..續本文上一頁, namely the levels of the Stream - enterer (Sotapanna), the Once - returner(Skidagami), the Never - returner (Anagami), and the completely Perfected inpidual or Arahant. The condition of these four kinds of noble inpiduals or Aryians is the supramundane condition. "Supramundane" means "above the world," and refers to the mind, not the body. The body can be anywhere at all as long as living conditions are adequate. "Supramundane" simply describes a mind dwelling above the world. As for the nether worlds such as hell, purgatory, or the places of suffering, torment and bondage, these are out of the question for the Aryians.

　　The criteria for recognizing these four levels in the supramundane plane are the various mental impurities which are in the course of being eliminated. The Buddha pided the impurities in this group into ten kinds. He called them the Fetters (Samyojana). These ten fetters bind man and all beings to the world, keeping people in the mundane plane. If a person starts to cut through these fetters and break loose, his mind gradually and progressively becomes freed from the worldly condition; and when he manages to cut through them completely, his mind becomes completely free, transcends the world for good and comes to dwell permanently in the supramundane plane.

　　Of these ten kinds of subtle mental impurities that bind us, the first is the Self belief (Sakkaya-ditthi), the view that the body and mind is "my self." It is a misunderstanding or misconception based on clinging to the idea "I am." Because the average person is not aware of the true nature of the body and the mind, he unthinkingly regards these two as his "self." He assumes that body and mind is his "self," his "I." This instinctive idea that there is an "I" and a "mine" is so firmly ingrained that normally nobody ever doubts their existence. True, the self instinct is what makes life possible, being the basis of self preservation, the search for food and propagation of the species, but in this case, what we are calling the self belief is to be taken only in its most basic sense as the root cause of selfishness. This is considered to be the first of the fetters, to be done away with before anything else.

　　The second fetter is Doubt (Vicikiccha), the cause of wavering and uncertainty. Most importantly it is doubt concerning the practice leading to liberation from suffering-doubt due to inadequate knowledge, doubt as to what this subject is really all about, doubt as to whether this practice for breaking free from suffering is really the right thing for one, whether one is really capable of carrying it through, whether it is really better than other things, whether or not it really does any good, whether the Buddha really did attain enlightenment, whether he really did achieve liberation from suffering, whether the Buddha”s teaching and the practical method based on his teaching really do lead to liberation from suffering, whether it is really possible for a bhikkhu in the Sangha to attain liberation from suffering.

　　The root cause of hesitancy is ignorance. A fish that has always lived in the water, if told about life on dry land, would be sure to believe none of it, or at most only half of it. We, immersed as we are in sensuality, are as habituated to sensuality as is the fish to water, so that when someone speaks of transcending sensuality, transcending the world, we can”t under stand. And that which we can understand to some extent we are hesitant about. It is natural for us to think on this lower level; to think on the high level produces a new picture. The conflict between the high level thinking and the low level thinking is what constitutes wavering. If mental energy is insufficient, the low level thinking will triumph. Doubt and wavering with regard …

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