If everything ceases, is Buddhism the way to bring the ultimate cessation of the cycle of rebirth? What's after?

[daniil]

kind of weird to consider what that would be like. I suppose the initial stream entry is described by sotopannas as the most bizzare experience of their life. anyone have any sources on the experience of first-time stream enterers?
maybe personal accounts?

[paul]

I suppose the initial stream entry is described by sotopannas as the most bizzare experience of their life. anyone have any sources on the experience of first-time stream enterers?
maybe personal accounts?

Theravada practitioners do not talk about their meditative attainments because: 1) they know it has a detrimental effect on the experience itself; 2) there is a provision called 'guarding the sign', whereby profitable mental states that have arisen through concentration are not exposed to idle chatter or random interactions. When living in a monastery the conditions are mostly silent, and they get used to observing that, even in lay life. 3) there are ten fetters binding the practitioner to the wheel of existence, the third last being conceit about meditation attainments, which has to be severed.

[SarathW]

I am not claiming that I am a Sotapanna etc.
However I can recall two distinct life changers for me.
- Learning that the I is an illusion and a dependently originated phenomena.
- I can end the Samsara
- Dukkha arises and perishes right hear and now even if you are not a Buddhist.

[pegembara]

The goal is cessation of dukkha. This can happen while alive ie. nibbana with residue.

"Now this, monks, is the noble truth of stress:[1] Birth is stressful, aging is stressful, death is stressful; sorrow, lamentation, pain, distress, & despair are stressful; association with the unbeloved is stressful, separation from the loved is stressful, not getting what is wanted is stressful. In short, the five clinging-aggregates are stressful.

"And this, monks, is the noble truth of the origination of stress: the craving that makes for further becoming — accompanied by passion & delight, relishing now here & now there — i.e., craving for sensual pleasure, craving for becoming, craving for non-becoming.

"And this, monks, is the noble truth of the cessation of stress: the remainderless fading & cessation, renunciation, relinquishment, release, & letting go of that very craving.

"And this, monks, is the noble truth of the way of practice leading to the cessation of stress: precisely this Noble Eightfold Path — right view, right resolve, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, right concentration.

"What, bhikkhus, is the Nibbana-element with residue left? Here a bhikkhu is an arahant, one whose taints are destroyed, the holy life fulfilled, who has done what had to be done, laid down the burden, attained the goal, destroyed the fetters of being, completely released through final knowledge. However, his five sense faculties remain unimpaired, by which he still experiences what is agreeable and disagreeable and feels pleasure and pain. It is the extinction of attachment, hate, and delusion in him that is called the Nibbana-element with residue left.

What happens at final nibbana is clearly described.

"Now what, bhikkhus, is the Nibbana-element with no residue left? Here a bhikkhu is an arahant... completely released through final knowledge. For him, here in this very life, all that is experienced, not being delighted in, will be extinguished. That, bhikkhus, is called the Nibbana-element with no residue left.

[cappuccino]

The Dhamma, the truth taught by the Buddha, is uncovered gradually through sustained practice. The Buddha made clear many times that Awakening does not occur like a bolt out of the blue to the untrained and unprepared mind. Rather, it culminates a long journey of many stages:

Just as the ocean has a gradual shelf, a gradual slope, a gradual inclination, with a sudden drop-off only after a long stretch, in the same way this Doctrine and Discipline (dhamma-vinaya) has a gradual training, a gradual performance, a gradual progression, with a penetration to gnosis only after a long stretch.

— Ud 5.5

https://www.accesstoinsight.org/ptf/dhamma/index.html

[DooDoot]

anyone have any sources on the experience of first-time stream enterers?

I imagine the experience of stream-entry is one of great relief & safety. The scriptures say all doubts are eradicated in stream-entry.

[2600htz]

Hello:

Whats after is unconditioned, you can´t use language to describe it.

"What lies on the other side of Unbinding?"

"You've gone too far, friend Visakha. You can't keep holding on up to the limit of questions. For the holy life gains a footing in Unbinding, culminates in Unbinding, has Unbinding as its final end. If you wish, go to the Blessed One and ask him the meaning of these things. Whatever he says, that's how you should remember it."

What attaining Sotapanna feels like. You feel happiness, excitement, you feel awake.

"Marvelous, venerable sir! Marvelous, venerable sir! As if, venerable sir, a person were to turn face upward what is upside down, or to uncover the concealed, or to point the way to one who is lost or to carry a lamp in the darkness, thinking, 'Those who have eyes will see visible objects,' so has the Dhamma been set forth in many ways by the Blessed One. We, venerable sir, go to the Blessed One for refuge, to the Dhamma for refuge, and to the Community of Bhikkhus for refuge. Venerable sir, may the Blessed One regard us as lay followers who have gone for refuge for life, from today."

Regards.

[zan]

kind of weird to consider what that would be like. I suppose the initial stream entry is described by sotopannas as the most bizzare experience of their life. anyone have any sources on the experience of first-time stream enterers?
maybe personal accounts?

The Nibbāna-element

This was said by the Lord…

“Bhikkhus, there are these two Nibbāna-elements. What are the two? The Nibbāna-element with residue left and the Nibbāna-element with no residue left.

“What, bhikkhus, is the Nibbāna-element with residue left? Here a bhikkhu is an arahant, one whose taints are destroyed, the holy life fulfilled, who has done what had to be done, laid down the burden, attained the goal, destroyed the fetters of being, completely released through final knowledge. However, his five sense faculties remain unimpaired, by which he still experiences what is agreeable and disagreeable and feels pleasure and pain. It is the extinction of attachment, hate, and delusion in him that is called the Nibbāna-element with residue left.

“Now what, bhikkhus, is the Nibbāna-element with no residue left? Here a bhikkhu is an arahant … completely released through final knowledge. For him, here in this very life, all that is experienced, not being delighted in, will be extinguished. That, bhikkhus, is called the Nibbāna-element with no residue left.

“These, bhikkhus, are the two Nibbāna-elements.”

These two Nibbāna-elements were made known
By the Seeing One, stable and unattached:
One is the element seen here and now
With residue, but with the cord of being destroyed;
The other, having no residue for the future,
Is that wherein all modes of being utterly cease.

Having understood the unconditioned state,
Released in mind with the cord of being destroyed,
They have attained to the Dhamma-essence.
Delighting in the destruction (of craving),
Those stable ones have abandoned all being.

-Itivuttaka 44

[Srilankaputra]

Becoming sotapanna I would imagine is a great solace. He knows for sure, a final end to problems of life is possible.