A Human Development Model Based on Moral Attributes of Sotapanna in Buddhism

Abstract

Nowadays people are living in the modern society under the pressure of competitions almost in every period of life, from education, career, social status to wealthy. People are self-centered (individualism) and self-interest (egoism) in order to response their desires, needs and pleasant feelings. According to Buddhist principle taṇhā (selfishness, desire, craving, greed) causes the roots of bad actions (akusala-mūla), which consists of greed (lobha), hatred (dosa) and delusion (moha). These three poisons not only lead an individual to think and act just for oneself, but also blind the one not to think and act for others. Taking these into account, the sotāpanna (stream-enterers) in Buddhism are people with benevolence, who are altruist and concern the benefits of the others. Regarding the integrated practice of the Threefold Training and the Noble Eightfold Path, it is the right way of becoming the first Noble Being in Buddhism like sotāpanna. Therefore, this article aims to explore significant moral attributes of sotāpanna and propose a human development model based on moral attributes of sotāpanna.