Hey guys, need your help here. I remember listening or reading a year or two ago about someone saying that actually a proper buddhist householder is not just expected to take the precepts, walk the noble eightfold path, but also to actually attain the insight into anatta. Thing is, I can't remember who said this, only that I believe it's by a female teacher. Also, does anyone know if there's scriptural support for this?
I don't know... but if it was the Buddha I'm sure he will tell you Arahant is the fitting goal, he has high standards hehe.
If you can aim far and even if you do not reach arahantship, say you reach only anagami at the end of life, that's still not bad.
One must however be aware that stream entry is a highly possible attainment be it for laypersons or monastics.
In the Mahayana tradition, everything we do in relations to the 3 Jewels is aimed at attaining full enlightenment. Even the practice of taking vows is dedicated towards the attainment of the supreme enlightenment. We don't aim our motivation any lower than that because the merits derived with be very different.
Yes, we do not have the ability to attain enlightenment in this very lifetime yet but when we make that wish with the little merits we have got, it is very powerful towards creating the cause for it to happen.
AEN: True. Just thought that it'll be great if you could tell people "the buddha said in this and this sutta that this is expected, so it's definitely possible!" Although I seem to recall also that the Buddha did say something that a follower who has right view will definitely be able to attain stream-entry by the end of his/her life. Or maybe I'm stuffing words into his mouth :P
Steveyboy: Yeah, it's just that sometimes you get people going the whole "I hope that I can make enough good karma so that the next life I can be enlightened" route and don't really make a strong effort in this life.
Originally posted by Jui:Hey guys, need your help here. I remember listening or reading a year or two ago about someone saying that actually a proper buddhist householder is not just expected to take the precepts, walk the noble eightfold path, but also to actually attain the insight into anatta. Thing is, I can't remember who said this, only that I believe it's by a female teacher. Also, does anyone know if there's scriptural support for this?
You can find description in DN 16 Maha-parinibbana Sutta and also other suttas as well.
In DN 16 under heading The Four Specific Attainments it is stated as follows:
……."The layman Sudatta, Ananda, through the destruction of the three fetters (self-belief, doubt, and faith in the efficacy of rituals and observances), and the lessening of lust, hatred, and delusion, has become a once-returner and is bound to make an end of suffering after having returned but once more to this world.
"The laywoman Sujata, Ananda, through the destruction of the three fetters has become a stream-enterer, and is safe from falling into the states of misery, assured, and bound for Enlightenment.
"The layman Kakudha, Ananda, through the destruction of the five lower fetters (that bind beings to the world of the senses), has arisen spontaneously (among the Suddhavasa deities), and will come to final cessation in that very place, not liable to return from that world.
"So it is with Kalinga, Nikata, Katissabha, Tuttha, Santuttha, Bhadda, and Subhadda, and with more than fifty laymen in Nadika. More than ninety laymen who have passed away in Nadika, Ananda, through the destruction of the three fetters, and the lessening of lust, hatred, and delusion, have become once-returners and are bound to make an end of suffering after having returned but once more to this world.
"More than five hundred laymen who have passed away in Nadika, Ananda, through the complete destruction of the three fetters have become stream-enterers, and are safe from falling into the states of misery, assured, and bound for Enlightenment.