It is beneficial to read suttas to get an idea of what Buddha’s teachings are about, as the suttas come from the oldest source available to us today indicating the words of the Buddha. However, a Single sutta gives only a limited glimpse into the teachings of Buddha, as each sutta offers only a brief overview of a particular aspect of the teachings of Buddha or Dhamma. For example, Metta sutta details the benefit of loving-kindness, but to get the full picture of loving-kindness, one must read Metta sutta along with Karaniya Sutta to gain the full meaning, which is that, to maintain loving-kindness in all awakening states, one must reach the anāgāmi state by abandoning ill will and, prior to that, by abandoning the wrong vision at the stream entry stage. When we combine Suttas to provide an accurate view of the practice leading to stream entry and beyond, you can gain a more complete picture of the path and practice leading to stream entry. In this way, a participant can gain the full picture of the practice leading to each stage of enlightenment without having to spend several years seeking the right practice leading to stream entry and beyond and trying to grasp teachings of Buddha from the long list and very long suttas. In the Sutta Study Class conducted by Dr Ariyathushel Atrahant, the method of exploring sutta indicates reading sutras in conjunction with other suttas selected from the other Nikayas to elucidate and give a precise interpretation regarding the path and practice leading to stream entry and beyond.

The path and the fruition are:

(1) the path to stream-entry; (2) the fruition of stream-entry;

(3) the path to once-returning; (4) the fruition of once-returning;

(5) the path to non-returning; (6) the fruition of non-returning;

(7) the path to arahantship; (8) the fruition of arahantship.

The most important aspect of the teachings of Buddha is that it details the practice required to reach the stage of stream entry and beyond. It relies on the accurate training path as described by Buddha that one can reach stream entry and higher stages of awakening. It can be helpful to think of the Nibbana as stream entry and beyond. Given that the fetters abandoned at each stage differ, certain practices are more beneficial for attaining the stream entry than the other practices, and these can be discussed in our class.