11. Ten Fetters and Stream Entry

11. Ten Fetters and Stream Entry

By Venerable Amatha Gavesi

Dated: Year 1994

Venerable Bhikkhus, brothers and sisters, subject of the discourse today is how one with his development within gives up the fetters which tie him down to the life of births and deaths.

       These fetters are divided into 2 groups according to their activities. The first 5 fetters are known as “orambhagiya-samyojana” which means that the first 5 fetters push you down, press you down to a worldly life. And those 5 fetters are: believe in a being in you “Sakkayaditti”, Doubt, and the pursuit of practices to the extremes, and also you have the 2 very strong fetters: Attachment and Aversion. These 5 fetters tie you down to the earth, fix you down to the earth. There are the 5 upper fetters which push you towards the Pure Abodes. And they are, belief or attachment to the form world or formless world, there is Ego, there is restlessness in the mind and ignorance. When I say ego, is tendency to compare yourself with another and then the way we are  equal or below another or above another that sort of things. More ego than anything else.

These are 5 fetters which drive you to the five Pure Abodes. An explanation is necessary here. There is where we refer to a worldly life, when we consider the different numerous worlds, the six deities worlds, the human world, animal world, the 4 hell worlds, there are about 31 such worlds. And you associate yourself with these worlds till such times you gain your third stage of development that is ‘Non-Returner’. In this worlds, Desire plays a vital role.  Karma too plays a vital role. Without Desire there is no Karma. Good Karma is that which is committed without any attachment or aversion. Bad karma is you commit the act with an aversion or attachment.

       Now, in our path to liberation, we generally develop 3 things as an essential need in you, and those 3 things are Virtue, Concentration and Wisdom. In the Eight Fold Path, Virtue refers to the 3 things as Right Speech, Right Conduct and Right Livelihood. In regard to Samadhi, you refer to Right Effort, Right Mindfulness and Right Samadhi. In regard to Wisdom, you have the Right View and the Right Thoughts. These are how the division takes place. But you summarized these into 3 categories that is Virtue, Concentration and Wisdom. These are the essential things basically for you to follow the path.

       After you have equipped yourself with these requirements, you are virtuous, you have developed your mind to the 4 absorptions, first absorption, second absorption, third absorption, the fourth absorption, and then also you have developed your wisdom in the way of realistically understanding impermanence, unsatisfactory nature of things and the soullessness.

       In certain people there are doubts. Whether this one pointedness or samadhi need to be developed to that fourth absorptions. There, we have noted you accept to accept what is given in the “4 foundation of Mindfulness”. Where Buddha defines the “Eight-Fold Path” and define Samadhi as the first absorption, second absorption, third absorption and the fourth absorption. But when it refers to “Samma Samadhi”, as a state of mind that should be developed and one proceed along the path, taking the definition given by Buddha in the “4 foundations of mindfulness”, we direct the yogi or devotees to develop their mind to the first absorption, second absorption, third absorption and the fourth absorption.

       There is a purpose one can think of by developing the mind to the fourth absorption. It gives you depth in the mind, it gives you clearness in the mind, it builds up ability in your mind to pierce into a thing and understand the truth. When you think of the 3 realities one has to develop within one, they are all qualities of any component things not found in the surface but found in depth. Therefore you must armed yourself with a mind that can pierce into a thing and realize these 3 truth, impermanent, unsatisfactory nature of things and soullessness. What is found in the surface in all things, all component thing is just permanence, satisfaction and the soul continuity. Therefore, the definition given to Samma Samadhi, in the sutta preached by Venerable Saripuththa Sachcha Vibhangha, as known in the 4 Foundation of Mindfulness, sutta preached by Buddha, the 4 absorptions are requirement. If you do not have these absorptions, if you have not fixed your mind to fourth absorption level, realization is difficult, brothers and sisters. Some tend to skip it and say why don’t we go to Vipassana, Insight Knowledge.  On the subject that I dealt on meditation of developing your samadhi, I explain to you the discussion the Brahmin had with Buddha where Buddha clearly stated that it was after he had reached the eighth Sampatti that he managed to get rid of feelings and perceptions, which qualities are absolutely of no value, misleading, and with such qualities in your mind there is no possibility for that mind to realize the truth. Therefore Buddha said that he realized the truth by transcending his mind to a state when there was this experience of giving up these 2 qualities of feeling and perception, that’s Nirodha. That indicates there are 4 stages your mind develops to fruition level of the truth that the level Arahat maintains and each of those stages you give up certain fetters. And you take necessary steps to remove those fetters from your mind. Today’s discussion will be on this – What fetters you have to remove at the stage of Stream Entry and how do you propose to remove them? What fetters you have to remove at the stage of Once-Returner and Non-Returner and what steps you should take to remove them? Likewise in the attainment of the Arahathood, what you  propose to develop in your mind so that you finally cleanse the mind of all fetters, and gain your liberation.

       This had to be learn by you, not only the development of one-pointedness in your mind and essential quality for the attainment, but the manner you approach to get rid of the fetters. The exercises that you have to performing in getting rid of the fetters, and one by one you perform those exercises and get rid of the fetters and qualify yourself to first the stage of Stream Entry, second the Once-Returner, Third the Non-Returner and fourth the attainment of Arahathood. That is the path we follow.

Some may say generally considering everything as impermanent, unsatisfactory and soulless one would cover up all these things but the easier approach is, for instance we have 3 fetters to overcome before you attain Stream Entry then you attack those 3 fetters, overcome those 3 fetters by specific steps taken to get rid of them. And when you come to a question of attaining  the second stage, where you have to get rid of thoughts that promote desire and attachment or aversion, promote desire and also thoughts of attachment to aversion, then you take  positive steps to get rid of such thoughts of attachment or such thought of attainment (aversion?). Cleans your mind of these 2 things and finally at the stage of Non-Returner,  the steps you have taken to attain the Once-Returner stage you pursue further. Then ultimately by the time you become a Non-Returner you have got rid of thoughts of attachment or thoughts of aversion. Then of course, you attain the stage of Arahathood, you develop your entire attention to the clearing your mind of false view; false beliefs and also bad habits which you have created. Some of them are “I”, “My” and the belief in the soul continuity. This have to be get rid by you, so that you will develop your mind along a certain particular line of development, overcoming these fetters one by one and ultimately purifying yourself for the attainment of Nibbana. This you must know. Without the proper understanding of this there is no possibility of an attainment.

Today I shall deal with the 3 defilements, or fetters I should say, which you have to overcome for the attainment of Stream Enterer. Let us presume that you have developed your virtue well, for that purpose even the 5 precepts is enough but without committing a breach, or any higher virtues like the 8 precepts and the 10 precepts, that is sufficient for the purpose. Then there are the 3 fetters that press you down to the worldly way and these 3 fetters are;  the belief in a person through the pursuit of the 5 grasping groups, and doubt about Buddha, Dharma and the Sangha and various aspects of the Dharma. And the third is pursuit of various cult practices, nothing in keeping with the development of the mind along the path for your liberation.

Now the first fetters is the belief in a being in you. According to Buddhist philosophy, it is clearly indicate in the realization of what suffering is that Buddha gave instances of suffering and also said ultimately if you summarize suffering it is the 5 grasping groups. What did he indicate by that? According to the philosophy of Buddhism, there is no being in us living. It is the delusion created by the mind and you live in that belief and that belief is known as Sakkayaditti. False belief you have developed in you pertaining to the form you bear as the form which is yours, as a being. This entire false concept is created around your form Sakkayaditti, that is so call being formed and that’s yourself. And it is a false belief. This false belief had made you to continue the life in a worldly way. It is essential for the development of yourself along the path that you must get rid of this false belief. False belief is around yourself, the so call being within you is the being in your form, in your physical body so to say, keep the being. And you believe that there is a being like that in you, so much so that you have come to a wrong conclusion that your six sense bases are the activities of this being. Once you have developed your mind to the fourth absorption level, and you have understood properly what is impermanent, what is unsatisfactory and what is without soul, then you divert your attention to the development of insight knowledge. To get rid of this false belief of a being living in you, we advise the devotees to analyze their conduct, behavior. We explain to them that thoughts is the forerunner of all actions. They must carefully observe every activity of theirs. And they realize that a thought arises and the body conform to that thought in a way of committing an act. In all activities committed by you so to say, it is the thought that arises first and the body complies with that thought in the way of committing an act. We call this analysis the examinations of “Nama” and “Rupa”. “Nama” refers to the thinking process and “Rupa” refers to your body. There is the Mind and Body here.

       I would like to bring to your notice, that in a creation of a thought, there are 5 mental factors which perform their task in creating the thought, these are products of the consciousness. There are 6 places where thoughts are created, the 6 places are: your eyes, your nose, your tongue, your ears, your body and mind. They are the places where thoughts are created. To get a proper idea of how this creation is done, let us take an example of the eye seeing something. Your eyes in a good conditions to see, there is an object before the eye to see, when the eye contacts the object, the object get reflected in the retina of the eye. When that reflection takes place, that is a  signal given to the consciousness to appear. There are 3 things appear in there at that stage, there is the eye, there is the visual object which has been reflected in the retina of the eye and  the eye consciousness are right there. Consciousness of course is a thought first you name that as consciousness, where it is reacting to object received by the 6 sense bases, and you identify this consciousness with a specific name and that is when the consciousness is name by the sense base connected with it’s acts, now there are 3 things there, there is the eye, there is the object to vision and there is the consciousness. Consciousness is pure mental energy, it cannot by itself create a thought. It can create a thought when it produces the 5 mental factors. They are: ‘Phassa’ means contact, ‘Vedenna’ means feeling, ‘Sanna’ means perception, volition activity means ‘Sankhara’, and there is attention ‘Manasikara’, these are the 5 mental factors. In the Middle Discourses in the Sammaditthi Sutta, these 5 mental factors which are contact, feeling, perception, volition and attention they are call Nama. And the rupa refers to the 4 elements, element of solidity, element of liquidity, element of heat and element of motion. These are the 4 elements and those are Rupa. Nama is refers to the 5 mental factors; Phassa, Vedanna, Sanna, Cetana, Manasikara.

Now you have a clear definition of what Nama is and what Rupa is. Nama normally refers to the mind, Rupa refers to the body. Now, how did you analyze the functions of these 2, which is clear in Buddhist philosophy that thought is the forerunner of all activities. All actions committed by the body, are directed by the mind, unless the thought occurs and direct the mind, the body does not act. The body by itself cannot do anything, except to breathe, that’s the only activity by the body. All your activities committed by the body are as directed by the mind. Then you watch, how do you watch? Watch the activities. In regards to a proper understanding of Nama and Rupa or mind and matter, you must not just sit and think. It’s knowing activities that you learn this clearly, to differentiate these 2 clearly. Walk about, there is first the mind arising, walk! Then you find the body reacting to that, you are walking. When you are walking you examine it carefully. You watch the feet, where its one leg and place it before. Then you ask the question – Who is this? The mind, mind is observing the movement of the leg. And that movement had been directed by the mind. Likewise  in all activities. Say you hear a noise, a thought arises of having heard it. You must be able to differentiate mind and matter, as I told you, the best way to do it is in movement. It’s not something very deep, it’s something which you can see for yourself, this mind and matter react into each other. Now what is that new creation or what is the development that takes place in you in identifying the mind and the matter so clearly and their relationship with each other. You are under false concept belief what is that? That there was a being in you. And it is the being that directs you to walk, it is the being that directs you to sit, it is the being that directs you to stand, it is the being that directs you to sleep, all these activities are committed according to false concept you have created earlier the being that is in you. But when you analyze the activities of the body and the mind, mind directs the body to perform activities and the body react such direction and perform the activity, you would find that there is no being as such. That’s a false belief, there is only direction given by the mind and the body act in that direction, for that direction, that’s all. You convince yourself that there is no being as such, that all your activities committed by the body are as directed by the mind. And you observe this carefully in movement and not just sitting and thinking about it. Why movement, because you can see clearly that in a practical way and more impressive manner that there is no person as such, here is the movement takes place, why did the movement take place, because the mind directed that movement. Proceed it somewhere you stand, you analyze why did I stand or the mind directed the body to stand, reason maybe something, maybe a pain in the leg, maybe that you want to change your position, anything like that. But it is the body, within the mind that has directed the body to act in that manner. You must bear in mind that there is nothing the body can do except breathing, therefore all these activities are as a result of the direction given by the mind, and you analyze that. And you are now satisfied. Having made such an analysis of all your activities that there is no person inside you who perform these activities but it is the mind that directs the body to perform these acts. Very clear, a simple exercise. Then to convince you further, you analyze the activities also as cause and effect. As cause and effect!

       If you are seated and you get up, you ask a reason why did you get up, because the mind directed the body to get up. Why did the body get up? On the direction by the mind to get over the pain that it was  suffering from. There are always you can clearly indicate find out, it’s not complicated that there is always the cause for the activity of the body. The cause is the mind, activity committed by the body. These 2 things carefully observe by you convinces you that there is no person in you as such, except that these activities are committed by the body as directed by the mind. These are the 2 exercises that we perform for that purpose of getting rid of this ‘sakkayaditti’. What are they? Examination of the activities of the body and finding out and realizing that it’s all directed by the mind. And all activities are the effect of a cause, maybe the mind has given the directive to the body and that body committed that act, as a result of mind directing the body. Mind becomes the cause and the bodily activity becomes the effect. This is how you clearly analyze it. Therefore analysis of this type, body and mind activities must be done by in motion. While you are moving is more convincing then, instead of thinking that the body direct the mind to get up and you get up, you get up and then see who directed me to get up, it’s the mind that directed me to get up. So, convincingly satisfy yourself that there is no being as such in you except that your body directed by the mind to commit certain acts. That directly attack the Sakkayaditti, the false belief that you have that there is a being in you.

       Who created these 5 grasping groups? Where is the 5 grasping groups, originate is in the mind itself, in the thought itself the 5 grasping groups occurs. For instance you saw something, and you saw something because you create the thought to see. In that thought you created, there is the 5 mental factors which according to operation by the consciousness to create the thought, and this very mental factors created this false belief in you that there is a being in you. Very mental factors, contact or created the form within you as the owner of this personality of this person in you, personality. And on this personality you have the appreciating feeling, perception, the ability to identify a thing, committing ‘Sankhara’ and you have the ability to commit an act in the way of seeing, hearing, smelling all these things are done as acts committed by you, and also attention is a development of the mind in the way of giving you promptings immediately when it  requires. They are prompted to do this, they are lead to do this that sort of things, it’s manasikara is doing that. Without going to so much details you just believe it like that. The 5 grasping groups create this false picture of a person in you, false belief of a person in you. Who created the 5 grasping groups? What are the 5 grasping groups? 5 grasping groups are the very mental factors that help to create a thought in connection with your eye, ear, nose, body, mind and tongue. So with these things observe by you very carefully, closely, and given thoughts to, in your analysis of how these things happen, you will have sufficient proof to satisfy yourself that there is no being in you. And we arrive at that conclusion 2 things help you, that is all activities are committed as a result of the direction given by the mind, one. The other is, cause and effect. Now we are convinced there is no being in you, there is the body and the mind. The mind prompts the body to act and the body react to that, direction by the mind.

       In regard to the other 2 fetters like doubt and belief in extremes of practices. Those 2 things there is nothing to practice as such to get rid of them. You get rid of them automatically in reaching the first stage of Stream Entry. That the developed mind sees through that there is no doubt about the Triple Gem, about the important aspects of Dhamma. The development within you has cleared that doubt. Take for example, the belief in a person now that has been completely remove by you as a result of observing all your activities by the body and seeing to yourself and observing to yourself that all such activities are committed as a result of the promptings given by the mind. So that doubt is cleared, with that attainment doubt is cleared. As you attained Stream Entry, no doubt. Doubt is cleared because you are thoroughly convince that the philosophy preached by Buddha is true. And in regard to the pursuit of different different practices to the extremes, that also, there is nothing for you to practice with the development arising in you in reaching the stage of Stream Entry, the dawning of wisdom clears all that. There is no necessity for you to do anything extra to get that out of you. But the question is, whether such education by itself is sufficient for you to enter the Stream? No! Your maturity in the realization of the truth, what is that truth? Truth of impermanence, truth of unsatisfactory nature of things, and the truth of non-continuity of soullessness must develop within you to a height.  After all what is the wisdom that you are pursuing to develop in yourself? The wisdom that you are pursuing to develop in yourself is nothing but the wisdom of impermanence, wisdom of unsatisfactory nature of things, and the wisdom of soullessness. These are the 3 wisdom that you are searching to  develop within you and perfect them. And the Stream Entry you have to develop these 3 to a height. In the impermanence there is this unsatisfactory nature of things  and the soullessness. Therefore, if one practices impermanent, he automatically develop himself with the knowledge with regard to the knowledge he has about the other 2. So concentrate on the impermanence. Now once you have got rid of those fetters as I’ve described earlier, you begin to now analyze, understand and realize impermanence. There is impermanence everywhere. In all your activities, in the body you carry, in all your thinking, and everything around you there is impermanence. But you have to watch that impermanence. Befitting the development of the Stream Entry in you, that’s the essential thing. It’s not a full development of impermanence, but the development that befits the Stream Entry, that’s the basic development within you. In certain cases, just to convince them what we do is, give them an object to see through carefully, analyze that object carefully, and in the activity of that object you will see the impermanence.  So that that becomes a clear object for him to observe and develop the knowledge of impermanence within him. For example, let’s say breathing in and out. If one is rather blunt, rather dull in catching the impermanence everywhere. We say right, observe this activity of the breathing, breathing in and breathing out. When you go on breathing in and breathing out, that exercise you finds impermanence there, impermanence! Breathing in, constant change taking place, breathing out, constant change taking place, you go on observing this, observing this.

       Then brothers and sisters, when your wisdom have reached that height of maturity, there must be an automatic development within you, carrying your mind to a higher level of understanding and realization. And that’s the fruition stage of your entering into the Stream. Fruition stage you call it. And in the Pali we call it Samapatti. How does this fruition take place? You always ask the  question, was there a development in your mind to a higher state, when you analyze in this arising and passing away? For those that have experience that clearly, they say “Yes”. When I started arising and passing, my mind develop to a higher state and for the person who realize that he has reached the maturity of understanding, that fruition, he will describe what he experience at that stage, then we know exactly that he has reached that stage of maturity to enter into the Stream. It did just not merely carry you up to a point like that, but reaches a point when the realization matures in you, and with that description, we come to the conclusion that he or she has entered the Stream. Therefore, your analysis of the ‘anicca’, ‘dukkha’, ‘anatta’ or ‘anicca’ itself, you call that ‘Udhauwaya gnanaya’. ‘Udhauwaya’ means …..  arising and passing away, arising and passing away that is  ‘Udhauwaya gnanaya’.  Arising and passing away, arising and passing away, when observing this arising and passing away, your mind must carry you to a higher level of realization when the fruition take place. If you ask me the question, how is it that it occurs in that way? Brothers and sisters, that is why you are expected to practice this one- pointedness earlier. In practicing one pointedness you enter the first absorption, the second is higher than the first absorption, the third is higher than the first absorption, and the fourth you reach the state of tranquility. Where the mind is in the condition to realize the truth. And in this analysis of Vipassana, analyses of the arising and passing away by you as a subject of meditation. To develop your ‘udhauwaya’ arising and passing away knowledge. As you go on analyzing, analyzing seeing through it, seeing through this arising and passing away, arising and passing away, then you will find the mind develops to a higher state, where the fruition of your samadhi take place, fruition take place. And there is a specific incidence taking place there, of course in various various ways. But to a person who has gone through it, when he describe that, we know that he has reached that height. We don’t just believe what you say. To analyze that further or to convince us further we say right, if you have realize that, go and sit for some time, develop your arising and passing away again in that meditation? No, we say you sit and quietly take a decision that, if I have reached the fruition stage of Stream Entry, may the experience I went through occur to me again for about 10 minutes. And when he goes and sit down, he take the decision, “if I have entered the fruition stage of Stream Entry, let me enjoy this fruition samadhi for 10 minutes”. And we advise him not to commit any act, but just to watch the mind, how what happens to the mind. On this decision he has taken and he go on watching the mind, you find the mind suddenly develop itself to a high degree, transcend itself to a high degree, and again the same condition you experience in the fruition of your Stream Entry occurs again to him, and he can live in that for 10 minutes as decided by him, as determined by him, and it comes down automatically. You can repeat the performance not once, twice, thrice, the whole day if you wish to. And that’s a clear indication that you have attained. Just coming and telling I have attained the Stream Entry, I have done this, I have done that, that is no proof. After all you have to satisfied your own conscious. This is the path, and when you go along the path, Brothers and sisters, there must be definite concrete development in you reaching yourself to higher stage, every step you take. Instead just doing, I am this I am that, and getting one to believe what you say, that is not the thing, you convince yourself. Not anybody, not the teacher, you convince yourself. Which is to convince yourself that we ask you to perform this activity again. Only on the resolution you are taking, if I have attained the fruition stage of samadhi, and attained my Stream Entry, let me enjoy the blessings of this fruition samadhi 10 minutes, and you take that decision and keep quiet and watch your mind.  The mind will develop itself, carry you to a height when you experience the same thing you experience earlier, and you can repeat that performance many times. The entire day you can live with in it if you wish to. That is the test we make to find out whether you have exactly reach that developed stage of mind.

       During Buddha’s time, Buddha never went after everyone of them. Wherever they go, to find out whether they have entered the first stage or second stage or third stage. These are the steps they take. Only Buddha appears at the place where there is some misdirection or other and give the advice as to how he should direct himself  in a correct way. One example is where that wealthy person who entered the robes.  He was so wealthy that he did not do any work with his hands and it’s said that his hands were very soft and his legs were also very soft feet, because he has been living a very comfortable life. He has been so enthusiastic about attainment, he went on pacing up and down, up and down, ultimately there was bleeding on the sole of his feet. Then he start crawling on all fours, his arms also started bleeding. Then he reach the stage when he found difficult to carry on, and now he is pondering whether to stay in the robes or get out. Buddha of course with his psychic eye saw this condition and appeared there. Not physically, but in a vision and asked, what are you thinking?  And the priest said I have given up hopes of attainment, I have tried my best, first walking up and down pacing to develop my meditation. When my feet began to bleed, I started crawling, now I have bleeding injuries on my hands and on my knees and on my feet, and I’m so fed-up with this. I have decided to give up my robes. Then Buddha ask him, you are a person in your real life who has a great liking for the playing of your violin.  You’re a violinist, “yes, yes, I like it very much, I’m skilled in that art”. Then Buddha asked for instance if you want to prepare your violin to produce music, would you tighten the strings hard? “No, if I tighten the strings hard, they would break”, that is the reply he gave it to Buddha. “If you keep them loose?”, “if I keep them loose, I can’t play the violin.” “So what would you do?”.  “I tighten the strings up to a point when it can produce the music and also when it will not break.  Up to that point I can tighten and when I tighten the strings up to that point, I produce good music”. “Ah, that is apply the same rule to yourself. Here you have tighten your strings and the strings are broken. You have done too much, your effort is too much. Go the middle way”.  Middle way, neither relax or neither put in a very very big effort, you also must learn a lesson out of this. Don’t think I have 2 more days to go, therefore, I must become an Arahat and go home. You can’t easily become an Arahat. There are people who expecting to become an Arahat. One month, two weeks, three weeks, Arahat. I want to go home as Arahat. You can’t.

       It maybe that such people it may take years to attain that height, because there are too over ambitious. This is a path that you have to plot very carefully, after all you bear a character. Your character does not fit in to be an Arahat in 2 weeks. Your character only fit in to be an Arahat after 1 year, or 2 years of experience. Don’t try to become an Arahat overnight. None can do that. There are rare instances during Buddha’s time who have reach a very high stage of development in their previous birth, therefore, merely hearing the doctrine preached by Buddha, they attained. But today, I think it’s not a easy task. You have to be patient, you have to walk slowly, go slowly, step by step, step by step, step by step, for your attainment and those who wish to become an Arahat within 1 week, I’ll ask him to get back home and become an Arahat anywhere else. I can’t make them Arahats.

       You see, those who wish to go slowly, let them be here, maybe 1 month, maybe 2 months, maybe 3 months, maybe 4 months, how can I say that, no one can predict. What your attainment would be within 1 month or 2 months or 3 months or 4 months. This is beyond going a long road where there is no clear path before us indicating this is the milestone. This is that path is clear certainly, there your development is concern this entirely left to you because you are different, different characters. Your previous lives you see, they have some bearing on your present life. There are karmic forces also reacting against you, also your belief and your practices and your habits, views, those have direct effect on your development. Therefore, no one can give you any assurance, I tell you frankly. You have come here to practice, and I shall do my best to guide you along the lines. You have to very patiently go through these things, not expecting to be Arahats overnight, that cannot be done by anybody. But we have sure results, we have results of those people who have practice this method and develop along the path, to reach that height with the expected. We have enough results. And there is no doubt about the path you have to follow. Instructions are clear, and you proceed carefully, that’s all. Don’t be over enthusiastic. Don’t expect results overnight. Patiently go along, and if you are impatient, well, I say I’m unable to help you, you can help yourself anywhere you wish to. That is the path you have to follow brothers and sisters, after all you have been leading a worldly life with various types of views, various types of beliefs in you, various type of habits which you have created in your life, various type of malpractices you may have committed, and overnight one cannot pull all this things out of your mind and say I’m going to  make this heart a very crystal clear one tonight, impossible. That’s an impossibility. You yourself must make the effort to clear them. Buddha never clear another man’s heart and made a crystal clear one. He gave the instruction to the devotees you follow this path and if you follow this path carefully, you will clear your heart of  all these defilements, and that is the path he showed. Therefore, be patient, step by step clear the defilements out of you, to be a Stream Enterer, you have only  to have lay down the foundation necessary for such entry, and that is your virtue, samadhi, and wisdom. After that  you take direct action to get rid of the defilement that affect you. We are giving you instructions positively as how one should get rid this defilements. And you practice  it accordingly and you will get rid of the defilements. After all, these are all your imagination and your views and what you have planted in your mind. Now you are realistically understanding that they are all false, concepts, beliefs, bad habits.  So you can pull them out one by one, one by one, one by one, effectively if you follow a clear instruction as to how they should be done, that of course Buddha has clearly given all of us. So must be patient brothers and sisters, and I assure you this is a clear path shown by Buddha. He said here is only one defilements in you that you must get rid of. There are many defilements in you but the most effective one is Desire. Desire is the thing that pushes your mind from one birth to another, and he clearly shows you 4 things that you have to do in the clearing in getting that out of you, and if you practice those 4 things, he assures you that you will attained Nibbana in 7 days, and that’s a promise given by Buddha. So, it all depends upon the effort you make, and must not just live in imagination, just not live in hopes, because no one can give you Nibbana. Nibbana is in that you have to create it with yourself, and it is within you. You clear your mind of all the false views and other defilements that you possess, and then Nibbana will dawn to you then, from within not from anywhere else. Therefore, brothers and sisters, now you know how to achieve the first stage, getting rid of the so call defilements, the 3 defilements of sakkayaditti, believing in a false, having a false view of a person living in you, being in you, sakkayaditti, pertaining to your body, pertaining to your form. That’s your own load, that form. The false beliefs that you have a person in you ‘sakkayaditti’. Then the other 2 things are doubt and pursuit of practices to the extremes. Those 2 things I told you, you would get rid of mainly with your attainment. Then what you have to practice is, to get that development within you to experience the ‘ samapatti’ which dawns to you, the wisdom, befitting the Stream Enterer, in the  development of the arising and passing away, arising and passing away, arising and passing away. That is the wisdom that you have to develop. It’s the same wisdom that you will be developing in the second stage of development. That’s also arising and passing away, arising and passing away, that will lead you to the fruition. The same wisdom you have to develop again in the third stage of Non-Returner , there too arising and passing, arising and passing, arising and passing.  Fruition stage will make you to enter the third stage. And the fourth stage of Arahathood that you have to practice the same thing, arising and passing, arising and passing and when you fully understand what is impermanence, what is unsatisfactory nature of things, and what is soullessness. Like that of Buddha, you too become a Buddha and not Sammasambuddha, Sammasambuddha is Buddha who has on his own realize the truth and preach to the world the truth, but you have followed Buddha’s instruction and attain that height and now you have become a Buddha. So may you all attain Buddhahood. May you all attain Nibbana. Be patient, patiently carry out the instructions. Don’t expect things to happen overnight, all that happens in you will be the result of your effort and nobody else’s. I may instruct you in thousand and one ways, but such instruction will have effect on you only if you carry out those instructions accordingly. If you on your own think, and go on thinking and imagining, that will not help you at all, brothers and sisters. Therefore this is a practice, a practice because you are not doing, just planting something in your mind. You are completely cleaning your mind of all the debris, of all the unnecessary thing that you have harbour and nurtured in this mind of yours. You’re clearing them, there’s  no way to do it, you can’t introduce your hand into a chest and clear the mind and with soap and water, this is something which you have to do with your own way of thinking. If you do the correct thinking, the right way, then all the wrong that you  have done to your mind in the way of thinking the wrong way, that all get completely washed out, as a result of clear thinking, and the clear thinking will lead you to the fruition stage. So may you all attain Nibbana. Thank you very much.