Josh Kelly:
I want to get fulfillment (a sense of satisfaction, wholeness, worthwhileness, a feeling of quality/value) from life itself, simply from being alive, rather than from directions, goals, or purposes that seem to arise and fall away relatively quickly
Is that goal a fantasy dream I've been sold, like eternal blissed-out drug states or permanent all-knowing no-feeling transcendence is fantasy, or is that a realistic achievable goal?
If it is achievable, is that what is meant by "enlightenment"? Is it a side-effect of "enlightenment"? Or maybe, is it achievable but has nothing to do with enlightenment (more in the realm of psychology maybe than spirituality)?
The fucking E word.
Now I'm here, trying to ask you guys if what I want is even possible.
Well, below are the traditional definitions of the different stages of enlightenment. People tend to question some aspects of the traditional models of attainment, such as can a Sotapana kill, such as with a bug inadvertently or intentionally and can they drink alcohol, inadvertently or intensionally. Can they get angry, such as if there is an expression of something that looks like anger, is it actually anger as we experience it?
Faith in the path, is most strongly developed through experience. In Rangoon in Burma the famous Mahasi Meditation centre is there, go and try it, see if in retreat you notice the development of the different stage.
The stages of the Path, including substages, by Daniel Ingram.Talks by Ingram, start with the Hurricane Ranch talks.
Daniel tends to talk about getting it done, but its good to keep in mind it can be a bit of a journey. A good place to start is with a 3 month retreat, its said this is a good level of time to allow for the possibility of attainment, (I've done three 3 months and I haven't attained, though I have clearly moved through all the stage, bar the last substage.). When you have a better base of experience with this style of meditation, you will be able to ask better questions on how to get better at it.
Lastly people like Ken Wilber, talk about the different types of Meditation, and their benefits. Vipassana is a kind of meditation that develops tolerance, and its goal is a flowing type of acceptance, it doesn't make you happy and blissful all the time. Jhana meditation's goal is to make you happy and blissful all the time. Buddhist argue that this is not permanent though, so actually its not all the time. Enlightened people still experience pain, its just that their mind doesn't create aversion or hatred to this. They still experience pleasure its just that their mind doesn't become full of craving and lust, and then sadness when it is gone.
So there isn't an easy path to happiness, it will take some work. It took Ingram seven year to attain Arhat, I believe. It may take me seven years to attain stream entry, I've been working on it for four years, and have done at least one year in retreat. Why don't you try to do 2 years of retreat. Take a one month rest every three months and then go back into retreat.
The Pali canon's Sutta Pitaka identifies ten "fetters of becoming": enlightenment is usually defined in terms of what it has removed, rather than what it is. Such as, enlightenment is, satisfaction, wholeness, worthwhileness, a feeling of quality/value.
1. belief in a self
2. doubt or uncertainty, especially about the teachings
3. attachment to rites and rituals
4. sensual desire
5. ill will
6. lust for material existence, lust for material rebirth
7. lust for immaterial existence, lust for rebirth in a formless realm
8. conceit
9. restlessness
10. ignorance
First Path: A Sotāpanna or stream-winner is a person who has eradicated the first three fetters. According to the Pali Commentary, six types of defilement would be abandoned by a Sotāpanna:
Envy
Jealousy
Hypocrisy
Fraud
Denigration
Domineering
Second Path. The fetters of which the Sakadagami is free are:
1. Sakkāya-diṭṭhi (Pali) - Belief in self
2. Vicikicchā (Pali) - Skeptical doubt
3. Sīlabbata-parāmāsa (Pali) - Attachment to rites and rituals
The Sakadagami also significantly weakened the chains of:
4. Kāma-rāga (Pali) - Sensuous craving
5. Byāpāda (Pali) - Ill-will (all forms of anger)
The Sakadagami is an intermediate stage between the Sotapanna, who still has comparatively strong sensuous desire and ill-will, and the Anagami, who is completely free from sensuous desire and ill-will.
The fetters of which an Anagami is free are:
1. Sakkāya-diṭṭhi: Belief in self
2. Vicikicchā: Skeptical doubt
3. Sīlabbata-parāmāsa: Attachment to rites and rituals
4. Kāma-rāga: Sensuous craving
5. Byāpāda: Ill will
The fetters from which an Arhat is free are the former and these:
6. Rūpa-rāga: Craving for fine-material existence (the first 4 jhanas)
7. Arūpa-rāga: Craving for immaterial existence (the last 4 jhanas)
8. Māna: Conceit
9. Uddhacca: Restlessness
10. Avijjā: Ignorance