Awakened Beings

Overview:

This book explains the var­i­ous stages of enlight­en­ment, con­tain­ing mate­r­i­al found in chap­ters 6–11 of Bud­dhad­ham­ma. It is a com­pan­ion vol­ume to the book on Nib­bā­na and to the book on Calm & Insight.

This book describes in detail the var­i­ous stages of enlight­en­ment, and shows how the Bud­dha defined a tru­ly ‘noble’ per­son. As the ven­er­a­ble author points out, there is a ten­den­cy to look at ful­ly awak­ened beings—arahants—in a negat­ing sense, by only focus­ing on those things they have aban­doned. He empha­sizes how such indi­vid­u­als are active­ly engaged in soci­ety, work­ing tire­less­ly for the well­be­ing of oth­ers. More­over, he describes the tru­ly emi­nent and extra­or­di­nary qual­i­ties of these ful­ly awak­ened indi­vid­u­als, includ­ing the mas­tery over their own perceptions.

An out­stand­ing fea­ture of this book is its empha­sis on ‘stream-entry,’ the first stage of awak­en­ing, where one is ‘sure in des­tiny, with enlight­en­ment as one’s des­ti­na­tion.’ As Ajahn Payut­to points out, the encour­age­ment to reach stream-entry pro­vides a real­is­tic, less intim­i­dat­ing goal for our spir­i­tu­al aspi­ra­tions, while at the same time direct­ly con­nect­ing to the high­est human achieve­ment, of real­iz­ing Nib­bā­na, the com­plete and utter end of suffering.

 

Cover of Awakened Beings

Introduction

        Introduction (pdf)

Eight Noble Beings

        Eight Noble Beings (pdf)

Attributes of an Arahant

        Attributes of an Arahant (pdf)

Physical Development (bhāvita-kāya)

Moral Development (bhāvita-sīla)

Mental Development (bhāvita-citta)

      Wisdom Development (bhāvita-paññā)

Additional Attributes

Seven Noble Beings

King of Arahants

Distinctions Between Different Levels of Noble Beings

Factors of Stream-Entry

       Factors of Stream-Entry (pdf)

Attributes of Stream-Enterers

Buddha’s Words on Stream-Enterers

Additional Points on Stream-Enterers

Appendix 1: Sīlabbata-parāmāsa

Appendix 2: Learned Ones (sutavant), Noble Disciples (ariya-sāvaka), and Noble Dhamma (ariya-dhamma).

Appendix 3: Incentives for Giving

Appendix 4: Additional Scriptural Quotations

Glossary

Endnotes