About This Teaching
Answering a question about the stages of the path, Ajahn Dtun outlines the way from the beginning to arahantship. The foundation is firm confidence in the Buddha, Dhamma and Sangha and in the law of kamma, so that one avoids wrongdoing. Keeping precepts and meditating are not yet the path of stream-entry, nor are advanced samādhi and psychic powers. The noble path begins when sīla is steady, the mind is made peaceful, and mindfulness and wisdom are used every day to weaken greed and aversion and contemplate the body.
Stream-entry comes when part of the coarse attachment to the body as self is let go: greed lessens, ill will is removed and anger fades more quickly, and the mind no longer fears ageing, sickness and death as before. Once-return lets go of a second portion. For non-return, sīla is raised to eight or more precepts, samādhi becomes skilled, and the remaining attachment to the body, to other bodies and to material things falls away, together with sensual desire.
The path to arahantship turns to the mind itself, seeing the impermanence of feeling, perception, mental formations and consciousness, until greed, aversion and delusion cease and the mind is free. He compares the stages to walking from village to village toward a city: knowing the road is not enough, one must set out, resting when tired and then continuing.