About This Answer
A woman asks Ajahn Dtun what level of practice one should reach before starting a family. He first explains that keeping the five precepts is the foundation for a happy family, and that when both partners keep the precepts they share a common outlook towards spiritual cultivation. He then asks what level she has in mind, and she replies, "Sotāpanna" (stream-entry).
Ajahn Dtun explains that stream-entry is not easy to attain; many monastics practise throughout their lives without reaching it, although they continue to accumulate pāramī, and attaining it depends on the maturity of each person's spiritual faculties. Whether to start a family depends on each person, and he neither encourages nor discourages it. Family life brings growing responsibilities: alone, one looks after oneself; with a partner, each must care for the other; and with children there is still more to care for.
He recalls that he himself once planned to finish his studies, work and have a family, but conditions changed and a strong determination arose to give his life to the practice for liberation from suffering, without knowing which stage he would reach; his aim was not to be reborn again. He encourages setting a spiritual goal, with Nibbāna as the ultimate aim and, at the very least, stream-entry as a goal.