Four Stages of Enlightenment Information
The four stages of enlightenment in Buddhism are the four progressive stages culminating in full enlightenment as an Arahant, which an average, instructed person can attain in this life. The four stages are Sotapanna, Sakadagami, Anagami and Arahant.
The teaching of the four stages of enlightenment is a central element of the early Buddhist schools, including the Theravada school of Buddhism, which still survives.
Contents |
The Ordinary person
An ordinary person or puthujjana (Pali; Sanskrit: pṛthagjanai.e. pritha : without, and jnana : knowledge) is trapped in the endless cycling of saṃsara. One is reborn, lives, and dies in endless rebirths, either as a deva_(Buddhism) human, animal, male, female, neuter, ghost, deity, divinity, or hellion, or various other entities on different categories of existence.
There are a total of [31 planes of existence] divided into three realms. The lowest realm is the realm of sensuality (kama-loka) with the human world being the lowest fortunate world. Above this realm is the fine material realm (rupa-loka), with numerous deva worlds : The lowest classes of devas (1) the desire realm devas devote their time to enjoying and satisfying sense desires. Higher up are the (2) form and (3) formless devas and brahmas. Having passed beyond sensual desires, the form devas experience the refined bliss of the first four meditative absorptions (jhanas) and possess subtle bodies emanating light. Transcending form, the devas of the formless realm (arupa-loka) reside in subtle conscious states known as unbounded space, unbounded consciousness, nothingness, and neither perception nor non-perception.
Although these devas and brahmas live extremely long lives of ease and luxury in worlds that may be described as paradises, they are not immortal. They will eventually pass away and fall to lower states of existence because their lives are filled with either distractions (because it is difficult for them to find the motivation to practice the Dharma that creates profitable karma), or as the purest deva consciousness within samsara, they still have not overcome ignorance, craving for continued existence, or self-view. Hence some of them having exhausted their merit, or good karma created in past lives, without much spiritual progress can therefore potentially take rebirth in even in subhuman planes.
There are numerous lower or unfortunate planes below the human world: The least painful is (1) the animal realm (e.g., insects, birds, fish, mammals, etc.). Their lives are characterized by instinct and emotions having to do with survival. Then there is (2) the hungry spirit plane, which is characterized by long periods of hunger and thirst and lack that is difficult to bear. Finally, the lowest plane is (3) the hell planes, where beings are relentlessly tormented depending on the plane (pierced, scalded, tortured, frosted, etc.) by the fears arising from their delusional mind as a result of unprofitable karma. The suffering continues for what seems like an eternity but eventually the karma that sustained that existence is exhausted and the hell beings (narakas) pass away and are reborn elsewhere in samsara according to their karma.
Doing good or bad (bodily, verbally, or mentally) as influenced by an entity's mental attachments ( sans. Raga ) and aversions ( sans. Dvvesh ), an ordinary entity is born in higher or lower states of being (heavens, lower states, or even tormenting hells) according to their actions in preceding births.
As these entities have little control over their minds and behaviors, due to the hardships they experience, their destinies are haphazard and subject to great suffering. Worries, "tension", adversaries, and general adversity are their daily grindstone - all projections of their own mind, instigated by the driving force of past karma, subsisting as samskaras, or tendencies, in the thought-stuff, and manifested as vasanas, or predilections, in immediate consciousness and behavior.
An ordinary entity has never seen and experienced the ultimate truth of Dharma and therefore has no way of finding an end to the predicament. It is only when suffering becomes acute, or seemingly unending, that an entity looks for a "solution" to and, if fortunate, finds the Dharma.
The Noble persons
|
Supra-mundane stages, fetters and rebirths (according to the Sutta Piṭaka[1]) |
|||
|
stage's "fruit"[2] |
abandoned fetters |
rebirth(s) until suffering's end |
|
|
1. identity view 2. doubt 3. ritual attachment |
lower fetters |
up to seven more times as a human or in a heaven |
|
|
once more as a human |
|||
|
4. sensual desire 5. ill will |
once more in a pure abode |
||
|
6. material-rebirth lust 7. immaterial-rebirth lust 8. conceit 9. restlessness 10. ignorance |
higher fetters |
none |
|
|
Source: Ñāṇamoli & Bodhi (2001), Middle-Length Discourses, pp. 41-43. |
|||
One who begins sincere training on the Buddhist path (known as Sekhas in Pali or "those in training") and experiences the truth to the extent of cutting off three or more of the ten mental fetters (Pali: saṃyojana) becomes an ariya puggala (Pali; Sanskrit: āryapudgala): a "noble person" who will surely become an Arahant within seven existences. The length is governed by the degree of attainment reached. "Among whatever communities or groups there may be, the Sangha of the Tathagata's disciples is considered supreme... Those who have confidence in the Sangha have confidence in what is supreme. And for those with confidence in the supreme, supreme will be the result." [4]
The Sangha of the Tathagata's disciples (Ariya Sangha), i.e. the four [groups of noble disciples] when taken as pairs, the eight when taken as individuals. The four groups of noble disciples (Buddhist Sekhas) when taken as pairs are those who have attained:
- I
(1) the path to stream-entry; (2) the fruition of stream-entry;
- II
(3) the path to once-returning ; (4) the fruition of once-returning;
- III
(5) the path to non-returning ; (6) the fruition of non-returning;
- IV
(7) the path to arahantship ; (8) the fruition of arahantship.
Taking each attainment singly gives eight individuals.
Stream-enterer
Main article: SotāpannaThe first stage is that of Sotāpanna (Pali; Sanskrit: Srotāpanna), literally meaning "one who enters (āpadyate) the stream (sotas)," with the stream being the supermundane Noble Eightfold Path regarded as the highest Dharma. The stream-enterer is also said to have "opened the eye of the Dharma" (dhammacakkhu, Sanskrit: dharmacakṣus).
A stream-enterer reaches arahantship within seven rebirths upon opening the eye of the Dharma.
Due to the fact that the stream-enterer has attained an intuitive grasp of Buddhist doctrine (samyagdṛṣṭi or sammādiṭṭhi, "right view") and has complete confidence or Saddha in the Three Jewels: Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha, that individual will not be reborn in any plane lower than the human (animal, preta, or in hell).
Once-returner
Main article: SakadagamiThe second stage is that of the Sakadāgāmī (Sanskrit: Sakṛdāgāmin), literally meaning "one who once (sakṛt) comes (āgacchati)". The once-returner will at most return to the human world one more time. Both the stream-enterer and the once-returner have abandoned the first three fetters. The stream-enterer and once-returner are distinguished by the fact that the once-returner has weakened lust, hate, and delusion to a greater degree. The non-returner therefore has fewer than seven rebirths. They may take place in higher planes but will include rebirth in the human world at most only once more. Once-returners do not have only one more rebirth, as the name suggests, for that may not even be said with certainty about the non-returner who can take multiple rebirths in the five "Pure Abodes".
Non-returner
Main article: AnāgāmiThe third stage is that of the Anāgāmī (Sanskrit: Anāgāmin), literally meaning "one who does not (an-) come (āgacchati)". The non-returner, having overcome sensuality, does not return to human world, or any unfortunate world lower than that after death. Instead, non-returners are reborn in one of the five special worlds in Rūpadhātu called the Śuddhāvāsa worlds, or "Pure Abodes", and there attain Nirvāṇa; Pāli: Nibbana; some of them are reborn a second time in a higher world of the Pure Abodes.
An Anāgāmī has abandoned the five lower fetters, out of ten total fetters, that bind beings to the cycle of rebirth. An Anāgāmī is well advanced and close to complete Enlightenment.
Arahant
Main article: ArahantThe fourth stage is that of Arahant, a fully enlightened being who has abandoned all ten fetters and who, upon (Sanskrit: Parinirvāṇa, Pāli: Parinibbāna) will never be reborn in any plane or world, having wholly escaped saṃsāra. [4]
References
- ^ See, for instance, the "Snake-Simile Discourse" (MN 22), where the Buddha states:
'... [F]or those who are arahants, free of taints, who have accomplished and completed their task, have laid down the burden, achieved their aim, severed the fetters binding to existence, who are liberated by full knowledge, there is no (future) round of existence that can be ascribed to them.... [T]hose monks who have abandoned the five lower fetters will all be reborn spontaneously (in the Pure Abodes) and there they will pass away finally, no more returning from that world.... [T]hose monks who have abandoned three fetters and have reduced greed, hatred and delusion, are all once-returners, and, returning only once to this world, will then make an end of suffering.... [T]hose monks who have abandoned three fetters, are all stream-enterers, no more liable to downfall, assured, and headed for full Enlightenment.' (Nyanaponika, 2006)
- ^ The "fruit" (Pali: phala) is the culmination of the "path" (magga). Thus, for example, the "stream-enterer" is the fruit for one on the "stream-entry" path; more specifically, the stream-enterer has abandoned the first three fetters, while one on the path of stream-entry strives to abandon these fetters.
- ^ Both the stream-enterer and the once-returner abandon the first three fetters. What distinguishes these stages is that the once-returner additionally attenuates lust, hate and delusion, and will necessarily be reborn only once more.
- ^ a b Sangha
Categories: Buddhist philosophical concepts
|