{"id":55265,"date":"2016-06-04T14:13:10","date_gmt":"2016-06-04T21:13:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=55265"},"modified":"2016-06-16T07:06:34","modified_gmt":"2016-06-16T14:06:34","slug":"kinds-of-noble-persons-and-their-numbers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2016\/06\/04\/kinds-of-noble-persons-and-their-numbers\/","title":{"rendered":"Kinds of Noble Persons\u00a0and their numbers."},"content":{"rendered":"

By Ven. K. Ariyarathana<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n

“Those eight individuals praised by the virtuous, [(or) Those individuals numbering one hundred and eight praised by the wise] those couples are four (in number); those disciples of the Enlightened One are worthy of offerings;” ……….. (SN, 11.1)<\/p>\n

Noble Individuals are categorised in different ways in different contexts. Most frequently, we see four kinds of Noble Persons, each one is a pair (ca\u0167\u0167\u0101ri purisa yug\u0101ni). <\/em>And then as eight individuals (attha purisa puggal\u0101) <\/em>or one hundred and eight individuals (attha sa\u0167anpasa\u0167\u0167ha)<\/em>.<\/p>\n

These are the four couples.<\/p>\n

(i) The Stream-enterer,<\/p>\n

(ii) The Once-returner,<\/p>\n

(iii) The Non-returner,<\/p>\n

(iv) The Full Enlightened One.<\/p>\n

They become eight persons when considered as individuals as each of the four noble persons is divided into pairs: one person realising (i) the Path of Stream-entry, (ii) the Fruition of Stream-entry, (iii) the Path of Once-return, (iv) the Fruition of Once-return, (v) the Path of Non-return (vi) the Fruition of Non-return, (vii) the Path of Full Enlightenment, (viii) the Fruition of Full Enlightenment.<\/p>\n

Now let us see how they become one hundred and eight individuals.<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. a) Stream-Enterers<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    They become free from these three fetters: (i) personality belief, (ii) sceptical doubt, and (iii) clinging to mere rules and rituals.<\/p>\n

    They are threefold according to their future existence: (i) One who is born only once more (\u0113kab\u012bji)<\/em>, (ii) one who is passing from one noble family to another [within two to six births](k\u014dla\u1e41kola), <\/em>(iii) one who is born again with seven births at the utmost (sa\u0167\u0167akkha\u0167\u0167uparama). <\/em>[S<\/em>tream-enterers are born again only in the human world or in the heavens and are never born in the hells.]<\/p>\n

    They are fourfold according to their progress: One who is of: (i) pleasant progress with slow comprehension, (ii) pleasant progress with quick comprehension, (iii) painful progress with slow comprehension, (iv) painful progress with quick comprehension.<\/p>\n

    They are twofold according to their practice (\u0111\u016bra<\/em>): (i) one whose practice is based on confidence (saddh\u0101 \u0111\u016bra)<\/em>and (ii) one whose practice is based on Insight (pa\u00f1\u00f1\u0101 \u0111\u016bra).<\/em><\/p>\n

    Fourfold persons according to their progress are multiplied by twofold practice so that there are twelve Stream-enterers altogether.<\/p>\n

      \n
    1. b) Once-Returners<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      They become nearly free from [weaken] these two fetters: (iv) sensual craving and (v) Ill-will. They are born again only once in the human world.<\/p>\n

      They are threefold according to their births in the spheres: (i) Persons who enter once return in the sensual sphere (k\u0101ma bhavesu a\u0111higa\u0167aphal\u0101),<\/em> (ii) persons who enter once return in the fine material sphere (r\u016bpa bhavesu a\u0111higa\u0167aphal\u0101),<\/em>(iii) persons who enter once return in the immaterial spheres (ar\u016bpa bhavesu a\u0111higa\u0167aphal\u0101).<\/em><\/p>\n

      They are also fourfold according to their progress and twofold according to their practice as in the stream entry. In this way, there are twelve Once-returners altogether.<\/p>\n

        \n
      1. c) Non-Returners <\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

        They do not come back to sensual sphere but are born in the pure abodes (su\u0111\u0111hav\u0101sa)<\/em> and attain Enlightenment from there.<\/p>\n

        They are completely free from all the five fetters mentioned above, including the two which the Once-returner could only weaken. They are freed from five lower fetters (\u014drambh\u0101giya sa\u1e41y\u014djana)<\/em><\/p>\n

        They are fivefold according to their attainment: One who (i) reaches Enlightenment early in his next life(an\u0167ar\u0101 parinibb\u0101yi)<\/em> [without having gone beyond the half lifetime], (ii) reaches Enlightenment in the second half\u00a0 of his next life(upahacca parinibb\u0101yi) <\/em>[having gone beyond\u00a0 half of the lifetime],(iii) reaches Enlightenment with exertion or prompting [pa\u0111h\u0101na] (sasankh\u0101ra parinibb\u0101yi),<\/em>(iv) reaches Enlightenment without exertion or prompting(asankh\u0101ra parinibb\u0101yi)<\/em>, (v) passes upstream bound for the highest deities(u\u0111\u0111hanso\u0167a aka\u0144itthag\u0101m\u012b).<\/em><\/p>\n

        There are these five individuals in each in the first four pure abodes and they all are named deities not falling away (avih\u0101)<\/em>, untroubled deities (a\u0167app\u0101)<\/em>, beautiful deities (su\u0111ass\u0101)<\/em> and clear-sighted deities (su\u0111ass\u012b)<\/em>. In the fifth pure abode (aka\u0144itthak\u0101)<\/em> there are only four individuals because there is no one who passes upstream to the highest deities.<\/p>\n

        There are twenty in the first four abodes and four in the fifth. In this away altogether there are twenty-four Non-returners.<\/p>\n

          \n
        1. d) Fully Enlightened Ones <\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

          They are free from the higher fetters (u\u0111\u0111ha\u1e41bh\u0101giya sa\u1e41y\u014djana)<\/em>, i.e. (vi) craving for fine material existence, (vii) craving for immaterial existence, (viii) conceit, (ix) restlessness, (x) ignorance.<\/p>\n

          They are never born again. They live with the full extinction of defilements (s\u014dpa\u0111is\u0113sa nibb\u0101na).<\/em>When they pass away, that is the end of life and full extinction of the five aggregates [groups of existence](anupa\u0111is\u0113sa nibb\u0101na).<\/em><\/p>\n

          They are twofold according to their way of Enlightenment [vehicles]: (i) one who has bare Insight as Vehicle (su\u0111\u0111ha vipassan\u0101 y\u0101nika)<\/em> [without having attained any of the eight absorptions], (ii) one who has Concentration as Vehicle (sama\u0167ha y\u0101nika). <\/em>In this way there are two kinds of Fully Enlightened Ones altogether.<\/p>\n

          They are also fourfold according to their progress and twofold according to their practice, as in Stream-entry.<\/p>\n

          In this way there are twelve individuals in Stream Entry and Once Return. There are twenty four individuals in Non- Return. And there are two individuals in Fully Enlightenment. Then they are altogether fifty individuals of the noble ones. We need to add four individuals of the paths so that there are fifty four in number. Now we need to multiply all of them by their twofold practice. So the number becomes one hundred and eight.<\/p>\n

          By Ven. K. Ariyarathana.<\/strong><\/p>\n

           <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

          By Ven. K. Ariyarathana “Those eight individuals praised by the virtuous, [(or) Those individuals numbering one hundred and eight praised by the wise] those couples are four (in number); those disciples of the Enlightened One are worthy of offerings;” ……….. (SN, 11.1) Noble Individuals are categorised in different ways in different contexts. Most frequently, we […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-55265","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-buddhism"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55265","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=55265"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55265\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55265"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55265"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55265"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}