> Joseph

Hi Jill and all

Hope you are well and happy.

> How do you interpret the references to once returners and no more
> than 7?

oops, I think that was a typo of yours! Once returners have only
one, that is why they are called once returners, but actually I
think the Buddha usually didn't call them that.

It is Stream Enterers that have max of seven and seven what? It does
NOT say lives [jiivitaani] it says re-becomings [punnabhava], if I
remember correctly.

If you see this comparative table
http://home.vicnet.net.au/~jousmith/buddhism/jo/d_o_compare.html, an
example of the kind of study method the Buddha gave for his
teaching, you will see in the column Path + Fruit - magga + phala
that there are 8 types of Noble Ones. So if the first has seven
becomings left, what would they be but the rest of the types of
noble ones? I.e. one moves from one becoming to the next [only
getting better and better, from the first one] until one ends future
becoming as an Arahant.

> I haven't formed a fixed opinion yet.

good idea. better not to do that until one is an arahant :-} but
even then I don't think they would hold their opinion as the truth,
that would be, sannyyaa-upadaanak-khanda = suffering.

> It seems the Buddha
> says, regardless, that the only lifetime in which you can awaken

is

> the present one.

Indeed, I believe so that he taught that and that it is true.

> Jill

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