The Great Chronicle of Buddhas
by Ven. Mingun Sayadaw | 1990 | 1,044,401 words
This page describes Akalika contained within the book called the Great Chronicle of Buddhas (maha-buddha-vamsa), a large compilation of stories revolving around the Buddhas and Buddhist disciples. This page is part of the series known as the Dhamma Ratanā. This great chronicle of Buddhas was compiled by Ven. Mingun Sayadaw who had a thorough understanding of the thousands and thousands of Buddhist teachings (suttas).
Dhamma attributes (3): Akālika
This attribute relates only to the Ariya Path. Refer to the meaning of akāliko given above. The Ariya Path fructifies without delay, and so it is timeless in bringing benefit. Consider mundane merit and its benefit which must take a day or at least a few hours to fructify, even if it is the type of merit bearing fruit at present. With the supramundane Ariya Path, it is not so. No time elapses between the arising of magga-ñāṇa and the Fruition thereof, phala-ñāṇa. The Path knowledge gives rise to the Fruition Knowledge immediately. Hence the supramundane magga is timeless in its fruition, akāliko.
The important point to note, in respect of this attribute, is that according to Abhidhamma, in a magga thought-process, magga consciousness arises just for one thought-moment, after which, not a wink intervenes before phala consciousness arises, which is the Fruition of the Path-Knowledges. An ariya who attains magga is a “magga-attainer” just for a single thought-moment after which he is a “phala-attainer” in no time. This is because the thought-process of the arising of the Path and its Fruition come in a continuous uninterrupted flow. Hence the Myanmar rendering describes the process that a maggaattainer is called a “younger brother” to a phala-attainer, only in a technical sense.