If you find yourself learning Buddhism mainly by sitting on your arse in a cold Zen center, which happens to be near your apartment or home, you’re probably doing okay, or so you believe. You’re learning to become an ordinary Buddhist.
Well, if this is where you are at—sorry dude (or dudette)—you’re a lost cause. Count yourself a puthujjanas (S., prithagjana). Puthujjanas are followers of the Buddha but not members of the Triple Gem Sangha which is exclusively made up of spiritual initiates (P., ariysavaka; S., aryasravaka). The spiritual initiates are the nirvana winners who free themselves from rebirth—not the puthujjanas.
All this is an overlooked fact of Buddhism—not conjecture—if one has taken the time to read Peter Masefield’s scholarly work, Divine Revelation in Pali Buddhism. More to the point, Masefield’s book lays out the evidence (and lots of it) that salvation in early Buddhism was limited, exclusively, to a spiritual elite—not the common followers, that is, the puthujjanas.
"It was the ariyasavaka alone who was in possession of right view in the sense that he had seen the impermanence of the phenomenal world, and the existence of a sanctuary lying beyond that realm of impermanence and also a path leading to that sanctuary. Only the ariyasavaka is on the path leading to that sanctuary. Only the ariyasavaka is on the path of nibbana, the path to the cessation of rebirth. The puthujjana, on the other hand, lacking this vision of the ariyasavaka remains ignorant of the existence of that path. He does not see things as they really are and instead remains attached to ensnaring sensual delights, treading at best the path of merit that leads to continued rebirth within samsara" (pp. xvii–xviii).
The aforementioned amounts to a punch in the gut for the conformist Zen center zennie. But more of a punch in the gut is that fact that the old Buddhist canon (Nikayas) is rife with proof of a spiritual division between ariyasavaka and puthujjana. Later on, in Mahayana Buddhism, the division goes even further. It is between ariyasavaka and Bodhisattvas, a genuine Bodhisattva having had bodhicittotpada (the generation of mind that is bodhi) which is perhaps more difficult to accomplish than the ariyasavaka’s stream entry.
"But what's to stop a puthujjana becoming a aryasravaka?"
Two things.
Insufficient merit and insufficient spiritual virtue.
When it comes to insufficient merit, it means the probability of a puthujana coming in contact with the dharma in form of right litterature, or a skillful guiding dharma teacher, is very low to insignificant. The probability on the other hand that the puthujana is born in wrong "family" (too rich or too poor), wrong enviroment like a country filled with conflicts, or too many other disturbing conditions prohibiting proper practise, is high.
When it comes to spiritual virtue, it means that IF this by some strange reason really would happen, the probability of the "student" to possess essential virtues like skillfullness in right concentration, easiness to enter at least 1st jhana and of course enter the higher stages by this virtue, possess ironclad faith in the buddhadharma (as expounded by the Buddha and NOT the myriad E-sangha gurus today). Other virtues should be a natural joy when reading the sutras, the spiritual maps that offers direction through the treachourous waters of the unawakened mind and finally; the singular ability to produce and use the light of bodhi once first enlightenment has taken place for final liberation from all samsaric bonds. The last is only possible by a bodhi-sattva (spiritual-being). That means the awakened spiritual being within the Mind of the student and not somewhere in his carnal body or brain.
These are the minimum requirements for a student of the way, aspiring to become a "aryasravaka".
Good luck. If you are serious you truly gonna need it.
Posted by: azanshi | January 23, 2012 at 05:10 AM
But what's to stop a puthujjana becoming a aryasravaka?
Posted by: ruairí | January 22, 2012 at 05:35 PM
Wai, you are a bleeding moron.
Posted by: Wuwei | January 22, 2012 at 04:56 AM
You're full of shit... But you probably already knew that deep down anyway.
Posted by: Jeff Billson | January 21, 2012 at 09:53 PM
What is taught today is the "heretical Zen of silent illumination", as Dahui (and others) rightly called it.
Posted by: Wai | January 21, 2012 at 08:40 AM