Part 9-1
“Subhuti, what do you think—can a stream-enterer think, ‘I have attained the fruition of stream-entering’?” Subhuti said, “No, World Honoured One. Why? A stream-enterer is called one who enters the stream, yet does not enter anything. One does not enter form, sound, scent, flavour, feeling, or phenomena—this is called a stream- enterer.” “Subhuti, what do you think—can a once-returner entertain the thought, ‘I have attained the fruition of once-returning’?” Subhuti said, “No, World Honoured One. Why? A once-returner is called one who goes and comes back once, but really has no going or coming—this is called once-returning.” “Subhuti, what do you think—can a non-returner entertain the thought, ‘I have attained the fruition of non-return’?” Subhuti said, “No, World Honoured One. A non-returner is called one who does not come back, yet in reality there is no return, and that is the reason for the name non-returner.”
Commentary:
The primary principle of the Buddha’s teaching is that the essence of everything, ourselves included, is empty.
‘Stream-enterer’, ‘once-returner’ and ‘non-returner’ are names representing the degree of practice that was given to the Buddha’s disciples according to how ripe their practice was. How ripe their practice was depended on how deeply they understood Emptiness, that is, how good they were at seeing and hearing things as they are without being deluded by illusions.
When everything is seen and heard as it is, or when everything is empty, there is nothing to enter, nowhere to go to and come from, and even no thought of no return. If a stream-enterer, for example, believing that there is a fixed stage of practice called ‘stream-enterer’, had thought that he achieved it, he would not have been a stream-enterer but no better than an ordinary person who was deluded by the illusion of ‘stream-enterer’.
That is why Subhuti said that a stream-enterer does not enter anything, that a once-returner really has no going or coming and that a non-returner is called one who does not come back, yet in reality there is no return.
So, ancient masters would say that there is the Buddha to see, Dharma teaching to learn and enlightenment to attain before you get enlightened, but that there is no Buddha to see, no Dharma teaching to learn and no enlightenment to attain after you get enlightened.
Student: “If everything is empty and there is no enlightenment to attain, why do we have to strive to attain enlightenment?”
Master: “Because you are deluded by illusions, words.”
©Boo Ahm
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway
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