Awakening Through Practice: The Path to Sainthood : หน้า 183/263

The Perfections which he had built up for himself from the past, together with the good deeds of his present lifetime added up to a level of Perfections superior to those of his contemporary monks. Consequently, hearing the Dhammacakkapavattana Sutta, Koṇḍañña was awakened before his contemporaries — he was to attain sainthood before his other four colleagues. The other four members of the pañcavaggiya were not disappointed as a result of their lesser attainment — on the contrary they were all inspired to faith in the Buddha and became dedicated to practice further in earnest, according to the Lord Buddha's teaching. Indeed, we find in the scripture of the Anattalakkhaṇa Sutta that the remainder of the Pañcavaggiya together with Koṇḍañña were to attain Arahatship — the first disciples of the Buddha to attain arahantship. It is the author's dearest wish that having read this edition of The Buddha's First Teaching, readers will be inspired to see that through practice, ordinary men can attain extraordinary stages of liberation and Sainthood. Knowing that by practice alone progress can be attained, one should not let the time pass fruitlessly — but get down to earnest meditation practice such as that outlined at the end of this book. Apart from purifying the mind of the practitioner, meditation serves to bring happiness in one’s everyday life, facilitates the overcoming of life challenges, enhances mindfulness and wisdom and in itself is a way of pursuing the Perfections towards Nirvana. Even if we are unable to attain Nirvana in this present lifetime, we will be able to secure heaven or the Brahma world as our afterlife destination according to the merit we have accumulated for ourselves.