.

.

"Defilements" (kilesa) are heart/mind-defiling, unwholesome qualities. According to The Path of Purification (Vis.M. XXII, 49, 65):

"There are ten defilements, thus called because they are themselves defiled, and because they defile the mental factors associated with them. They are:

• (1) greed (lobha),
• (2) hatred (dosa),
• (3) delusion (moha),
• (4) conceit (māna, the habit of self-reference),
• (5) speculative views (ditthi),
• (6) skeptical doubt (vicikicchā),
• (7) mental torpor (thīna),
• (8) restlessness (uddhacca);
• (9) shamelessness (ahirika),
• (10) lack of moral dread (anottappa)."

For 1-3, see "roots" (mūla); 4, see māna; 5, see ditthi; 6-8, see "Five Hindrances" (nīvarana); 9 and 10, see ahirika-anottappa.

The ten are explained in Dhs. 1229f and enumerated in Vibh. XII. No classification of these Ten Defilements is found in the sutras (Sutta Pitaka), though the term occurs quite often in them. For the related term, "impurities" (upakkilesa) different lists are given (Appendix).

• Ven. Nyanaponika, Buddhist Dictionary: Manual of Buddhist Terms and Doctrines, entry: āsava and kilesa (palikanon.com); edited by Dhr. Seven, Wisdom Quarterly

Verses of Enlightened Nuns (Therigatha)

SuttaFriends.org; Amber Larson (ed.), Wisdom Quarterly

Verses of Arahant Nuns: Therīgāthā

The Buddha blesses the enlightened nun Subha ("Beautiful") Jivakavandavanika

.

Therigatha (store.pariyatti.org)

The Therīgātha (the gathas or verses" of the theris or "female elders," i.e., nuns with ten or more rainy seasons standing in the Sangha, in this case enlightened nuns) is a collection of verses spoken by, to, or about fully enlightened nuns who lived in the time of the Buddha. It is uplifting to take time to get to know the lives of these great female "saints" or arahants. If one enjoys sutras about how women and others became enlightened, reached the stages of awakening, one is bound to enjoy the ancient collection of verses by male enlightened elders known as the Theragātha.

• Get the printed book | Download a reading checklist

Death of U.S. monk: "Arahant" Vimalaramsi

"Enlightened" Delson Armstrong, Dhamma Sukha MC, Missouri; Eds., Wisdom Quarterly 

Bhante V has passed away

(TWIM - Dhamma Sukha Meditation Center) June 29, 2023. Accomplished student Delson Armstrong remembers American Theravada monk Ven. Vimalaramsi's life and reveals some amazing stories -- without indicating why and how he thinks, believes, or knows any of this.

Bhante Vimalaramsi passed just after midnight on June 27th, 2023, after everyone left his room at the nursing home at 11:00 PM.

He seemed very peaceful and uplifted. Delson Armstrong talks about Bhante's life and reveals some untold stories of their past lives.

It is possible to attain enhanced psychic abilities by practicing tevijja (abhijñā). This is the "triple knowledge." It is the way the Buddha himself attained full awakening according to the sutra texts.

This is a self-proclaimed remembrance of alleged past lives, seeing people in other realms and seeing how they go there until finally attaining awakening.

Anyone can develop the divine eye as did the great monks Anuruddha and Moggallana. It is possible. Bhante V taught this to select students who were able to succeed in the practice -- but only the most advanced ones.

Hey, everyone, look at me! Only I understand

Bhante V background and how he claims he re-discovered the Path

(TWIM - Dhamma Sukha Meditation Center) June 26, 2010. Bhante exalts himself and dismisses other, talking about his background and the story about what happened before he left for the airport to go to Asia to become a monk. He didn't make it. He talks about how an errant monk [Ven. Punnaji] told him to only regard the sutras [and forget about the invaluable commentarial material] and try to re-read the discourses from a different perspective.

Psychic powers sutra

"If one wants, one recollects manifold past lives [lit., 'previous homes'], that is, one birth, two births, three births, four, five, ten, 20, 30, 40, 50, 100, 1,000, 100,000, many aeons of cosmic contraction, many aeons of cosmic expansion, many aeons of cosmic contraction and expansion, [recollecting,] ‘There I had such a name, belonged to such a clan, had such an appearance. Such was my food, such my experience of pleasure and pain, such the end of my life. Passing away from that state, I re-arose there. There, too, I had such a name, belonged to such a clan, had such an appearance. Such was my food, such my experience of pleasure and pain, such the end of my life. Passing away from that state, I re-arose here.’ Thus, one remembers one’s manifold past lives in their modes and details. One can witness this right there whenever there is an opening" (dhammatalks.org/suttas/AN).

• Retreat June 22-July 2 DSMC Delson Armstrong
• dhammasukha.org
• delsonarmstrong.info

Where: Dhamma Sukha Meditation Center (dhammasukha.org) A complete guide to the meditation the way [Ven. Vimalaramsi says] the Buddha taught: thepathtonibbana.com.

How to practice Metta/TWIM Meditation dhammasukha.org/beginner-... What are the "6 Rs" (dhammasukha.org/the-6rs). Donate: Help pay the expenses of Delson Armstrong and visiting monks (dhammasukha.org/shop-donations...)