I've seen people talk about kinds/versions of Stream Entry. Based on the context, my (possibly incorrect) understanding is it is due to how you practice. Is there one Stream Entry or do different practices lead to different Stream Entries? Thanks.

See here for an example:
http://thehamiltonproject.blogspot.com/2010/11/going-for-stream-entry-on-goenka-10-day.html

From the link: "The advice in this post refers to a 'version' of stream entry that is..........."

Great question. People rarely agree on anything, especially traditional ideas and the modernest interpretations of such. Many people make claims of the "one TRUE" teaching of blah blah blah. This does not make it necessarily true. People also describe things differently and then arguments arise even when there isn't a marketing motive behind it.
I chose to want what was described in MCTB. I had stumbled past stream entry without knowing what it was until I read Daniels book. Since it lined up with my experience I chose to follow the instructions and see if I could continue that path. So far I'm glad I have.
Read up on the experience in MCTB and see if you want what is described and if so try it. If something else sounds better follow those instructions and see what you get. Be wary of marketing and the reasons behind them.
Good luck,
~D

Agh! A past opinion on the internets that i may not currently have. I currently am of the thinking that if an infamous blip/cessation leads to the permanent experiential dropping of the view that there is no seperate identity to find in the aggregates ( even though it may feel like some 'thing' takes shape and seems to be the reference point for a lot of stuff, maybe less than before though), that is SE. If it didn't result in this dropping, well, best to keep investigating what is blindly taken as self.

Blip or no blip, if this view has been dropped due to experiential seeing in real time, then that is SE. A cessation/blip though can and should be a goldmine for fetter dropping insight into the absence of self in the aggregates if one is so inclined to mine such occurences (or non-occurences if you will).

My current subject to change at the drop of a hat 2 cents.

Nikolai

Nikolai,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A6SSyRE-2M0

Gotama never mentioned a "blip" unless you interpret "fruition" or "cessation" as that. he mentioned in many suttas the "an owner of the noble eightfold path" is a stream winner. some of his disciple became sotapannas after hearing one sermon and some took years.

Perplexed!!!

Are you saying that there is a resemblance? Me in 60 years time? My wife laughed at least. Haha!

Nikolai and others,

http://www.berzinarchives.com/web/en/archives/study/comparison_buddhist_traditions/tibetan_traditions/nonconceptual_cognition_voidness.html

The following is from: http://www.berzinarchives.com/web/en/archives/advanced/dzogchen/basic_points/major_facets_dzogchen.html

Rigpa
Dzogchen practice emphasizes accessing rigpa (rig-pa, pure awareness), the subtlest level of mental activity. Rigpa is an unaffected phenomenon (‘ dus-ma-byed), not in the sense of being static, but in the sense of not being contrived or made up as something temporary and new. It is primordially present, continuous, and everlasting. It is unstained by fleeting ordinary mental activity – in other words, rigpa is devoid of them.

Rigpa is complete with all the good qualities (yon-tan) of a Buddha, such as understanding and compassion. They are innate (lhan-skyes) to rigpa, which means that they arise simultaneously with each moment of rigpa, and primordial (gnyugs-ma), in the sense of having no beginning.

We do not need to create good qualities anew from nothing or just from potentials. Like the innate quality of a mirror to reflect, which is there even when dust totally obscures the surface of the mirror, we do not need to add anything for rigpa’s good qualities to function. We need merely to remove the fleeting stains, the dust. Before enlightenment, however, even when rigpa is manifest, its good qualities are not all equally prominent simultaneously.

Among the innate qualities of rigpa is self-arising deep awareness (rang-byung ye-shes), also known as reflexive deep awareness (rang-rig ye-shes). This is awareness of rigpa’s own face (rang-ngo shes-pa) as the face of Samantabhadra (Kun-tu bzang-po, the Totally Excellent One endowed with all good qualities). When reflexive deep awareness is not manifest, due to the automatically arising factor of dumbfoundedness (rmongs-cha, stupidity, bedazzlement) that obscures rigpa’s knowing of its own nature, mental activity becomes sem (sems, limited awareness) and no longer rigpa.

The fleeting factor of dumbfoundedness is another name for automatically arising unawareness (lhan-skyes ma-rig-pa) regarding phenomena. It is not an actual disturbing attitude, but only a nominal one (nyon-mongs-kyi ming-btags-pa), since it falls in the category of obscurations regarding all knowables, and which prevent omniscience (shes-sgrib).

Moreover, unawareness (ignorance), here,

is not in the sense of inverted cognition and grasping of the cognitive appearance of things (phyin-ci-log-par ‘dzin-pa) – perceiving them to exist in a manner that does not correspond to their actuality and grasping for them to truly exist in that manner.
Nor is it unawareness in the sense of not knowing (mi-shes-pa) that dualistic appearances are false.
Rather, it is unawareness in the sense of not knowing its own nature. It does not “recognize its own face.”



No one on this message board is recognizing rigpa.

Nick, interesting point. Are you saying stream entry is not recognition of rigpa? At any rate, I agree with you. I generally interpret Rigpa to mean the state of enlightenment itself. In other words, to refer to the entire awareness state of enlightenment, or awareness of being that which is all things.

Indeed recognition of rigpa is the entrance to the state of final enlightenment, in which all dualistic perceptions are overcome. Thus it is very much not stream entry, which is some sense, the first step on the path, or at least the first recognizable attainment.

Haha! Thus has been said. And does nick mason wish to discuss all things rigpa and make all dho-ers follow suit? And how do you know no one recognises 'Riga' as you have defined it with someone else's quote here?

What exactly has rigpa to do with stream entry in your own words since the topic of this thread is stream entry not as far as I have read 'rigpa'.

Nick

I knew you were becoming wise.