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.(1) Our bodhisatta had eight attainments (samapatti) and fivemundane psychic powers during Dipavkara Buddha s time.Hehad also practised Vipassana up to the Knowledge of Equanim-ity Towards Formations.At that time if he had really wanted toattain Nibbana, he could have attained arahatship quickly afterlistening to a short stanza about the Four Noble Truths from Di-pavkara Buddha.But he did not want to only attain Nibbana, sohe made an aspiration to be a Buddha in the future.He receiveda definite prophecy from Dipavkara Buddha.During four incalculables (asavkhyeyya) and one hundredthousand aeons (kappa), that is from Dipavkara Buddha s timeto Kassapa Buddha s time, our bodhisatta was ordained as abhikkhu in nine lives, under the guidance of previous Buddhas.Each time he:1.Studied the Three Pitakas by recitation,2.Practised purification of the four types of virtue,3.Practised the thirteen ascetic practices (dhutavga),117 Knowing and Seeing4.Always stayed in the forest as a forest-dweller practice(arabbakavga-dhutavga),5.Practised the eight attainments (samapatti),6.Practised the five mundane psychic powers,7.Practised Vipassana meditation up to the Knowledgeof Equanimity Towards Formations.This is the nature of bodhisattas.These paramis are fulfilledfor the attainment of the Omniscient Knowledge (sabbabbuta-bana).But before his paramis matured, between DipavkaraBuddha s time and his birth as Prince Siddhattha, our bodhisattawas sometimes reborn in the animal kingdom because of un-wholesome kamma he had done.However the lives reborn as abhikkhu and the lives reborn in the animal kingdom were veryfar apart.This is the first type of person.(2) Some chief disciple arahants like the Venerable Sariputtaand the Venerable Mahamoggallana also received a definiteprophecy from Anomadassi Buddha.But between that Buddha stime and Sakyamuni Buddha s time, they too were sometimesreborn in the animal kingdom together with our bodhisatta, be-cause of unwholesome kamma they had done.They were ara-hants possessed of the Four Analytical Knowledges in our Bud-dha s time.This type of arahants must be skilful in Samatha-Vipassana up to the Knowledge of Equanimity Towards Forma-tions in a previous Buddha s time; this is a natural law.So theypractised Samatha-Vipassana in many previous lives, but some-times they were reborn in the animal kingdom together with ourbodhisatta.This is the second type of person.(3) As for ordinary disciples, if they have practised Samatha-Vipassana thoroughly up to the Knowledge of Cause and Condi-tion (paccaya-pariggaha-bana) or the Knowledge of Arising andPassing-Away (udayabbaya-bana) or the Knowledge of Equa-nimity Towards Formations, they will not be reborn in the fourwoeful planes (apaya) after death, even though they may notattain any Path and Fruition in this life.They may be reborn in a118 Questions and Answers (4)deva realm like, for example, Samana-devaputta.Samana-devaputta was a bhikkhu who practised Samatha-Vipassana earnestly.While he was practising, death took placeand he was reborn spontaneously in the deva realm.He did notknow of his own death so he continued meditating in his man-sion in the deva realm.When the female deities in his mansionsaw him they realized that he must have been a bhikkhu in hisprevious life, so they put a mirror in front of him and made anoise.The male deva opened his eyes and saw his image in themirror.He was very disappointed because he did not want to bea deva; he wanted Nibbana only.So immediately he went down to the Buddha to listen to theDhamma.The Buddha taught the Dhamma related to the FourNoble Truths.After listening to the Dhamma he attainedStream-Enterer Path Knowledge (sotapatti-maggabana) andStream-Enterer Fruition Knowledge (sotapatti-phalabana).Thisis explained in the Commentary: & laddhassaso laddhapatitthoniyatagatiko culasotapanno nama hoti : he got relief, he got asecure place, he has a sure good destination, so he is calledLesser Stream-Enterer (culasotapanna).Then four things canhappen.In the Sotanugata Sutta, the Buddha taught which four:1.As soon as he attains rebirth in the deva realm, if he re-flects on the Dhamma then the Dhamma will be clearto his insight-knowledge.He can attain Nibbanaquickly.2.If he does not attain Nibbana by reflecting on theDhamma with insight-knowledge, he can attain Nib-bana while listening to the Dhamma in the deva realmwhen it is taught by a bhikkhu who has psychic powers,and who has come to the deva realm to teach theDhamma.3.If he does not get the chance to listen to the Dhammafrom a Bhikkhu he may get the chance to listen to the119 Knowing and SeeingDhamma from Dhamma-teaching devas (Dhamma-kathika-deva), like Sanavkumara Brahma, etc.At thattime he may attain Nibbana by listening to them.4.If he does not get the chance to listen to the Dhammafrom Dhamma-teaching devas, he may get the chanceto meet friends who were fellow meditators in his pasthuman life in this dispensation.Those fellow medita-tors may say, for example: Oh friend, please remem-ber this and that Dhamma which we practised asbhikkhus in the human world. At that time he may re-member the Dhamma and if he tries to practise Vipas-sana he can attain Nibbana very quickly.These are the four types of result of Samatha-Vipassana.Sofor an ordinary disciple, if he does not attain path and fruition inthis life, he will certainly attain Nibbana in the future.At the time of death a meditator may not have strong Vipas-sana or Samatha, but because of the powerful Samatha-Vipassana meditation wholesome kamma, a good nimitta ap-pears to his mind door.Death may take place with that goodnimitta as object, and because of this wholesome kamma he willdefinitely reach a good place, and in that life he can attain Nib-bana.However, if he can practise Vipassana up to the moments ofnear-death impulsion (maranasanna-javana), he will be the firsttype of person mentioned in the Sotanugata Sutta.But if he can-not practise Samatha-Vipassana up to near-death impulsion, hemay, as I explained before, be the second or third or fourth typeof person also mentioned in the Sotanugata Sutta.Question 4.4: A meditator who has finished the course, but hasnot yet attained Nibbana, can he attain the Knowledge of theRelations of Phenomena (dhammatthiti-bana)? If so, can it re-gress?120 Questions and Answers (4)Answer 4.4: That meditator can attain the Knowledge of theRelations of Phenomena (dhammatthiti-bana). Pubbe khoSusima dhammatthitibanam paccha nibbane banam. : TheKnowledge of the Relations of Phenomena is first, the PathKnowledge taking Nibbana as object is next. This is the Bud-dha s instruction to Susima.Susima was a wanderer(paribbajaka), who ordained in this dispensation to steal theDhamma.But the Buddha saw that he would attain Nibbanawithin a few days so He accepted him.Susima heard that many arahants came to the Buddha and re-lated their attainment of arahatship to the Buddha.So he ap-proached those arahants and asked them whether they had theeight attainments and five psychic powers.Those arahants an-swered no
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