Tue, 02 Feb 2010
Enlightenment and Delusion
I've had my new smartphone, a Nokia E63, for several months and generally I'm quite pleased with it. I bought it mostly as a replacement for my dead Palm organizer and it does everything the Palm did, plus works as a cell phone, plus does a few extra things. I use it to listen to podcasts when I exercise and I've started listening to the Buddhist Geeks podcast. Today I was listening to Kenneth Folk describe his meditative experiences. (You can read a transcript of the podcast at the link.) Kenneth is convinced that he's reached the third path through his practice. I'm sure he's achieved some definite result from his practice , but I think he's mistaken about what level he's achieved.
A little explanation: Theravada Buddhism, and the shravaka tradition generally, recognizes four levels of enlightenment: stream enterer, once returner, non-returner, and arhat. These are called the four paths (marga) and fruits (phalla). The path represents the first moment of the experience of that level and the fruit represents all subsequent moments. The four paths represent stages of overcoming the ten fetters, which I won't explain further here. But there is a very simple test to see if you are enlightened. If you haven't eliminated greed and anger, you are not enlightened. I have not, as anyone who knows me can tell you, and neither, by his own admission, has Kenneth Folk. What Kenneth has experience is some degree of development of samadhi. It's not often understood that there are mundane levels of wisdom described in abhidharma as well as supramundane wisdoms and the experiences that Kenneth describes correlate pretty well with what I've been taught about these mundane wisdoms.
I've noticed a lot of this status claiming in Thervada Buddhism recently. People are claiming either that they are enlightened or have achieved jhana states and are offering to teach others how to do the same. I think that these people are sincere and well intentioned for the most part, but ignorant of what these states actually are. I can only say that through what I have been taught and what I have learned through my own study that they are mistaken and spreading mistaken ideas about what these states actually are.
