Ego death and stream entry is it the same thing?
Upvote:4
Temporary ego death & stream entry are not necessarily the same thing.
Temporary 'ego death' can occur in different ways that are not 'stream entry'. For example, temporary ego death can occur from taking drugs.
Buddhist stream-entry includes two major characteristics:
Clearly seeing (with 'insight') the illusory, insubstantial & false nature of 'self'. This 'ego-death' eradicates belief or view of self (sakkāya-diṭṭhi).
Clearly seeing (with 'insight') the absence of self is also the absence of suffering. This eradicates doubt (vicikicchā) about the teachings and also eradicates the belief that morals (sīlabbata) alone can end suffering.
Therefore, what distinguishes mere ego-death from stream-entry is ego-death alone often leads to fear & confusion where as stream-entry leads to peace & liberation.
The Buddhist scriptures say about stream-entry:
A noble disciple who is consummate in view, an individual who has broken through [to stream-entry], the suffering & stress that is totally ended & extinguished is far greater. That which remains...is next to nothing: it's not a hundredth, a thousandth, a one hundred-thousandth, when compared with the previous mass of suffering. That's how great the benefit is of breaking through to the Dhamma, monks. That's how great the benefit is of obtaining the Dhamma eye.
Upvote:7
I wish it were so complete. Stream entry, while a major event in one's practice, is by no means the death of the ego. In fact, it only releases one from the lower three fetters (e.g. belief in a self, doubt, and attachment to rites and rituals). There's much more to go. I'd go so far to say that it's not until one becomes an arhant that the "ego", as we understand in the Western sense, is finally put to rest.
It's important to understand, however, that "stream entry" is category term for a collection of insights. While these insights can happen as the result of a single event, that event and the experiences surrounding it like feelings of oneness, visions, and the like are really inconsequential. What is important is the shift in perspective that follows. This is fundamentally what distinguishes Buddhism from other mystical traditions.
More post
- 📝 Why is Nibbana referred to as "The destination and the path leading to the destination"?
- 📝 Why walking meditation is not mentioned in the ways of attending to mindfulness?
- 📝 Relationship or mapping between Jhanas ( 4 + 4) and the four stages of Enlightment
- 📝 Dealing with colleagues who hate me after mistake
- 📝 When to delight and when not to delight?
- 📝 What Buddha taught by his knowledge about human life?
- 📝 Metta Meditation
- 📝 Specific sutta in the Majjhima Nikaya: Where is past and future discussed?
- 📝 Theory of momentariness -- do things arise ex nihilo?
- 📝 What did Dogen think a miracle was?
- 📝 Does the breath literally stop in the fourth Jhāna?
- 📝 Dharmaskandha and Śāripūtrābhidharma Satipatthana contains a section of shortcomings. What are the shortcomings?
- 📝 When to retaliate when someone abuses us?
- 📝 Is action a form of discontent?
- 📝 Happiness, rebirth, and the death of an arahant
- 📝 Do Buddhas and Bodhisattvas care and have compassion for all sentient beings equally
- 📝 What is the Buddhist Perspective on Lucid Dreaming?
- 📝 Overwhelmed feeling when visiting Temple
- 📝 Why do Buddhists believe that the Buddha was enlightened, despite that he claimed it himself?
- 📝 How death anniversaries take place by Buddhist rituals?
- 📝 Visions of Hell Realm in Contemplation- What does it mean
- 📝 Sunyata is the truth and compassion is not an illusion?
- 📝 How does annihilationism posit a self?
- 📝 How common is stream entry?
- 📝 Is Buddha Nature the original state, i.e. Awareness/ Consciousness without Existence?
- 📝 What are timeframe were pali canons, included commentaries, done, especially Mahavihara-Theravada?
- 📝 How do Bodhisattva vow takers avoid stream entry?
- 📝 How to accept things as-is and live according to as-is?
- 📝 Buddhist view on Art and being an Artist
- 📝 How did the Buddha debate?
Source: stackoverflow.com
Search Posts
Related post
- 📝 Ego death and stream entry is it the same thing?
- 📝 Can you gain stream entry by focusing on the clinging and stress going on at the five clinging aggregates?
- 📝 Do "conditioned" and "conventional" mean the same thing in Buddhism?
- 📝 Are Vajrayana and Tibetan Buddhism the same thing?
- 📝 Can one follow Hinduism and Buddhism at the same time?
- 📝 Can a human being reside both in this world and Nirvana at the same time?
- 📝 How does a monk cope with all the bad things happening in the world if the only thing monks do is sitting and meditating?
- 📝 Would a stream enterer no longer need the "I am the owner and heir of my karma" reflection?
- 📝 Is it possible to set goals for the future and be present at the same time?
- 📝 How do the stages of insight before stream entry relate to the suttas
- 📝 What do Birth, Age, and Death mean in the first noble truth?
- 📝 Do Mahayana Buddhists explain birth and extinction in the same way?
- 📝 Is sloth the same thing as torpor?
- 📝 Are some of the supernormal powers a direct contradiction to old age, sickness, and death being unavoidable?
- 📝 Bhanga and the ego
- 📝 Can stream entry be reached by focusing on the links in dependent co-arising
- 📝 Does "Connected Causes" mean the same thing as Dependent Origination?
- 📝 When the Pali suttas say that it is not the "same" thing that is born and dies what do they mean?
- 📝 Happiness, rebirth, and the death of an arahant
- 📝 Satori and stream entry
- 📝 Reunion with the loved one after death and in next life
- 📝 Queen Mallika story and stream entry
- 📝 Friend who is the same in happiness and sorrow
- 📝 Can bad karma be created and paid back in the same lifetime
- 📝 Are Aksobhya and Bhaisajyaguru the same buddha?
- 📝 Can someone be Buddhist and Christian at the same time?
- 📝 what is the difference between Ego and self respect?
- 📝 Can the same kamma cetana and action lead to somewhat different future physical consequences (the physical aspect of the kamma-vipaka)
- 📝 Suppose World War 3 occurs and manages to wipe out all humans and animals. Is the cycle of death and rebirth broken?
- 📝 'Antarabhava' existence between rebirth and the death