A Textual Analysis of Early Buddhist Sources
This essay is an effort to better understand the lived experience of an Arahant (enlightened being). I specifically want to examine the thoughts that appear to their minds — and whether they are similar to those a worldly being might have. This study will take the form of a textual survey, in which I will analyze key suttas, and verses from the Theragātā. I will begin with a brief exposition of how Arahantship is attained, making specific reference to the five aggregates of grasping (pañca-upādānakkhandha).
A good place to begin is with a clarification of what the Buddha taught. “It is just the suffering and the cessation of suffering that I proclaim” (SN 22.86). This statement allows us to view Buddhist teachings as either expositions of the nature of suffering, or outlining the path to its cessation. A classical description of the final goal, Nirvāṇa, is the cessation of the three poisons: greed (lobha), aversion (dosa), and delusion (moha) (Karunadasa 2017, 120). These three qualities are viewed as primary causes of suffering (dukkha) — yet other equivalent formulations are given. In the Bhāra Sutta, an awakened being is said to be someone who has cast off the burden of the five aggregates of grasping (SN 22.22). In his first sermon, the Buddha proclaimed that these five aggregates, when grasped, are suffering (SN…
