18. “What are hallmarks or signs or markers of stream entry? Is this a realistic goal for a modern lay person?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Stream entry ] [Lay life] // [Faith] [Three Refuges] [Virtue] [Self-identity view] [Attachment to precepts and practices] [Doubt]
Quote: “If you’re going to have a goal in life, this is the one to have.” [Purpose/meaning] [Stream entry ]
Sutta: SN 55.5: Sāriputta teaches four factors of stream entry. [Factors for stream entry] [Association with people of integrity] [Hearing the true Dhamma] [Appropriate attention] [Practicing in accordance with Dhamma]
3. “Do you think that a person needs to be on a long silent retreat in order to enter the stream?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Meditation retreats] [Stream entry] // [Hearing the true Dhamma]
1. “I have very little faith in the possibility of being enlightened in this lifetime; perhaps stream entry. Is stream entry a realistic possibility for many of us if leading householder lives?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Stream entry] [Lay life] // [Purpose/meaning] [Liberation]
Sutta: SN 55.1: Unshakeable confidence and being established in virtue. [Three Refuges] [Faith] [Five Precepts] [Virtue]
Reference: The Island Chapters 16-19.
14. “Are transitions from stream entry to once-returner and once-returner to non-returner subtle or are there strong insight experiences? Will one be able to tell if he or she has moved to the next stage?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Stream entry] [Once return] [Non-return] // [Delusion]
8. “How should a stream enterer skillfully deal with delusional others, especially when it comes to family members? I feel like things can get really weird when the view of a stream enterer is so different from the rest.” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Stream entry] [Delusion] [Family] // [Suffering] [Monastic life] [Views]
15. “So that glass of wine at dinner is going to eliminate my chances of stream entry? How about moderation in all things?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Intoxicants] [Stream entry]
10. “What’s the relationship between a deep insight experience (what’s called kensho in Zen) and stream entry?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Zen] [Insight meditation] [Stream entry] // [Ajahn Pasanno]
22. “Can you please explain more about bodhisattva’s path? How can a being cultivate wisdom and avoid becoming a stream enterer? Bodhisattvas mus not realize the Dhamma all the way to last life, correct?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Bodhisattva] [Discernment] [Stream entry] // [Determination]
Story: Ajahn Mun persuades Ajahn Sao to relinquish his resolve to become a paccekabuddha. [Ajahn Sao] [Ajahn Mun] [Liberation] [Gratitude] [Psychic powers] [Paccekabuddha] [Arahant]
35. “Is the experience of jhāna required for stream entry?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Jhāna] [Stream entry] // [Hearing the true Dhamma] [Right View]
8. “How exactly does one enter the stream of Nibbāna for the first time (sotāpanna-magga)? Is it like the arising of jhāna where specific signs and sensations precede the actual arising? The Mahasi Sayadaw tradition teaches that there are 16 stages that precede the experience. Is this useful?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Nibbāna] [Stream entry] [Jhāna] [Mahasi Sayadaw] // [Commentaries] [Self-identity view] [Aggregates] [Right Effort]
Sutta: SN 55.5: Factors of Stream Entry. [Factors for stream entry]
12. “Since the suttas indicate that ‘dry insight’ meditators were a relative rarity, and both anger and greedy personalities would need a certain amount of samādhi or jhāna before being capable of deep insight, can it be assumed that jhāna is a prerequisite for stream entry for a majority of yogis? Did the Buddha recommend a certain amount of jhāna in part because the letting go that allows that state to arise also supports letting go of the self to drop into the stream of Nibbāna?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Sutta] [Insight meditation] [Jhāna] [Stream entry] [Relinquishment] // [Commentaries] [Right Concentration] [Hearing the true Dhamma] [Virtue] [Right View]
4. “Could you expand on the causes necessary to enter the stream? Is it simply a question of amassing these causes and the experience of the eventual fruit or does the practitioner also need to ‘get in shape’ like an athlete preparing for an event who must be in top form? If the latter simile applies, does the yogi need to give it his all or does he merely need to just hang in there long enough for the cause to bear fruit, with just the right amount of dynamic tension?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Stream entry] [Conditionality] [Energy] // [Factors for stream entry] [Discernment]
Sutta: SN 55.5: Factors for stream entry explained in terms of the Eightfold Path. [Eightfold Path]
Simile of splitting a log with an axe. [Stream entry] [Right Effort] [Similes]
11. “Would you please explain bhāvanā-mayā paññā? What exactly is it? Does it only happen when we are at least a sotāpanna or can it happen to a puthujjana? Does it only happen in one mind-moment and may happen again or does it stay with you once it happens?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Meditation] [Discernment] [Stream entry] [Time] [Impermanence] [Insight meditation] // [Commentaries] [Hearing the true Dhamma]
Note: A retreatant later explains that DN 33.1.10 mentions the three kinds of wisdom.
12. “Luang Por Jumnien has said that 80% of the yogis he’s known who have entered the stream did so while listening to Dhamma. He also said that most were laywomen or nuns. What are your thoughts?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Ajahn Jumnien] [Hearing the true Dhamma] [Stream entry] [Women in Buddhism] // [Psychic powers] [Sutta] [Right View] [Ajahn Chah]
Vinaya: Mahāvagga 1.10: Yasa’s friends listen with a mind ready to receive Dhamma.
17. “From reading about or hearing talks and stories of some of the great Thai Forest masters, its seems that many of them were particularly fascinated pre-enlightenment with a single Dhamma principle. They then intensely investigated said principle almost like a Zen koan until they entered the stream. Was the Dhamma koan the cause of their stream entry or was triggering it just part of the greater process?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Thai Forest Tradition] [Koan] [Stream entry] [Conditionality] // [Desire] [Insight meditation]
8. “Is there consciousness (awareness, knowing) in the experience of nibbāna or is there a complete cessation of all six senses, as some traditions say. (Particularly in relation to the experience of stream-entry, which is sometimes described as a cessation.)” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Nibbāna ] [Sense bases] [Stream entry] [Cessation] // [Liberation] [Ajahn Chah] [Sutta] [Thai Forest Tradition]
Sutta: SN 22.59.9 Anattalakkhaṇa Sutta: knowledge of liberation (Chanting Book translation).
1. “Was Ajahn Chah talking about samādhi or stream entry when he spoke about ‘not going backwards’?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Concentration] [Stream entry] [Ajahn Chah]
4. “A stream-enterer is said to come back no more than seven lifetimes. Why the number seven?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Stream entry]
15. Discussion about faith followers and Dhamma followers. [Stream entry] [Stages of awakening] [Death] [Sutta]
Response by Ajahn Pasanno. [Not-self] [Concentration] [Recollection/Death]
Reference: Collected Teachings of Ajahn Chah, pp. 441-445: Ajahn Chah comes down Pu Pek Mountain and nothing is the same. [Ajahn Chah]
Response by Ajahn Cunda. [Ajahn Amaro]
9. “Why is the story of Sarakāni controversial in Sri Lanka?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Stream entry] [Intoxicants] [History/Sri Lankan Buddhism] [Death] // [Stages of awakening]
Sutta: SN 55.24-25: Sarakāni
Comment by Ajahn Karuṇadhammo regarding the wide range of views about stream entry. [Stream entry] [Views]
1. “In what cases, if any, is it useful to try to assess whether stream entry has occurred? Or is this question best left aside?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Stream entry] // [Proliferation]
Sutta: AN 3.12: The place where one attains stream entry is never forgotten. [Stream entry]
Suttas: SN 55.1, SN 55.42: Stream entry described in terms of faith in the Three Refuges, virtue, and generosity. [Stream entry] [Three Refuges] [Faith] [Virtue] [Generosity]
3. “Is walking meditation as ‘good’ as sitting meditation. Can one achieve the level of undistractedness that one needs to be able to investigate the human experience? Or is it part of the bigger picture of mindfulness for seven full days to experience stream entry?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Posture/Walking] [Posture/Sitting] [Insight meditation] [Stream entry] // [Meditation/General advice] [Continuity of mindfulness] [Concentration]
Stories about Ajahn Khao. [Ajahn Khao ]
Story: Walking meditation was Ajahn Khao’s preferred mode of practice. [Ajahn Khao ]
Story: Ajahn Khao’s relics were purple, clear, and incredibly beautiful. [Ajahn Khao ] [Relics] [Abhayagiri]
Recollection: Ajahn Khao expresses gratitude for the place he realized Awakening. [Ajahn Khao ] [Liberation] [Gratitude] [Lodging] [Bodhi Tree]
6. “What is a stream enterer? Can a stream enterer go back? Are there lay people who attain stream entry and remain in lay life?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Stream entry] [Lay life] // [Stages of awakening] [Nibbāna] [Sutta] [Great disciples] [Purpose/meaning]
Written question in Thai: ขอโอกาสกร้าบพระเดชพระคุณหลวงพ่อ ถาม คําถาม Q: Stream enterer คืออะไร? การมุ่สู่โสดาปัตติผล? หรือการมุ่งสู่นิพพาน? Q: นอกจาก นางวิสาขา มหาอุบาสิตแล้ว มีฆราวาส/lay person คนใดบ้างที่เป็นเพียงคนธรรมดาไม่ได้ออกบวช แต่สามารถบรรลุโสดาปัตติผลได้? Q: ผู้ฏิบัติที่ยังมีสามี/ภรรยา สามารถจะมีวาสนาสั่งสมบุญบารมีเพือให้บรรลุสุ่โสดาปัตติผลได้ไหม? โดยที่ไม่ต้องเลิกร้าง/แยกเตียงกับคู่ครอง ขอแนวทางคิคด้วย [Question in Thai]
Reference: The Island by Ajahn Pasanno and Ajahn Amaro
2. “How does a ‘stream enterer’ know in their next life that she/he is a stream enterer?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno and Ajahn Ñāṇiko. [Stream entry] [Rebirth] // [Ajahn Dtun] [Memory]
4. “Does a sotāpanna keep the precepts perfectly?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Stream entry ] [Precepts] // [Virtue]
9. “If a sotāpanna or sakadāgāmī dies and takes birth as a human, are they born as a stream- enterer or once-returner respectively? Or do they return that attainment later in life?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Stream entry] [Once return] [Rebirth]
4. “When the Buddha mentions stream entry, he often mentions both sīla (virtue) and view.” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Stream entry] [Virtue] [Right View]
5. “What about Sarakāni (SN 55.24-25), the stream enterer who took to drink?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Stream entry] [Intoxicants] // [Ajahn Chah] [Precepts]
Story: Ajahn Chah takes in a gangster. [Crime]
1. “How about a teaching that is aspirational yet practical approach to stream entry? Or if stream entry is to rigid of a topic, how about talking about path and fruition?” Answered by Ajahn Ñāṇiko. [Stream entry] [Stages of awakening] // [Precepts] [Learning] [Ordination] [Hearing the true Dhamma] [Faith] [Ajahn Chah] [Becoming] [Insight meditation] [Requisites] [Unattractiveness]
Story: Dabba Mallaputta becomes an arahant at age seven while his head is being shaved. [Great disciples] [Arahant] [Impermanence]
Reference: Dabba Mallaputta, The Dictionary of Pāli Proper Names by G P Malalasekera.
9. “My question is about the amount or type of suffering left when one reaches stream entry. In the last many years of my affiliation with Abhayagiri and Ajahn Chah, an immense amount of suffering has been resolved and fell away. … Is [the remaining suffering] different for different people or are there specific characteristics or defilements that need burning or dissolving?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Stream entry] [Suffering] [Sickness] // [Self-identity view] [Relinquishment] [Attachment to precepts and practices] [Doubt]
Sutta: SN 13.1: The amount of suffering left for one who has entered the stream. [Stream entry] [Similes]
4. “If someone disrobed but held the five or eight precepts, would the attain at least sotāpanna?” Answered by Ajahn Amaro. [Disrobing ] [Stream entry] // [Arahant] [Culture/West] [Buddha] [Monastic life/Motivation]
4. “One of the descriptions I’ve heard associated with stream entry is turning over or correcting something that was wrong …” Answered by Ajahn Amaro. [Stream entry] [Similes] // [Sutta]
Suttas: DN 10, MN 100, SN 7.22, AN 8.11, and many others end with: “… as if he were to place upright what was overturned …”
Follow-up: “Is there a description for the unfettering from sensual desire and ill-will?” [Non-return]
Responses by Ajahn Amaro and Ajahn Kaccāna. [Brahma gods]
Sutta: AN 7.55: Chip from a heated metal bowl.
7. Comment by Tan Cittasaṃvaro: A stock phrase associated with stream entry is ‘independent of the teaching.’ It seems that although they are independent, [stream enterers] can still benefit from guidance. [Stream entry] [Self-reliance] [Hearing the true Dhamma]
Sutta: AN 3.128.
Response by Ajahn Amaro and Ajahn Pasanno. [Faith] [Doubt] [Teaching Dhamma] [Ajahn Sumedho]
Sutta: MN 74.14: Sāriputta’s awakening. [Great disciples]
9. “Because a sotāpanna is supposed to have finished sakkāyadiṭṭhi, does that mean that if they do any actions which involve [unskillful qualities], they don’t carry any kamma?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Stream entry] [Self-identity view] [Unskillful qualities] [Kamma] [Volition] // [Habits] [Personality] [Virtue]
Sutta: SN 14.15: Caṅkama Sutta.
3. “Before arriving at [the noble] attainments, is it expected to exist and have a gradual progression of pāramīs and come closer to stream entry?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Stages of awakening] [Perfections] [Stream entry] // [Factors for stream entry] [History/Early Buddhism]
1. “Can you explain more about the difference between faith followers and Dhamma followers?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Stages of awakening] [Faith] [Discernment] [Stream entry] // [Culture/West] [Relinquishment]
Reading: Bhikkhu Bodhi’s footnote 369 to MN 34.10.
2. “When AN 3.95 mentions that a [stream enterer] may still break some minor rules but not the heavier rules, do you see where the cutoff is?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Precepts] [Vinaya] [Stream entry]
Sutta: AN 4.50: Reasons why a samaṇa doesn’t shine forth. [Intoxicants] [Not handling money] [Sexual misconduct]
4. “What were the follow-on stories of how Sāriputta and Moggallāna attained arahantship?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Great disciples] [Arahant] [Stream entry]
Reading: MN 74: Sāriputta fans the Buddha. [Upatakh]
Sutta: AN 7.61: The Buddha instructs the dozing Moggallāna.
Reading: MN 37: Nothing is worth adhering to. [Clinging]
5. Story: Ajahn Mun realizes stream entry on almsround in Bangkok in bad weather. Told by Ajahn Cittavīro. [Ajahn Mun] [Stream entry]
Response by Ajahn Pasanno. [Recollection/Dhamma]
1. Comment: Someone mentioned that the certainty [of a stream enter realizing arahantship in seven lifetimes] was not a certain certainty. [Rebirth] [Arahant] [Stream entry]
Response by Ajahn Pasanno. [Stream entry] [Great disciples] [Saṃsāra]
2. “Sometimes in the suttas people are aware that the eye of Dhamma has opened and they are now stream enterers. From my experience, sometimes people think they are sotāpanna but are not. What is the experience [of entering the stream]?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Stream entry] // [Thai Forest Tradition] [Suffering]
Reference: The Island by Ajahn Pasanno and Ajahn Amaro Chapters 16–19.
Story: “Better than being a dog.” [Ajahn Chah] [Stream entry] [Fierce/direct teaching] [Aversion]
Follow-up: “Is it normal for a stream enter to know that he’s a stream enterer?” [Stream entry]
Sutta: AN 3.12: One never forgets the place of stream entry.
3. “I remember being at Suan Mokh and seeing in the spiritual library the Dhamma eyes painted on the wall. I heard that Ajahn Buddhadāsa taught ānāpānasati and Dependent Origination because he wanted to open the Dhamma eyes of as many people as possible. Would those who resonated with these teachings continue learning through that path?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Wat Suan Mokkh] [Ajahn Buddhadāsa] [Mindfulness of breathing] [Dependent origination] [Stream entry] // [Meditation/Techniques] [Faith] [Ajahn Chah] [Zen]
Quote: “Everything is teaching us.” — Ajahn Chah.
Follow-up: “So it’s not like you practice asubha and that’s it for the rest of your life.” [Nature of mind]
4. “What does it mean to be a thief of Dhamma (SN 12.70.27)?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Stealing] [Dhamma] [Stream entry]
3. “I’ve always found the simile of the great earth (SN 56.51) encouraging and aspirational. Is [the great mass of suffering] eroded over time or abruptly end when the view changes?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Similes] [Suffering] [Right View] [Stream entry] // [Saṃsāra]
Sutta: DN 2.102: King Ajātasattu’s crime prevents stream entry. [Killing] [Stream entry]
Sutta: Iti 22: Puñña is another word for happiness. [Merit] [Happiness]