StaGES of Enlightenment

The Buddha taught a path that leads to deeper and deeper understanding though the application of meditation. It is through meditation that Nirvana (Pali: Nibanna) is experienced, leading a person through their own direct personal experience to understanding and enlightenment.

It’s important to note that Nirvana is an experience, a verb, a profound shift in one’s understanding of the nature of mind. It’s this experience where one sees up close and personally what the Buddha taught. 

Pali is an ancient language that was spoken by the Buddha and the peoples in what is now modern-day India and Nepal. Please click the Pali words if you would like to see their definition. Pali is the language that the Buddha’s teachings were originally recorded in. It wasn’t until the 1800s and then again in the 1990s that the major works were translated into English. You can read about the history of Pali and Buddhism by clicking here.

The Buddha’s teaching and application leads one along the path through four major stages described below:

Level 1: Stream-enterer (Pali:Sotapanna). Named as the meditator has “fallen into the stream” which leads one to full enlightenment. This is the first stage. At this stage, a person has directly experienced Nirvana (Pali: Nibbana), the unconditioned state, for the first time. This experience leads to the removal of the first three fetters. The fetters have been described as bindings, attachments, bonds, or chains. 

• Self-illusion (Pali: sakkaya-ditthi): The belief in a permanent, un-changing self.
• Doubt (Pali: vicikiccha): Doubt in the Buddha, the Dhamma (the teachings), and the Sangha (the community of monks and nuns). The removal of doubt is not due to “faith” but due to one’s own direct experience.
• Clinging to rites and rituals (Pali: silabbata-paramasa): The belief that following rituals or repetitive practices leads to liberation or enlightenment. A stream-enterer is assured of reaching full enlightenment within seven lifetimes at most, and they will never be reborn in lower realm.

Level 2: Once-returner (Pali: Sakadagami): This is the second stage of enlightenment. The person has further weakened the next two constraints or fetters. They are called once-returners as they will be reborn into the human realm only one more time before attaining full enlightenment.

• Sensual desire (Pali: kama-raga): Craving for sensual pleasures.
• Ill will (Pali: vyapada): Hatred or aversion.

Level 3: Non-returner (Pali: Anagami): The third stage of enlightenment. The person has completely eradicated the five lower constraints or fetters mentioned in the previous stages. A non-returner will not be reborn in the human realm again but will attain full enlightenment in a higher heavenly realm upon their human death. 

Level 4: Arahant (Pali: Arahant) This is the final stage of enlightenment. The person has completely eradicated all ten fetters. 

• Desire for existence in the fine-material world (Pali: rupa-raga).
• Desire for existence in the immaterial world (Pali: arupa-raga).
• Conceit (Pali: mana) – (they have seen through the illusion of a “self”)
• Restlessness (Pali: uddhacca).
• Ignorance (Pali: avijja). An arahant has attained full release from suffering and will not be reborn again. They have achieved liberation in this very life.