Early Monastic Buddhism v2.c33.s3.91

v2.c33.s3.91

A maggasamaṅgī is an advanced adept who has reached one of the maggas, i.e., sotāpattimagga, etc., by following the eightfold path, and is engaged in maggabhāvanā (higher meditations). His mental states are transcendental (lokuttara). The question is whether the sīla practices¹ completed by him in the pre-sotāpanna stage and still possessed by him should be regarded as lokuttara or lokiya (belonging to the spheres of Kāma, Rūpa and Arūpa)? The M. contend that the rūpa of a maggasamaṅgī (or maggaṭṭha) remains lokiya while his mental state (citta) becomes lokuttara, hence his sīlas, which belong to the category of rūpa as shown above, remain lokiya. Of the eight factors of the aṭṭhaṅgika-magga, three, viz., sammā vācā, kammanta and ājīva of a sotāpanna are sīlas and as such they are lokiya but the remaining five which are mental (arūpa) may be lokuttara. A sotāpanna therefore is in possession of lokiya sīlas but if he practises sammāsati, sammāvāyama, etc. he may be said to have lokuttara-sīlas. The Th. do not make any such distinction, for, all the eight sīlas, according to them, emanate from mind;² so the sīlas of a sotāpanna, who has lokuttara-citta, are lokuttara.