Four Stages of Enlightenment - Path and Fruit

Path and Fruit

Supra-mundane stages, fetters and rebirths
(according to the Sutta Piṭaka)

stage's
"fruit"

abandoned
fetters

rebirth(s)
until suffering's end

stream-enterer

1. identity view
2. doubt
3. ritual attachment

lower
fetters

up to seven more times as
a human or in a heaven

once-returner

once more as
a human

non-returner

4. sensual desire
5. ill will

once more in
a pure abode

arahant

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.

See also: Phala

The Sutta Pitaka classifies the four levels according to the levels' attainments. The Sthaviravada/Theravada tradition, which believes that "progress in understanding comes all at once, 'insight' (abhisamaya) does not come 'gradually' (successively - anapurva)," has elaborated on this classification, describing each of the four levels as a path to be attained suddenly, followed by the realisation of the fruit of the path.

The process of becoming an Arahat is therefore characterized by four distinct and sudden changes, instead of a gradual development. The same stance is taken in the contemporary Vipassana movement, especially the so-called "New Burmese Method".

Read more about this topic:  Four Stages Of Enlightenment

Famous quotes containing the words path and, path and/or fruit:

    The gray-eyed morn smiles on the frowning night,
    Check’ring the eastern clouds with streaks of light,
    And fleckled darkness like a drunkard reels
    From forth day’s path and Titan’s fiery wheels.
    William Shakespeare (1564–1616)

    Every path to a new understanding begins in confusion.
    Mason Cooley (b. 1927)

    On the whole, my respect for my fellow-men, except as one may outweigh a million, is not being increased these days.... Such do not know that like the seed is the fruit, and that, in the moral world, when good seed is planted, good fruit is inevitable, and does not depend on our watering and cultivating; that when you plant, or bury, a hero in his field, a crop of heroes is sure to spring up. This is a seed of such force and vitality, that it does not ask our leave to germinate.
    Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)