Lessons In Practical Buddhism - Sirimangalo.Org
Lessons In Practical Buddhism - Sirimangalo.Org
Lessons In Practical Buddhism - Sirimangalo.Org
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knowledge, “I am freed!”<br />
– MN 74<br />
This is nirodhasaññā, the knowledge of the cessation of<br />
suffering that comes when you let go, when you don’t have<br />
the craving; when you don’t cling, because you’ve let go. So<br />
this is seven.<br />
sabbaloke anabhiratasaññā<br />
Number eight is sabbaloke anabhiratasaññā, seeing that<br />
birth in the sensual realms, as a human, even as an angel,<br />
birth as a brahma in the material brahma realms, like a ball<br />
of light or a god with form, or birth in the immaterial brahma<br />
realms of infinite space, infinite consciousness or<br />
nothingness, or total quietude of mind, not even seeming to<br />
have perception, seeing that all of these are undesirable; not<br />
wanting to be born as a human again, not wanting to be born<br />
in heaven, seeing that rebirth itself has no benefit. This one,<br />
I think, is quite difficult. A person really must be an arahant<br />
to experience this perception, so at this stage in the practice,<br />
it is more than we can hope for. We don’t have to worry so<br />
much, but we understand it, and at the very least, we give<br />
up the world that we’re in, for example the world of being<br />
born as a non-Buddhist, being born as a wicked child, with<br />
temper tantrums when we were young, mean to our parents<br />
who tried their best to love and look after us, who was nasty<br />
to our teachers and who got in all sorts of trouble. We try<br />
our best to not make the mistakes that we made before. We<br />
become disenchanted with where we have come from. At<br />
the very least, we can give up our desire for such worldly<br />
evil.<br />
Even a sotāpanna can come back and be born as a human;<br />
though it seems more likely that a sotāpanna would be born<br />
in heaven given their purity of mind. Either way, they<br />
haven’t given up their desire to be reborn. What they have<br />
given up, however, is the defilements of mind that could lead<br />
them to be reborn in a world of suffering – the animal, ghost<br />
or hell worlds. We should all try our best to see clearly<br />
enough to at least recognize the fact that life in any of these<br />
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