“Subhuti! What do you think? Would someone who entered the stream of advanced spirituality think, ‘I’m a stream-enterer?’”
Subhuti said, “No, World-Honored One. And the reason why they wouldn’t think it, is that a person who has entered the stream knows that stream-enterers haven’t actually entered anything. They would know that they have really gained entry to a new paradigm of vision, sound, smell, taste, or feeling. They would know that they have not actually entered anything at all. That’s what makes them stream-enterers!”
“Subhuti! What do you think? Would people called a once-more returners have the thought that they had accomplished the level of a once-more returner?”
Subhuti said, “No, World Honored One. They wouldn’t think that way, because these once-more returners, though their name implies it, don’t actually return. Being capable of this understanding, they are honored with the title of once-more returner.”
“Subhuti! Does a non-returner think that they have attained the spiritual qualification of never again having to reincarnate?”
Subhuti replied, “No, World-Honored One. Although the name implies that they don’t return, their mind remains free of believing in a self that returns.”
“Subhuti! Would an arhat think something like ‘I’ve accomplished the level of arhat?’”
Subhuti said, “No, World-Honored One! They wouldn’t, because there is really no such thing as an Arhat. If an arhat thought that they had accomplished attaining the level of an arhat, that would mean that they would be attached to an idea of a self, or to one of being a being, or of someone living a life or to an idea of some sort of an eternal personage. Most Holy and World-Honored One, you have mentioned that I, Subhuti, am the most accomplished in the meditative continuum that ends grasping on to desires. True enough. Free from desires, I entertain no thought of freedom from desires. O Great One! If I thought about how I had done something to establish a level of arhatship, or believed that I had accomplished the attainment of freedom from desires, then you would have never confirmed that I attained it!
“A whole 'nother way of putting it is, that since I live a carefree spiritual life in the wildness, beyond concepts about forest wandering ascetics, that makes me a forest-wandering yogi.
The Vajracchedika Prajna Paramita Sutra--on the essence of wisdom
The Lotus Organization Version by permission
Featuring the Buddha in a discussion with his disciple, Subhuti
Recorded by the disciple Ananda