Paul Davy wrote:
When it is said that a stream-winner (sotāpanna) has clearly seen the cause as well as things arisen from the cause (‘hetu ca sudiṭṭho hoti hetu samuppanne ca dhamme’), this is what is being referred to.
IMO, it is a clear experience of the nature of all phenomena which then gives one unshakeable confidence that the Path is the only way out, that is, relinquishing attachment to everything.
Ven. Nanananda dwells on this at length in his essays:
The insight into the basic principle of dependent arising, is in fact regarded as the arising of the 'eye of Dhamma'. About the stream-winner it is said that the dustless stainless eye of Dhamma has arisen in him. It seems then that what is called the 'Dhamma-eye', is the ability to see the Nibbānic solution in the very vortex of the samsāric problem.
It is the insight into this principle that basically distinguishes the noble disciple, who sums it up in the two words samudayo, arising, and nirodho, ceasing. The arising and ceasing of the world is for him a fact of experience, a knowledge. It is in this light that we have to understand the phrase aparappaccayā ñāṇam ev'assa ettha hoti, "herein he has a knowledge that is not dependent on another". In other words, he is not believing in it out of faith in someone, but has understood it experientially. The noble disciple sees the arising and the cessation of the world through his own six sense bases.
I think this can happen only when self-conceit and vanity eases for at least a few moments by the continuous observation of the principle of impermenance. When the notion 'I-am' vanishes, it implies that one's desire to exist has subsided. Ven. Nanananda observes that this can happen when the passing-away of phenomena is attended to repeatedly, in opposition to the worldling, who is obsessed with the arising of things.
The worldling who attends to the arising aspect and ignores the cessation aspect is carried away by the perception of the contact. But the mind, when steadied, is able to see the phenomenon of cessation: òhitaṃ cittaṃ vippamuttaṃ, vayañcassānupassati, "the mind steadied and released contemplates its own passing away".
Even a stream-winner's stance is somewhat inscrutable - the ability to discern and understand cessation as a principle. The relentless obsession with views and standpoints that indicate a desire to assert one's dominance in some way is the main fetter that needs to subside. The misery of this world can be thought about all day, but still, the desire to be, to exist, just doesn't loosen its hold on the mind.....my mind, at least
