#stream entry

Into the Stream. 

K.S. Janes

“The Pali Canon recognizes four levels of Awakening, the first of which is called stream entry. This gains its name from the fact that a person who has attained this level has entered the "stream” flowing inevitably to nibbana. He/she is guaranteed to achieve full awakening within seven lifetimes at most, and in the interim will not be reborn in any of the lower realms."

‘Gotama’s quest led him to abandon everything to do with his place - his king, his homeland, his social standing, his position in the family, his beliefs, his conviction of being a self in charge of a body and mind - but it did not result in psychotic collapse. For in relinquishing his place (alaya), he arrived at a ground (tthana). But this ground is quite unlike the seemingly solid ground of a place. It is the contingent, transient, ambiguous, unpredictable, fascinating, and terrifying ground called “life.” Life is a groundless ground: no sooner does it appear, than it disappears, only to renew itself, then immediately break up and vanish again. It pours forth endlessly, like the river of Heraclitus into which one cannot step twice. If you try to grasp it, it slips between your fingers.

This groundless ground is not the absence of support. It supports you in a different way. Whereas a place can tie you down and close you off, this ground lets you go and opens you up. It does not stand still for a moment. To be supported by it, you have to be with it in a different way. Instead of standing firmly on your feet and holding on tight with both hands in order to feel secure in your place, here you have to dart across its liquid, shimmering surface like a long-legged fly, swim with its current like a fast-flowing fish. Gotama compared the experience to “entering a stream.”’

‘The decline of craving can result in greater freedom and autonomy, as well as in the potential for greater wisdom and love. One is released, at leased momentarily, from fixed conceptions of who you are as a person, from attachment to socially sanctioned norms and rules of behavior, from uncertainty about the validity of what one is doing, from the sense that in matters of greatest importance one has to defer to the authority of others. One is freed to set off by oneself along a path, trusting one’s own judgment, willing to take risks. One’s life becomes oriented around ways to realize one’s deepest values in each situation rather than around the fulfillment of egoistic desires or slavish conformity with a set of religious beliefs. In Buddhist technical language, one “enters the stream of the eightfold path” and becomes “independent of the opinions of others in regard to the Buddha’s teaching.”’

'What practices lead to enlightenments? Most centrally Buddhism uses the liberating practices of mindfulness and loving-kindness. These are supported by the practice of virtue, which frees us from being caught in the reactive energies that would cause harm to ourselves or others. Added to this are practices of composure, or concentration, where we learn to quiet the mind; and practices of wisdom, which can see clearly how all things arise and pass, how they cannot be possessed. Through these practices come purification and healing and the arising of profound compassion. Gradually, there is a shift of identity from being the person who is caught in suffering, to liberation. Releasing the sense of self and all the changing conditions of the world brings "stream entry," the first stage of enlightenment.

The most common gates to stream-entry in the Theravada tradition are the gateways of impermanence, the gateway of suffering, and the gateway of selflessness. When we open through the gateway of impermanence, we see more deeply how every experience is born and dies, how every moment is new. In one monastery where I practiced, we were trained to experience how all life is vibration. Through long hours of refined concentration, we came to sense all the sounds and sights, the breath, the procession of thoughts - everything we took to be ourself - as a field of changing energy. Experience shimmered, dissolving moment by moment. Then we shifted our attention from the vibrations to rest in the spacious heart of awareness. I and other, inside and out - everything dropped away and we came to know the vast stillness beyond all change. This is enlightenment through the gate of impermanence.

Sometimes we enter enlightenment through the gate of suffering. We sit in the fire of human experience, and instead of running from it, we awaken through it. In the Fire Sermon, the Buddha declares, "All is burning. The eye, the nose, the tongue, the body, the mind, the world is burning. With what is it burning? It is burning with the fires of greed, of hatred, and of delusion." Through the gate of suffering we face the fires of desire, hate, war, racism, and fear. We open to dissatisfaction, grief and loss. We accept the inherent suffering in life and we are released. We discover that suffering is not "our" pain, it is "the" pain - the pain of the world. A profound dispassion arises, compassion fills the heart, and we find liberation...

Sometimes we awaken through the gate of selflessness. The experience of selflessness can happen in the simplest of ways. In walking meditation, we notice with every step the unbidden arising of thoughts, feelings, sensations, only to observe them disappear. To whom do they belong? Where do they go? Back into the void, which is where yesterday went, as well as our childhood, Socrates, Genghis Khan, and the builders of the pyramids.

As we let go of clinging, we feel the tentative selflessness of things. Sometimes boundaries dissolve, and we can't separate ourself from the plum tree, the birdsong, or the morning traffic. The whole sense of self becomes empty experience arising in consciousness. More and more deeply, we realize the joy of "no self, no problem." We taste enlightenment through the gate of selflessness and emptiness.

There are many other gates: the gates of compassion, of purity, of surrender, of love. There is also what is called the "gateless gate." One teacher describes it this way: "I would go for months of retreat training, and nothing spectacular would happen, no great experiences. Yet somehow everything changed. What most transformed me were the endless hours of mindfulness and compassion, giving a caring attention to what I was doing. I discovered how I automatically tighten and grasp, and with that realization I started to let go, to open to an appreciation of whatever was present. I found an ease. I gave up striving. I became less serious, less concerned with myself. My kindness deepened. I experienced a profound freedom, simply the fruit of being present over and over." This was her gateless gate.'