The league

This story comes with a ‘make sure you’re sitting down’ warning. It’s a Sunday kind of a story. It’s for when you have space and time to reflect.

It is not well known that there have been several Buddhas.

Every time there is a Buddha, there is also a league of fully enlightened people. These people are called arahants.

There have been hundreds of arahants, thousands of arahants, tens of thousands of arahants and hundreds of thousands of arahants. They are called the league.

It’s September 2018 and I’m sitting in a meditation hall. It’s a forest monastery.

I am seated in front of the teacher. She has built this place.

In a few days, I will see an image of her standing on a hill overlooking the land. I will see photographs, albums of photographs, of this place being built. I will know the vision in her eyes and tears will well in mine.

For now, we sit, we are meditating together for a minute.

I drop into a jhana, a state of absorption. It feels like we drop in together.

“The arahant league is coming this lifetime”, the words spill out of me without words.

A second or two passes and I begin to feel a contraction. I keep giving my attention to sensations: accepting sensations in my body. 

“Forgiveness. Self-forgiveness”, I say without words.

I am sharing the stories of this book. I am sharing what they are about.

“Good!” She says eagerly, leaning down.

We are finished.

Eighteen months pass.

It’s late February 2020. Again, I am in a meditation setting.

In a few days, I will hear about Covid.

I have renounced.

I know the timing of the end.

A day or two later, I know: “The arahant league has come”.

I wonder how to tell her.

But… I think she already knows.

“The arahant league is coming this lifetime”, the words flow out of me without words.

“The arahant league has come”.

Snapshot

• A jhana is a state of absorption. There are 8 jhanas.

• jhana’s are necessary states on the path. They are prerequisites for enlightenment.

• There have been 5 Buddhas, they occurred at different times.

• An arahant is a fully enlightened person.

• The league is the league of arahants.