| Chapter 1: | The Pāli Nikāyas |
|
|
are typically designated are (1) stream-enterer (sotāpanna), (2) once-returner (sakadāgāmin), (3) non-returner (anāgāmin), (4) and worthy one (arahant). Each of these stages is further divided into two parts: a path leading to the stage and the actual stage or fruit itself. Each of the four is basically defined in terms both of how many of the ten “bonds” or “fetters” (saṁyojana) to saṁsāra have been eliminated and of how many lifetimes remain before the final goal of nibbāna is attained. The saṁyojanas keep one bound in the cycle of repeated rebirth and redeath in this realm of suffering, known as saṁsāra, for as long as one is held by them.
The first stage, stream-enterer, refers to a person who has entered the stream that inevitably flows to nibbāna. Originally, the term was applied to anyone who had a pure and indestructible faith (saddhā) in the religion. However, the standard definition describes one who has cut off the first three fetters: the belief in a substantial self (sakkāya-diṭṭhi), doubt (vicikicchā), and clinging to mere rules and rituals (sīlabbata-parāmāsa). A stream-enterer is no longer subject to rebirth in one of the three lower destinies of the hell, hungry ghost, and animal realms and is destined to attain the final goal of nibbāna within seven rebirths in this world of saṁsāra. A person who has reached the second stage, the once-returner, has greatly weakened the fourth and fifth fetters of sensual craving (kāmā-rāga) and hatred (vyāpāda) and is destined to be reborn in this world only one more time before attaining nibbāna. A person in the third stage, the non-returner, has completely eliminated the fourth and fifth fetters. By virtue of having eliminated the five bonds that tie a person to the realm of desire (kāmadhātu), the non-returner will attain nibbāna without rebirth in saṁsāra or after being reborn in a heavenly realm (heavenly realms are above the realm of desire, in the realms of form and formlessness). Finally, one achieves nibbāna in the fourth and final stage of the arahant, after one has completely liberated oneself in this lifetime from the last five saṁyojanas, which are attachment to existence in the material and immaterial realms (rūpa- and arūpa-rāga), conceit (māna), agitation (uddhacca), and ignorance (avijjā).