Is there a difference in the contemplation practice between an unenlightened person who wishes to become a sotāpanna and the contemplation practice of a sotāpanna who wishes to become a sakidāgāmī?

Question:  Is there a difference in the contemplation practice between an unenlightened person who wishes to become a sotāpanna and the contemplation practice of a sotāpanna who wishes to become a sakidāgāmī?

Than Ajaan:  The object of contemplation switches from the 5 khandhas to asubha contemplation. For the sotāpanna, he contemplates on the aniccaṁ, dukkhaṁ, anattā nature of the body and nāma khandha, i.e. the feelings. He contemplates on them until he sees them as being aniccaṁ, dukkhaṁ, anattā. He knows that there’s nothing he can do to control the 5 khandhas. The body will have to get old. The body will have to get sick. The body will have to die. So, he accepts the truth and let the body get old, get sick or die. This is the object of contemplation for someone who wishes to become a sotāpanna.

Once you are a sotāpanna, then you move on to the next problem. The next problem will be your sexual desire.

When you have sexual desire, you have dukkha. You feel lonely. You feel restless, agitated and uneasy. So, in order to get rid of sexual desire, you have to contemplate on the asubha nature of the body. Your sexual desire arises because you look at the body as being good-looking. But if you look at the body as being not attractive and not good-looking, then you can get rid of your sexual desire.

And then, your dukkha will disappear. So, this is what you need to do in order to get rid of your sexual desire, by contemplating on the asubha nature of the body, such as by looking at the 32 parts of the body or the stages of the corpses. If you can see body in this way, when there’s any sexual desire, you can use it to eliminate the sexual desire.

For a sakadāgāmī, he can do it half of the time, i.e. he can diminish his sexual desire, but he can’t entirely eradicate it because his contemplation is not continuous. Sometimes, the contemplation of the unattractiveness of the body is there when he has sexual desire. Sometimes, it is not there.

But if he keeps contemplating on it more and more, eventually, the asubha images will remain in his mind all the time. At any time, if his sexual desire arises, then these asubha images will come up and stop the sexual desire. If he can do this all the time, then no sexual desire will be able to arise. He will become an anāgāmī. That’s the third stage of enlightenment.

Question:  Is it the same contemplation that they continue from a sotāpanna to the anāgāmī?

Than Ajahn:  No, like I said, it switches, from the 5 khandhas to asubha contemplation. A sotāpanna would like to become an anāgāmī because he doesn’t want to experience any more dukkha. And the sexual desire is the one object that creates dukkha in the sotāpanna’s mind. So, he has to get rid of it by contemplating on asubha.

Dhamma in English, Aug 8, 2020.

By Ajahn Suchart Abhijāto
www.phrasuchart.com

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