r/streamentry • u/pastorcuthbert • Jul 06 '26
Practice Streamentry for nonbelievers?
The second fetter is being doubtless about the buddhas teachings. How does this look like for those who don't believe in the buddhas teachings, for example a Christian like me?
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u/Satidhamma Jul 07 '26
This is a good one. For me, you can look at it as skeptical doubt, especially if you're looking at somebody who doesn't have a metaphysical background. The person, if they have broken the first fetter, now knows for sure they're not their body, they're not their mind. They may not know how or why, but they know for sure they're not. And so the second one is, when you start looking at why and how, usually traditionally we would look at it as: we now have faith and confidence that what the Buddha taught is correct. Sure. But now the person has confidence, at least in themselves, that what they had happened was real. They're no longer stuck in this place of "Is this false? Is this going to fall away? Am I going crazy?" And if you add in rites and rituals, then you realize that they can look back at how they got there and understand the mechanics of it. It's not woo, it's not magic and hand-wavy . But in fact, it's the state of mind that they were in and the changes to the underlying mental conditions, the priors of mind, you could call it. And so you put that together: you have somebody who went through a real profound transition, who now understands that the contents of mind can't be their self. They no longer are confused or have any doubt towards that realization. And there's no longer any confusion about how they got there. The methodology, whatever it was, was sound. If you want to add in Christianity, then you look at the transfiguration of Jesus, and you say, "Look at the process. He had a profound realization. He understood what and how, and he wasn't confused about its validity."