Seven year old Arahants in the Buddha’s time

 It was relayed to me through Joseph Goldstein that there were seven year old Arahants in the Buddha’s time.

I assume they weren’t prodigies because the purpose of these anecdotes is that it is a very simple teaching but it is hard to live that teaching.

I take the teaching to be basically: 

-Do good, avoid doing bad, or as Shakespeare wrote: “be great in act as you have been in thought,” 

-Keep things pure (as in, don’t corrupt the mind with wanting what is pleasant—ie wanting to be wanting or “catalogue consciousness”—, pushing away what is unpleasant, and ignoring what is neutral ESPECIALLY if nothing can be done to alleviate such states or as Dogen wrote: “flowers fall even though we love them, weeds grow even though we dislike them”), 

-To aid in being a good compassionate person capable of good compassionate actions, develop strong concentration and mindfulness of the present moment,

-see through the illusion of a permanent, satisfactory, independent self, and lastly,

-psychologically let go of everything, past, present, and future as they arise 10,000 times if need be.

That is all. No need to out dhamma anyone.