“Friend Saviṭṭha, apart from faith, apart from personal preference, apart from oral tradition, apart from reasoned reflection, apart from acceptance of a view after pondering it, I know this, I see this: ‘extinction is the cessation of being.’”
“Then the Venerable Musı̄la is an arahant, one whose taints are destroyed.”
When this was said, the Venerable Musı̄la kept silent.
Then the Venerable Nārada said to the Venerable Saviṭṭha: “Friend Saviṭṭha, it would be good if I were asked that series of questions. Ask me that series of questions and I will answer you.”
“Then let the Venerable Nārada get to answer that series of questions. I will ask the Venerable Nārada that series of questions, and let him answer me.”
(...)
“Friend Nārada, apart from faith, apart from personal preference, apart from oral tradition, apart from reasoned reflection, apart from acceptance of a view after pondering it, does the Venerable Musı̄la have personal knowledge thus: ‘extinction is the cessation of being’?”
“Then the Venerable Nārada is an arahant, one whose taints are destroyed.”
“Friend, though I have clearly seen as it really is with correct wisdom, ‘extinction is the cessation of being,’ I am not an arahant, one whose taints are destroyed. Suppose, friend, there was a well along a desert road, but it had neither a rope nor a bucket. Then a man would come along, oppressed and afflicted by the heat, tired, parched, and thirsty. He would look down into the well and the knowledge would occur to him, ‘There is water,’ but he would not be able to make bodily contact with it. So too, friend, though I have clearly seen as it really is with correct wisdom, ‘extinction is the cessation of existence,’ I am not an arahant, one whose taints are destroyed.”
When this was said, the Venerable Ānanda asked the Venerable Saviṭṭha: “When he speaks in such a way, friend Saviṭṭha, what would you say about the Venerable Nārada?”
“When he speaks in such a way, friend Ānanda, I would not say anything about the Venerable Nārada except what is good and favourable.” SN 12 : 68
“‘With the cessation of birth, cessation of ageing and death’: so it was said. Now, bhikkhus, do ageing and death cease with the cessation of birth or not, or how do you take it in this case?”
“Ageing and death cease with the cessation of birth, venerable sir. Thus we take it in this case: ‘With the cessation of birth, cessation of ageing and death.’”
“‘With the cessation of being, cessation of birth’…‘With the cessation of clinging, cessation of being’…‘With the cessation of craving, cessation of clinging’…‘With the cessation of feeling, cessation of craving’…‘With the cessation of contact, cessation of feeling’ …’With the cessation of the sixfold base, cessation of contact’…‘With the cessation of name-&-matter, cessation of the sixfold base’…‘With the cessation of consciousness, cessation of name-&-matter’…‘With the cessation of determinations, cessation of consciousness’…‘With the cessation of ignorance, cessation of determinations’: so it was said. Now, bhikkhus, do determinations cease with the cessation of ignorance or not, or how do you take it in this case?”
“Determinations cease with the cessation of ignorance, venerable sir. Thus we take it in this case: ‘With the cessation of ignorance, cessation of determinations.’”
(RECAPITULATION ON CESSATION)
“Good, bhikkhus. So you say thus, and I also say thus: ‘When this does not exist, that does not come to be; with the cessation of this, that ceases.’ That is, with the cessation of ignorance comes cessation of determinations; with the cessation of determinations, cessation of consciousness; with the cessation of consciousness, cessation of name-&-matter; with the cessation of name-&-matter, cessation of the sixfold base; with the cessation of the sixfold base, cessation of contact; with the cessation of contact, cessation of feeling; with the cessation of feeling, cessation of craving; with the cessation of craving, cessation of clinging; with the cessation of clinging, cessation of being; with the cessation of being, cessation of birth; with the cessation of birth, ageing and death, sorrow, lamentation, pain, grief, and despair cease. Such is the cessation of this whole mass of suffering.
(PERSONAL KNOWLEDGE)
“Bhikkhus, knowing and seeing in this way, would you run back to the past thus: ‘Were we in the past? Were we not in the past? What were we in the past? How were we in the past? Having been what, what did we become in the past?’?”—“No, venerable sir.”—“Knowing and seeing in this way, would you run forward to the future thus: ‘Shall we be in the future? Shall we not be in the future? What shall we be in the future? How shall we be in the future? Having been what, what shall we become in the future?’?”—“No, venerable sir.”—“Knowing and seeing in this way, would you now be inwardly perplexed about the present thus: ‘Am I? Am I not? What am I? How am I? Where has this being come from? Where will it go?’?”—“No, venerable sir.”
“Bhikkhus, knowing and seeing in this way, would you speak thus: ‘The Teacher is respected by us. We speak as we do out of respect for the Teacher’?”—“No, venerable sir.”—“Knowing and seeing in this way, would you speak thus: ‘The Recluse says this, and we speak thus at the bidding of the Recluse’?”—“No, venerable sir.”—“Knowing and seeing in this way, would you acknowledge another teacher?”—“No, venerable sir.”—“Knowing and seeing in this way, would you return to the observances, tumultuous debates, and auspicious signs of ordinary recluses and brahmins, taking them as the core [of the holy life]?”—“No, venerable sir.”—“Do you speak only of what you have known, seen, and understood for yourselves?” —“Yes, venerable sir.”
“Good, bhikkhus. So you have been guided by me with this Dhamma, which is visible here and now, immediately effective, inviting inspection, onward leading, to be experienced by the wise for themselves. For it was with reference to this that it has been said: ‘Bhikkhus, this Dhamma is visible here and now, immediately effective, inviting inspection, onward leading, to be experienced by the wise for themselves.’ MN 38
Dependent arising undermines puthujjana's certainty of being, the attitude "I am". It can, or rather it has to be seen here and now, knowledge about past and future are totally irrelevant to such insight. With upādanā (here clinging) as condition bhava (being) is timeless relationships between the two items and can be seen directly "apart from faith, apart from personal preference, apart from oral tradition, apart from reasoned reflection, apart from acceptance of a view after pondering it".
This has to be distinguish from such wisdom: as long as there is the attitude ‘I am’ there is organization of the five faculties of eye, ear, nose, tongue, and body. SN 22:47 or
I declare, Vaccha, rebirth for one with fuel, not for one without fuel. Just as a fire burns with fuel, but not without fuel, so, Vaccha, I declare rebirth for one with fuel, not for one without fuel.”*
*Sa-upādānassa khvāhaṃ Vaccha upapattiṃ paññāpemi no anupādānassa. There is a double meaning here, with upādāna meaning both “fuel” and subjective “clinging,” (Bhikkhu Bodhi)
With upādanā (clinging) as condition rebirth isn't something that average sotapanna is able to see directly, unlike direct knowledge about ones own birth, which depends on the present self-identification and can be withdrawn here and now. Even most of arahats "merely" have the direct knowledge:
This field of perception is void of the taint of sensual desire; this field of perception is void of the taint of being; this field of perception is void of the taint of ignorance. There is present only this non-voidness, namely, that connected with the six bases that are dependent on this body and conditioned by life. MN 121
Certainty that after dissolution of the six bases that are dependent on this body new body will not appear, still may require some amount of faith, in the case of arahats without supernormal powers.
But, Sāriputta, if they were to ask you: ‘Friend Sāriputta, through what kind of deliverance have you declared final knowledge thus: “I understand: Destroyed is birth, the holy life has been lived, what had to be done has been done, there is no more for this state of being”?’—being asked thus, how would you answer?”
“If they were to ask me this, venerable sir, I would answer thus: ‘Friends, through an internal deliverance, through the destruction of all clinging, I dwell mindfully in such a way that the taints do not flow within me and I do not despise myself.’ Being asked thus, venerable sir, I would answer in such a way.”
“Good, good, Sāriputta! This is another method of explaining in brief that same point: ‘I have no perplexity in regard to the taints spoken of by the Ascetic; I do not doubt that they have been abandoned by me.’” SN 12 : 32
Direct knowledge that taints spoken by the Buddha are abandoned is one thing, faith that the Buddha is indeed the Buddha, and he knows what he is talking about when he says:
I declare, rebirth for one with upādanā, not for one without upādanā, is another thing.
Nanavira Thera: It is, no doubt, possible for a Buddha to see the re-birth that is at each moment awaiting a living individual who still has tanhā—the re-birth, that is to say, that is now awaiting the individual who now has tanhā. If this is so, then for a Buddha the dependence of re-birth upon tanhā is a matter of direct seeing, not involving time. But this is by no means always possible (if, indeed, at all) for an ariyasāvaka, who, though he sees patticcasamuppāda for himself, and with certainty (it is aparapaccayā ñānam), may still need to accept re-birth on the Buddha’s authority .s In other words, an ariyasāvaka sees birth with direct vision (since jāti is part of the patticcasamuppāda formulation), but does not necessarily see re-birth with direct vision.
... (Past and future only make their appearance with anvaye ñānam [see Na Ca So [a]), not with dhamme ñānam. ‘As it is, so it was, so it will be.’ Patticcasamuppāda is just ‘As it is’—i.e. the present structure of dependence.)
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