SN22.89 Can you attain Nibbana while you teaching Dlhamma to someone else?

SN22.89 Can you attain Nibbana while you teaching Dlhamma to someone else?

Intriguing Sutta!!
Here Ven. Khemaka was giving a Dhamma talk to someone else and he also became an Arhant with his own Dhamma talk!!
Perhaps we have to be mindful what we teach to others.

==============
That’s what Venerable Khemaka said. Satisfied, the senior mendicants were happy with what Venerable Khemaka said. And while this discourse was being spoken, the minds of sixty senior mendicants and of Venerable Khemaka were freed from defilements by not grasping.

1 Like

Yes, there’s a sutta which says you can have realisations while memorising, reciting, contemplating, teaching etc. I don’t have the sutta to hand.

2 Likes

DN33 :wink:

Five opportunities for freedom. Firstly, the Teacher or a respected spiritual companion teaches Dhamma to a mendicant. That mendicant feels inspired by the meaning and the teaching in that Dhamma, no matter how the Teacher or a respected spiritual companion teaches it. Feeling inspired, joy springs up. Being joyful, rapture springs up. When the mind is full of rapture, the body becomes tranquil. When the body is tranquil, one feels bliss. And when blissful, the mind becomes immersed. This is the first opportunity for freedom.

Furthermore, it may be that neither the Teacher nor a respected spiritual companion teaches Dhamma to a mendicant. But the mendicant teaches Dhamma in detail to others as they learned and memorized it. … Or the mendicant recites the teaching in detail as they learned and memorized it. … Or the mendicant thinks about and considers the teaching in their heart, examining it with the mind as they learned and memorized it. … Or a meditation subject as a foundation of immersion is properly grasped, attended, borne in mind, and comprehended with wisdom. That mendicant feels inspired by the meaning and the teaching in that Dhamma, no matter how a meditation subject as a foundation of immersion is properly grasped, attended, borne in mind, and comprehended with wisdom. Feeling inspired, joy springs up. Being joyful, rapture springs up. When the mind is full of rapture, the body becomes tranquil. When the body is tranquil, one feels bliss. And when blissful, the mind becomes immersed. This is the fifth opportunity for freedom.

7 Likes