Hello, 

I am new to this site. A quick introduction: I've been practicing Theravada Buddhism since 2015, and during 2019 an old acquaintance of mine reached out to me on Facebook and we discovered that we both had coincidentally found Dhamma in our young adulthood. He introduced me to the concept of Daniel Ingram, the self-proclaimed Arahant. I first listened to him speak in a podcast called Ten Percent Happier. 

I'm mostly here, I guess, to see if there is a way to reach out to him. Perhaps he'll see this? 

Claiming Arahantship is quite controversial, as he obviously already knows. I feel as though I want him to know that his podcast and his open transparency has been so beneficial to me and my practice. I imagine that he doesn't need to hear this and I know that I don't truly need him to know, but I do hope that this reaches him because I feel an immense sense of gratitude for his courage and articulation. 

Also, my personal Sangha has a member, a man who I consider one of my main teachers and definitely a Kalyana-mittata, who apparently knows Daniel Ingram personally. I was told that they were friends during their youth. Small world, I suppose. 

Anyway, I'll likely be lurking around on here to see what's up. I highly value transparency and although I can understand the motives behind keeping arahantship a private knowledge (to prevent invoking envy, for example), I'm interested to see what kind of candid discussion are occuring on this forum. 

With Metta,
Matt

Hello Matthew

Monastic tradition speaks highly of Arhats but actually it is easy to be super peaceful and content and secluded when you are live in secluded environment away from real world and its issues. Other than different life style and even more sitting meditation it doesn't seem that certified arhats have any different realization about nature of things than secular arhats.

At least from what they communicate.
And I doubt you get any answers to any non-standard questions from either even if they know. Because of reasons...

Thank you for the response! 

I know of no other Arahants besides Ingram. There are several individuals, one I've met and others I've read about, that I believe may be Arahants, but currently the only one I that has explicitly stated it is Ingram. 

I'm not really here for help or with questions. Thank you for the information nonetheless. 

I take it by your response that you believe that laypeople can attain nibbana/arahantship. Would you say you agree with that?

I’ll tell you how I feel about traditions, Matthew: It’s a waste of time. Bunch of people runnin’ around bumpin’ into each other, got a guy up front says “2 + 2,” and the people in the back say, “4” Then the bell rings and they give you a carton of milk and a piece of paper that says you can go take a dump or somethin’. I mean, it’s not a place for smart people, Matthew. I know that’s not a popular opinion, but that’s my two cents on the issue.