THE BUDDHA AS TEACHER 41levels of existence in the interim; once-returners, destined to be reborn once
in heaven and then returning to this world once more before attaining total
nirvai_la; nonreturners, destined to be reborn in the highest Brahma worlds,
there to attain total nirvai_la without ever returning to this world; and arhants,
totally awakened, totally freed from the processes of renewed becoming and
birth. Kaui_lqinya, on hearing the Buddha's first sermon, became a streamwin-
ner through the arising of the Dharma-eye (the realization that all things sub-
ject to origination are subject to cessation). Other texts (Mv.I.23.5) make clear
that this vision involves a glimpse of the Deathless or Unconditioned. Only in
contradistinction to what is not subject to origination would the concept of
"all things subject to origination" occur to the mind. In Kaui_lqinya's case, as
with the rest of the five mendicants, he did not have to wait the full seven life-
times to become an arhant, for he gained total Awakening only a few days
later upon listening to the Buddha's discourse on the not-self characteristic.
The apparent ease with which many of the Buddha's early disciples at-
tained Awakening while listening to the Dharma would seem to belie the fac-
tors of the Path as explained in the Fourth Noble Truth, but it should be
remembered that the spiritual Path is not a one-lifetime affair. From the Bud-
dhist point of view, a person may devote many lifetimes to developing indriya
(the mental faculties needed for Awakening)-conviction, vigor, mindfulness,
concentration, and discernment-and may have them so fully matured that
he/ she may require only a slight impetus to focus discernment on the point
that will lead to Awakening. This impetus might come from a number of ex-
ternal factors, such as the Buddha's charisma and his ability to know his listen-
ers' minds so as to determine what Dharma is appropriate for them, but unless
the faculties are m,ature, those external factors would not be enough to effect
a radical change. Many of the Buddha's listeners, like the first ascetic he en-
countered on his way to Benares, are recorded as not having gained Awaken-
ing as a result of his teachings, although the tradition insists that they all
benefited in ways that might not be immediately apparent. A Pali Sutta
(A.IV.133) divides the Buddha's listeners into four types: those who will gain
Awakening on hearing a brief explanation of the Dharma; those who will gain
Awakening only after a detailed explanation; those who will have to take the
Dharma and work at putting it into practice before achieving Awakening; and
those whose understanding of the Dharma will go no further than the words,
and as a result will not gain Awakening in this lifetime. This last point makes it
clear that those who do gain Awakening while listening to the Dharma are
not simply listening to the words, but are also reflecting on the phenomena in
their own experience to which the words point.
The Buddha's confirmation that "Kaui_lqinya knows" was the first instance
of a formal. act that was to happen repeatedly during the Buddha's career. Hav-
ing the saints identified has always been important for the Buddhist devotee,
whose chief religious authority is the word of an Awakened One. Awakening
is recognized by a teacher-who has achieved it-in another who has been
striving for it. Those who have not gained Awakening have no criteria of their
own by which they may recognize an Awakened One, aside from the negative