From MN 27, SuttaCentral. One gets the impression that the 4 Jhanas are attained, supernatural powers of insight into past lives, etc are attained before stream winner, then arahanthood.
While it’s pretty certain that non-returners have easy access to the Jhanas, one thing which arises a bit of doubt in me was the following considerations. Oh wait, I just solved it. Anyway, I shall lay down my question and my thoughts on how it could be resolved.
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One who attains to Jhanas would be reborn in the Brahma realms next life if one is not an arahant. This is because Jhanas are heavy good kammas, which takes priority in rebirth determination. (I do realize that this assertion is from the Theravada tradition, I dunno if EBT supports this.)
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A stream winner has at most 7 more rebirth in the realms of humans and devas before arahanthood. A once returner has at most one more rebirth in the same realms.
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Say if we need Jhanas before stream entry, then immediate next life is already in Brahma realm. Does this mean that stream enterer has no need for Jhanas to attain to it?
My just thought of solution: It could be that after staying in Brahma realms for a long time, the stream winner if they had not practised while up there would at most on the exhaustion of the Brahma realm rebirth, comes back into the human/ deva world for 7 more times, even if it is another world cycle. Thus there’s no issue. The same for once returner for 1 more time.
I think an advice from Ajahn Brahmali who answered this in a sutta retreat I attended is good here: (paraphrased) Don’t try to decide which is first, just practise. Whichever comes first, also ok. (Implied that the practise doesn’t mean dry insight path then.)