Agama Sutra: The Three Offerings Chapter - Reaching the Realm of Nirvana (4)

In Buddhism within the current Sinosphere, there is the concept of the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha.
The origin of this Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha lies in a sutra called the Three Offerings ChapterSankuyobon of the |Agama SutraAgon-gyo|.

Below is a comparison of the Three Offerings ChapterSankuyobon| and the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha.

① Buddha: Planting merit at the feetmimoto| of the Tathagata
② Dharma: Planting merit in the True Dharma
③ Sangha: Planting merit among the Holy Assembly

The Three Offerings Chapter explains that if one fulfills these conditions and practices diligently, one can transcend the boundaries of an ordinary person (prithagjana) and reach the stage of the Four Fruits of the Sramana.

By the way,what are the Four Fruits of the Sramana?
This is the theme of this note.

“Reaching the Realm of Nirvana”

This is the opening passage of the Three Offerings ChapterSankuyobon|.
“Cannot be exhausted” literally means vast and infinite, meaning it cannot be exhaustedtsukusu or |fathomedkiwame|, but a liberal translation of this passage would be

.

Then, what are those three roots of goodness?
They are
① Planting merit at the feetmimoto| of the Tathagata
② Planting merit in the True Dharma
③ Planting merit among the Holy Assembly
This is how the sutra called the Three Offerings ChapterSankuyobon| continues.

Reaching the Realm of Nirvana = Reaching the stage of the Four Fruits of the Sramana

In the Three Offerings ChapterSankuyobon|, it says “reaching the Realm of Nirvana” rather than “reaching Nirvana,” and the character “Realm” is intentionally used.RealmWe must recognize that the translators of ancient Buddhist scriptures translated them with an understanding of the differences, and the meanings are indeed different.

“Reaching Nirvana” means “becoming the Buddha himself.”
“Reaching the NirvanaRealm” means “transcending the boundaries of an ordinary person and reaching the stage of the Four Fruits of the SramanaShishamonka|.”
The difference is that the former is the “ultimate” point of arrival, while the latter is “just before” it.

There is a stage before becoming a Buddha

The ultimate goal of Buddhism is for “an ordinary person who repeats the cycle of birth and death in the realm of the six paths to eliminate evil causes and karma and become a Buddha,” but an ordinary person does not become a Buddha directly.
One becomes a Buddha through several steps.
Since there are four steps, it is called the Four Fruits of the SramanaShishamonka|.

An ordinary person (you, the reader) who repeats the cycle of birth and death in the realm of the six paths
↓ A very steep cliff. Usually impossible to cross.
Four Fruits of the SramanaShishamonka| ① Srotapanna
↓
Four Fruits of the SramanaShishamonka| ② Sakridagamin
↓
Four Fruits of the SramanaShishamonka| ③ Anagamin
↓ The final steep cliff
Four Fruits of the SramanaShishamonka| ④ Buddha

It is a world reached through practice

There is an academic definition that the Srotapanna of the Four Fruits of the SramanaShishamonka| cuts off self-view, doubt, and attachment to rites and rituals, and so on.
But one does not become a Srotapanna of the Four Fruits of the SramanaShishamonka| because one has acquired academic knowledge; it is a process of cutting off self-view, doubt, and attachment to rites and rituals that is achieved through the clear track record of having reduced evil causes and karma through practice, thereby changing one's own destiny, including that of one's family.

Whether or not one has reached the stage of the Four Fruits of the Shramana is something the person themselves cannot know at all.
However, as a result of steadily working hard on the practice of planting, sprouting, and nurturing the seeds of merit based on the Three Offerings, I have a tangible sense of achievement that I have escaped from an unhappy life filled with bad causes and bad karma, including that of my family, and have clearly started to feel better.

Then, one day, it seems you pass an assessment by the gods and Buddhas, and you receive an approach from them, leading to some kind of spiritual experience.
In Agon Shu, this is called 'Reisei Kaiken' (Spiritual Manifestation).

This experience of 'Spiritual Manifestation' does not occur at the level of an ordinary person.
The gods and Buddhas have certified that the person has broken through the level of an ordinary person and entered a new stage.

Was that experience real? Or was it just a convenient misunderstanding on my part?
You can judge that by whether or not you are able to perceive the existence of gods and Buddhas through some means afterward.

'Spiritual Manifestation' is something you recognize as 'this is it!' if you have a deep understanding of the doctrine and teachings.
And interestingly, among those who do not have a deep understanding of the doctrine and teachings but are working hard, there are some who do not realize that they have experienced 'Spiritual Manifestation'.

Among the older women working hard on their practice in Agon Shu, there are quite a few who have experienced 'Spiritual Manifestation' without knowing it, have acquired a slight ability for clairvoyance, and have come to see sparkles of purple or green spiritual power within the flames of the Agon Shu Homa ritual.
The women's argument is, 'I thought everyone practicing in Agon Shu could see various colors in the flames, so I was surprised that there were people who couldn't.' They give such pure answers that it makes me want to hold my head in my hands.

Therefore, if there is someone who acts like an intellectual, does something that looks a bit like meditation, and claims that they have attained enlightenment, please highly suspect that they are a fake. That person is just an ordinary person at the same level as you.

Is not talking about the Four Fruits of the Shramana a matter of adult circumstances?

If you are studying the Agama Sutras or the Southern Pali Canon and don't know about the Four Fruits of the Shramana, I would like to ask you, what exactly are you studying? But if the reason is that it's not written in general books, well, I suppose it's a matter of adult circumstances, so it can't be helped.

First of all, modern Japanese Buddhist scholars cannot talk about the Four Fruits of the Shramana.
The reason is that if they talk about the Four Fruits of the Shramana, they would be endorsing the claims of the founder of the new religious movement, Agon Shu, and if they do that, the scholars would be accused of siding with a specific new religious organization and wouldlose their jobs. So even if they know, they cannot talk about it. It is possible that it is a matter of adult circumstances.
There is also the possibility that they simply haven't studied it properly and don't understand it...

I have never seen anyone from the Southern Theravada Buddhism of Sri Lanka or Southeast Asia talking about the Four Fruits of the Shramana.
Could it be that important matters have been lost in Southern Buddhism and are not being considered at all? Influenced by that, Japanese people in the Southern Buddhist tradition also don't know about it or disregard it. If they were to acknowledge the Four Fruits of the Shramana, they too would be endorsing the claims of the Agon Shu founder, so perhaps they refuse to acknowledge it at all costs. It is possible that it is a matter of adult circumstances.

Furthermore, since Southern Buddhism is a Buddhism of precepts and sophistry, I can imagine that it has become a bureaucratic organization bound by 'strange local rules beyond our imagination' in the name of precepts.
If so, I don't think a bureaucratic organization would acknowledge the spiritual evolution called the Four Fruits of the Shramana or the experience of 'Spiritual Manifestation,' which cannot be understood through local rules and sophistry.
You can guess that they have probably done things like 'Exclude foreign objects and heretics!' many times in the past, right? That's just my own speculation, though.

Links to books and past notes

Here is a book that contains the commentary by the founder of Agon Shu on the Three Offerings of the Agama Sutras.

Along with the commentary on the Three Offerings, it contains a sutra in which the Buddha clearly acknowledges the existence of what we modern people generally think of as ghosts, called the 'mind-made body.' The explanation by some people that the Buddha did not preach about the soul is incorrect. I would appreciate it if you could confirm this in this book.