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Stream Entry (1 of 2) - Ajaan Thanissaro

The following talk was given by Ajaan Thanissaro at The Sati Center in Redwood City, CA on September 15, 2024. Please visit the website www.audiodharma.org for more information.

Stream Entry (1 of 2)

We have all had the experience of finding peace in meditation, only to find it falling away. This is one of the lessons of impermanence and inconstancy. However, it turns out that there are four attainments that make a permanent change in the mind. Today, we are going to talk about the first of them, which is called stream entry¹. These are the noble attainments.

Stream entry is often explained through two primary images. The first is the image of entering a stream. The idea is that once you have entered the stream, you will inevitably go all the way to Nibbāna² within seven lifetimes, just as a person who falls into a river will eventually be carried by the current out to the ocean. The second image is the arising of the "Dharma eye"—when you actually see something you have never seen before, which effects a permanent change in the mind. We will be discussing both of these images today: the stream image this morning, and the Dharma eye image this afternoon.

This experience is immediately blissful; it is a direct knowledge of Nibbāna, or "unbinding," and the deathless. It has a radical, long-term impact on you. First, it changes your relationship to the Dharma³. You have seen the truth for yourself, and you are said to be consummate in your view regarding the Four Noble Truths⁴. They are no longer just an assumption. The Buddha gave the image of looking down into a well: you can see that there is water there, even if you haven't plunged in yet. In the same way, you have seen the deathless, even if you haven't fully taken the plunge. Because you have seen it, your knowledge of the Dharma is now independent of others. Even if you were cut off from all contact, you could still manage your own path. It might take longer without help, but you can do it.

Secondly, it changes your behavior. You are said to be consummate in virtue, strictly holding to the Five Precepts⁵. These virtues are said to be "pleasing to the noble ones." They are untorn and unspotted. I have always liked that concept: unspotted virtue. You would not intentionally break the precepts, but at the same time, you hold to them in a way that is conducive to concentration. You aren't obsessive about them or constantly worrying about minor issues because you see your intentions much more clearly now. You realize that virtue is a matter of intention. Furthermore, even though your precepts are untorn, they are not "grasped at." You don't build a sense of identity or superiority around them; you follow them because you see they need to be followed.

Finally, this experience changes your future course in samsara⁶. It cuts through three of the ten fetters⁷ that bind you to the process of wandering: self-identity view, doubt about the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha, and grasping at precepts and practices. Samsara, by the way, is not a place; it is an activity. It is something we do—wandering on, creating new worlds, inhabiting them until they fall apart, and then creating new ones over and over. A stream-enterer will do this for no more than seven lifetimes, and those lifetimes will be at the human level or higher.

The Buddha once illustrated this by picking up a little dirt on his fingernail. He asked the monks which was greater: the dirt under his fingernail or the dirt in the entire Earth. The monks, of course, said the Earth. He replied that for a stream-enterer, the amount of suffering left is like the dirt under the fingernail; for those who haven't attained the stream, it is like the dirt in the entire Earth. So, it is a very good experience to have.

Prerequisites for the Stream

The prerequisites for this experience are a basic list of four things:

1. Association with people of integrity.
2. Listening to the true Dharma.
3. Appropriate attention.
4. Practice of the Dharma in accordance with the Dharma.

These four steps correspond to the three types of discernment. The first two—associating with people of integrity and listening—correspond to the wisdom gained through listening. Appropriate attention is the discernment gained through thinking things through. Practicing the Dharma in accordance with the Dharma is the discernment that comes from actual practice—developing the qualities described in the Noble Eightfold Path.

There is nothing esoteric about these steps. Sometimes we are told that because three fetters are cut at stream entry, we must find some secret knowledge to cut them first. In reality, it is the experience of Nibbāna itself that cuts the fetters. You simply follow the path. The Buddha was not a "close-fisted" teacher who saved special teachings for the end; he laid it all out from the beginning. It is like traveling to the Grand Canyon: if you are walking toward a mountain, you can see it ahead of you and know how close you are. With the Grand Canyon, you don't see it until you are right there. But when it happens, everything comes together.

People of Integrity

A person of integrity exemplifies four qualities: conviction in the Buddha’s awakening, virtue, generosity, and discernment. This discernment is "penetrative"—it understands the causes of why things arise and pass away. You aren't just passively watching; you understand what is skillful and what is not.

You want a teacher who is truthful and compassionate. In the Majjhima Nikāya (MN 95), the Buddha provides a test for this. You cannot know a teacher by their online bio or how much they smile in pictures; you have to spend time with them and be observant. Ask yourself: Would this person ever tell someone to do something that was not in that person's best interest? Would they claim to know something they don't? Do they have deep, subtle, penetrative knowledge? A teacher must pass all three tests. Often, people have the eloquence to explain things, but they lack truthfulness or compassion.

To recognize integrity in others, you must have some integrity yourself. If you lack it, you will assume everyone else does, too. You have to develop truthfulness, compassion, and knowledge within yourself.

Discerning the True Dharma

The Buddha provided several tests for discerning the true Dharma. One is the test he gave to the Kālāmas: if a teaching leads you to do something that causes harm to yourself or others—such as killing, stealing, or lying—it is not the true Dharma.

He also gave a list of eight qualities to his stepmother, Mahāpajāpatī Gotamī, to help her recognize the Dharma. When put into practice, the true Dharma leads to:

1. Dispassion rather than passion.
2. Being unfettered rather than fettered.
3. Shedding rather than accumulating (specifically shedding pride and thoughts of revenge).
4. Modesty rather than self-aggrandizement.
5. Contentment rather than discontentment with material things.
6. Seclusion rather than entanglement.
7. Persistence in abandoning unskillful qualities.
8. Being unburdensome rather than burdensome.

Regarding shedding, there is a great story in the canon about Prince Dīghāvu⁸. His parents were executed by a rival king, and his father’s final words to him were, "Don't look too far; don't look too close. Animosity is never ended through animosity; it is ended through non-animosity." Dīghāvu eventually became a trusted servant to the very king who killed his parents. He found the king alone in the forest and pulled his sword three times to kill him, but each time he remembered his father’s words and put the sword back. When the king woke up in a fright, Dīghāvu revealed his identity. They eventually forgave each other and swore an oath of non-harm. The Buddha told this story to a group of monks who were arguing over a trivial matter—one monk hadn't flushed the toilet—to show that if warriors can forgive, so can they.

Contentment refers to material things—food, clothing, shelter—as long as they are "good enough" to allow for practice. It does not mean contentment with your state of mind. The Buddha said the secret to his awakening was that he was never content with his skillful qualities until they reached full awakening. He focused his "discontent" on cleaning up his mind.

Unburdensomeness is illustrated by the story of a monk disturbed by singing birds in a nearby marsh. The Buddha told him to ask each bird for a feather. When the monk did this, the birds thought, "This is a greedy monk," and they all flew away.

The Graduated Discourse

The Buddha often gave what is called a "graduated discourse" to lead people toward the truth. He would start with the virtues of generosity and the power of choice. He countered those who argued that everything is determined by physical causes by asserting that we have the power to choose to be virtuous.

From generosity, he would talk about the rewards—including the pleasures of heaven. But then he would point out the drawbacks: even heavenly pleasures end and can degrade the mind. My teacher had students who were very difficult to please; he joked that they must have been devas⁹ in their last life. Samsara is a bit of a bad joke—you work so hard to get to heaven, only to have it destroy your good qualities so you fall back down.

Seeing these drawbacks, one looks favorably on renunciation—finding pleasure outside of sensuality. Sensuality is our fascination with sensual thoughts. The Buddha would then teach how to find happiness in concentration¹⁰ and, finally, the Four Noble Truths. This path turned all kinds of people into stream-enterers—lepers, kings, and even assassins. There is the story of the archers sent to kill the Buddha in a chain of command; the Buddha converted the first archer, who then warned the others, and they were all eventually converted to stream entry.

Appropriate Attention and Right Questions

Appropriate attention involves looking at things through the framework of the Buddha's categorical teachings: that unskillful qualities should be abandoned and skillful ones developed. It also involves the duties of the Four Noble Truths: suffering should be comprehended, its cause abandoned, its cessation realized, and the path developed.

It is primarily a matter of asking the right questions. The Buddha said that questions like "Who am I?" or "Do I exist?" only lead to a "thicket of views." The right questions are: "What is the suffering here?" and "What am I doing that is causing it?"

The Buddha used the images of hunger and feeding to describe craving (taṇhā) and clinging (upādāna). Taṇhā is the hunger; upādāna is the act of feeding. We are hungry, we find something to feed on, but we are never satisfied, so the cycle continues. Appropriate attention asks how this process is applying to your life right now.

Practice in Accordance with the Dharma

Practicing in accordance with the Dharma means two things. First, you don't change the Dharma to suit your preferences. You must be willing to do whatever the path requires. Second, you practice for the sake of disenchantment, dispassion, and cessation.

Dispassion might sound "dry," like oatmeal without sugar, but it is really about "growing up." It’s realizing that the games you’ve been playing are no longer worth it. It’s like Tic-Tac-Toe: once you see there are only a few ways to play and they usually end in a draw, it's no longer fun. Or it's like Chess: you might not exhaust all the possibilities, but you realize the rules are artificial and don't apply to the real world, so you outgrow it. That is what dispassion means.

Concentration and the Path

Is jhana¹¹ necessary for stream entry? Right concentration is part of the path, so it must be there. Some people worry that if they are in jhana, they can't hear a Dharma talk. But the Buddha’s description of concentration involves full-body awareness. The term ekaggatā, often translated as "one-pointedness," can also mean a "meeting place." Jhana is a place where the mind enters and stays, but you can still hear and apply the lessons of a Dharma talk while the mind is concentrated.

Being attached to concentration is a "good" attachment. It is much better than being attached to breaking the precepts. You learn to apply appropriate attention to the concentration itself, seeing that even this peaceful state is "fabricated" or put together. As you pull back and watch, the mind inclines toward putting down all attachments, leading to the arising of the stream.

Q&A

Question: Is appropriate attention the same as penetrative insight into arising and passing away?

Ajaan Thanissaro: Appropriate attention is asking questions about whether your actions are skillful. Penetrative insight means knowing why a factor arose in the mind and making a value judgment that it is not worth following. They are related and both are active processes. A good check for appropriate attention is to ask: "When there is a problem, am I looking at my own contribution to it, or someone else's?"

Question: Are people in Asia more conducive to becoming stream-enterers than Westerners?

Ajaan Thanissaro: [Laughter] I haven't done a census. The only stream-enterers I know are in Asia, but Asia is getting as crazy as the rest of the world.

Question: How do jhana and samādhi relate to the five aggregates?

Ajaan Thanissaro: Samādhi¹² is a fabricated state. If you focus on the breath, that is form. The pleasure is feeling. The image of the breath is perception. Your intention to stay focused is fabrication. Your awareness of these is consciousness. You are putting these together to cut off other attachments. It’s like painting yourself into a corner where the only way out is to break through the wall.

Question: Are there simple tests to check our progress, like a monthly or yearly review?

Ajaan Thanissaro: You can look at your precepts and your state of mind. Is it easier not to get angry or greedy in situations that used to trigger you? That is a step in the right direction. But as for how close you are to the stream, you don't know until it hits.

Question: How can you tell if someone is a stream-enterer?

Ajaan Thanissaro: You listen to how they explain their practice. I once met a woman who was "certified" as a stream-enterer by a teacher, and she was very difficult. As for monks, we can't answer questions about our own attainments.

Question: What are the biggest obstructions for lay practitioners today?

Ajaan Thanissaro: Appropriate attention is the big one—really focusing on your own stress. Also, society impinges on us more than ever. You have a screen in your pocket telling you that the important things are happening somewhere else, done by someone else. The Buddha says the important things are what you are doing, right here, right now. Remember, the phone hasn't gotten to the point where it turns itself on yet. [Laughter]

Question: How can we let go of fascinations with sensual thoughts?

Ajaan Thanissaro: You develop a "better" pleasure to feed on: the pleasure of concentration. You can also channel that energy into thinking about how to be generous. It gives a satisfaction that you don't get from just meditating all the time.

Question: How can we encourage children to be truthful when they are afraid of upsetting their parents?

Ajaan Thanissaro: We have to get across the message that you don't have to please people all the time. Integrity doesn't depend on being popular. My teacher, Ajaan Fuang, lived in a neighborhood where many people didn't like him. He said the advantage of being unpopular is that when you leave, you don't have to ask permission, and when you come back, you don't have to bring presents.