Accumulations

[RobertK]

The Therigatha:
Talking about Theri sundari nanda that at
the time of the Buddha Padumuttara

"> she heard the doctrine> preached…she accumulated merit for one hundred thousand aeons
journeying on among

devas and men."
Finally she attained under this Buddha.

The Theri Sukkha heard the Buddha Vipassi. She gained faith, went
forth, was one of great learning, expert in the doctrine and
possessed of intelligence. > Similarly at the time of the Blessed

one Sikhi and the Blessed one Vessabhu she observed virtuous
conduct and was one of great learning and one expert in the
Dhamma. Similarly she went forth in the teaching of Kakusandha,
Konagama and Kassapa Buddha’s, and she was one of pure virtuos
conduct, one of great learning, and one who preached the
doctrine…In this buddha era she went forth under Dhammadina and
finally became arahant." The time between even one buddha is
immense but conditions are carried on citta to citta.

Or this one Theri Anopama (p178 of transltion by Pruitt)
"> she too performed meritorious deeds under previous Buddhas and

accumulated good in various lives as basis for release" . Panna is
primary but it needs assistance from other conditions too, so the other
parami must also be developed.

Ther factors of enlightenement all depend to some degree on conditions
that arise now, however they are also conditioned partly by conditions
from the past. Even hearing deep Dhamma is to some extent a matter of
vipaka conditioned by kamma a past factor.
How fast and how deep one
understands what one hears is largely conditioned by pubbekata punnata
(merit done in the past). If one has studied Dhamma for some time there
should be growing appreciation that hearing and considering it leads to
more understanding and detachment: This then conditions effort to hear
more, consider more and ‘let go’ more and these are new conditions
arising in the present, but built on past ones.
Nevertheless, it doesn’t always work that way; why does one person go
so fast, so far and another doesn’t.
Venerable Sunnakhata was the
Buddha’s attendant before Ananda. He listened to Dhamma and attained
Jhana, even to the degree of having special powers of hearing.

But he eventually left the Buddha, spoke badly of the Dhamma, and
followed ascetics who used to live a life of severe ascetism, copying
dogs (dog-duty ascetics). Why, when he had all this going for him?
The
commentary says that this man had lived 500 consecutive past lives as a
ascetic and had these tendencies- he had accumlted wrong view and
thus wrong practice. Even the Buddha’s teaching couldn’t
overcome them. And so we see how dependent past factors are in
conditioning behaviour. Of course Sunnakhata made choices, he had
volitional control over what he did but what he couldn’t see was that
ditthi (wrong view)and lobha were underlying all his choices; such a hard
delusion to see through.

[RobertK]

MAJJHIMA NIKAAYA III
I. 3. 5. Maagandiyasutta.m
III. 4. 5. Cuulakammavibhangasutta.m
(135)- A shorter Classification of actions

`Good Gotama, among humans, why is there evident inferior and
superior states? We see humans with short life.<…>, FOOLISH and
WISE. Good Gotama, why are these differences seen among humans?’

`Young man, beings are the, owners, heirs, origins, relations and
refuges of actions. Action classifies beings as inferior and
superior.'.

Young man, a certain woman or man does not approach a recluse or
brahmin and ask. `Venerable sir, what is merit and demerit? What is
faulty and what is faultless? What should be practised and what
should not be practised? What should I do for my good and well being
for a long time? Or doing what would I suffer the consequences long?
On account of that action, accomplishment and undertaking, after
death he decreases, is born in hell. After death, if he is not born
in hell, and if born with humans, he is born foolish. Young man the
behaviour of not, approaching recluses and brahmins to get doubts
cleared is conducive to be born foolish and unpleasant for a long
time.“”

[RobertK]

Someone asked Nina Van Gorkom if there was a special place where accumulations were stored.

Nina: No storage, there cannot be an additional citta that stores, and there
cannot be anything lasting. That would be eternalism.
One citta falls away, but it is succeeded by the following one. If there
would be no connection between past and present there would be annihilation
belief. The middle way has to be kept!
If we only speak about the present life, I find it obvious that we are
accumulating tendencies, new things we learn. We do not know our past life,
but the Buddha explained about kamma of the past that can produce result in
the form of rebirth and sense impressions in the course of life. How else
could this occur if the force of kamma was not accumulated from citta to
citta, from life to life. Not only kamma is accumulated, also good and bad
tendencies.
If we try to find out how the process of accumulation exactly operates, it
is useless. It does not help us in the development of insight just now.
Reincarnation is not the Buddha’s teaching. There is not an eternal soul
that takes a new body.

[Brunobm]

@RobertK

The Theri Sukkha heard the Buddha Vipassi. She gained faith, went
forth, was one of great learning, expert in the doctrine and
possessed of intelligence. > Similarly at the time of the Blessed

What I find particularly interesting about this text is that even non-enlightened individuals can prove to be good disciples of the Buddhas, sometimes even effective teachers of the Dhamma. Perhaps the merit for their success in teaching doesn’t belong most to them, but rather to the Buddha—who organized the teachings—and to the listeners who realized path and fruition under the guidance of these non-enlightened people. Anyway, learning the Dhamma from unenlightened teachers does have its drawbacks.

These texts reminded me of two more stories:

• one about Venerable Pothila, in Dhp 282;
• another about a studious monk who, after being confronted by an arahant disciple, gave up his routine of study and spent 20 years meditating in a cave until he himself became an arahant. After his realization, he was visited by his former students and by Sakka. I’m not sure about the source of this story, if it’s from some commentary.

There’s also that story about the spoon that sits in the soup but doesn’t taste it. That doesn’t seem to be the case with these Theris in their past lives. They appear to have been sincere practitioners, able to taste something of the Dhamma, even if they weren’t yet able to attain path and fruition.

[RobertK]

@Brunobm

What I find particularly interesting about this text is that even non-enlightened individuals can prove to be good disciples of the Buddhas, sometimes even effective teachers of the Dhamma.

Gamantapabbharavasi mahasivatthera : the worldling whose students were enlightened

I stopped wondering years ago about who is enlightened because I think it is always motivated by tanha. What we can know about a teacher - beyond speculation- is whether they point to the present moment in a way that helps us to begin to insight such moments. The rest is wishful thinking. The Anguttara nikaya commentary tells the story of one teacher, after the Buddha’s time, who had many pupils all of whom attained arahatship. . But he was still a wordling - not even a sotapanna. However, he …

For the putthajjana it is hard to gauge who is explaining correctly, let alone who has attained.
Even the teacher may overestimate their understanding.

[Brunobm]

@RobertK

The commentaries explain that examples like this where a puthujjana teacher helps his students to become ariya is like the Buddha was their teacher (because the putthujana teacher is using the Buddha’s words).

That makes a lot of sense to me. A puthujjana needs to be very careful not to slander the Buddha, the Dhamma, the Sangha, or the Vinaya. They also need to maintain humility, avoiding innovations that only an ariya could rightly recognize as true. Instead of saying, ‘I know things are this way,’ they might say, ‘I understand it this way,’ or ‘In such-and-such discourse, the Buddha taught this.’ By taking this kind of care, they avoid going astray—and avoid leading others astray as well.