{"id":15878,"date":"2021-10-07T14:26:34","date_gmt":"2021-10-07T19:26:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.dharma.org\/?p=15878"},"modified":"2021-10-07T14:26:34","modified_gmt":"2021-10-07T19:26:34","slug":"the-four-levels-of-awakening","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dharma.org\/the-four-levels-of-awakening\/","title":{"rendered":"The Four Levels of Awakening"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Bhikkhu An\u0101layo<\/strong><\/p>\n

Key words: Arahant; Awakening;\u00a0bodhi<\/em>; Enlightenment; Four Fruits; Four Paths; Once-return; Nirvana; Non-return; Stream-entry<\/p>\n

Abstract<\/strong><\/h5>\n

The early discourses present the realization of four levels of awakening as the chief purpose of mindfulness practice. A survey of the opinions of various scholars, alleging these four levels to be a later development, shows that the main arguments proposed in support of this assessment are unconvincing. The testimony provided by a comparative study of the early discourses instead conveys the impression that these four levels of awakening are an integral part of the teachings of early Buddhism in the form in which they have been preserved in the textual records. These four levels depict a gradual purification of the mind which can be achieved through the cultivation of insight based on the practice of mindfulness.<\/p>\n

Introduction<\/strong><\/h5>\n

In early Buddhist thought, the chief function of mindfulness practice is to lead to awakening (An\u0101layo 2021). The early discourses regularly depict four main levels of awakening. Based on a first introduction to these four levels provided to the readership of this journal by Amaro (2019), the present article intends to offer a closer survey of these four levels, in particular in critical dialogue with selected suggestions made by various scholars in relation to them. Throughout this exploration, the issue at stake is to arrive at an accurate reflection of what the textual records of early Buddhist thought convey about these levels of awakening.<\/p>\n

Awakening or Enlightenment?<\/strong><\/h5>\n

The Indic term\u00a0bodhi<\/em>, here translated as \u201cawakening,\u201d is often alternatively rendered as \u201cenlightenment.\u201d Cohen (2006, p. 3) explained that already by \u201cthe mid-1870s, it had become commonplace to call the buddha \u2018enlightened.\u2019 By the end of the 1880s, the terminologies of \u2018enlightened\u2019 and \u2018enlightenment\u2019 dominated the English-language literature on Buddhism.\u201d McMahan (2008, p. 18) reasoned that the term\u00a0bodhi<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em>literally means \u201cawakening\u201d and describes the Buddha\u2019s highest attainment under the bodhi tree. The most common English translation, \u201cenlightenment,\u201d invokes, however, a complex of meanings tied to the ideas, values, and sensibilities of the European Enlightenment: reason, empirical observation, suspicion of authority, freedom of thought, and so on. Early translators, moreover, consciously forged this link. Buddhist studies pioneer Thomas W. Rhys Davids (1843\u20131922) \u2026 translated\u00a0bodhi\u00a0<\/em>as \u201cEnlightenment\u201d and explicitly compared the Buddha with the philosophers of the European Enlightenment.<\/p>\n

In an encyclopedia entry on the term\u00a0bodhi<\/em>,\u00a0<\/em>Gimello (2004, p. 50) offered the following assessment:<\/p>\n

Those who are attentive to the more literal meaning of the Indic original tend to translate\u00a0bodhi<\/em>\u00a0in English as \u201cawakening,\u201d and this is to be recommended. However, it has long been conventional to translate it as \u201cenlightenment,\u201d despite the risks of multiple misrepresentation attendant upon the use of so heavily freighted an English word.<\/p>\n

Norman (1990, p. 26) explained:<\/p>\n

The translation\u00a0\u201cenlightenment\u201d is normally reserved for\u00a0bodhi\u00a0<\/em>or\u00a0sambodhi<\/em>, but it is somewhat misleading in that the root\u00a0budh<\/em>– which underlies these words has no direct connection with \u201clight.\u201d The root means literally \u201cto wake up,\u201d or metaphorically \u201cto wake up (to a fact), to know it,\u201d and \u201cawakening\u201d would be a more literal translation of\u00a0bodhi<\/em>. The past participle\u00a0buddha\u00a0<\/em>is used actively to mean \u201cone who has awakened, one who has gained knowledge.\u201d<\/p>\n

An example illustrating the basic sense of the root\u00a0budh\u00a0<\/em>in a context not related to any higher attainment can be found in a description of someone who has various experience during a dream, all of which vanish as soon as the person wakes up:<\/p>\n

On waking up, one would not see any of it.<\/p>\n

(MN 54:\u00a0s<\/em>o pa\u1e6dibuddho na ki\u00f1ci passeyya<\/em>).<\/p>\n

If one has woken up, one sees none of it all.<\/p>\n

(M\u0100 203:\u00a0\u5f7c\u82e5\u609f\u5df2,\u00a0\u90fd\u4e0d\u898b\u4e00).<\/p>\n

The P\u0101li term\u00a0pa\u1e6dibuddha<\/em>\u00a0used here (just as its Chinese counterpart\u00a0\u609f) conveniently exemplifies the nuances that derivatives of\u00a0the root\u00a0budh\u00a0<\/em>would have carried in the ancient setting (An\u0101layo 2011, p. xxiii;\u00a0see also An\u0101layo 2013). In sum, the term\u00a0bodhi\u00a0<\/em>is best rendered as \u201cawakening,\u201d rather than employing a term that \u201cevokes discourses associated with eighteenth century Europe\u2019s aspirations towards an age of reason\u201d (Cohen 2010, p. 101).<\/p>\n

The Buddha as a Cowherd<\/strong><\/h5>\n

In the ancient Indian context, the employment of the image of a cowherd in a religious context naturally calls up K\u1e5b\u1e63\u1e47a (Vaudeville 1975). However, the early Buddhist discourses also present the Buddha in the role of a cowherd, and one such case relates to the theme of the four levels of awakening. The discourse in question describes how a wise cowherd will lead cattle across the river Ganges in such a way that not only the strong bulls but also the weaker cows and even the young calves get across safely. The different types of cattle taken across the river illustrate Buddhist disciples who reach different levels of awakening. Those comparable to strong bulls are as follows:<\/p>\n

[In the same way are] those monastics who are arahants, with influxes destroyed, who have reached perfection, done what had to be done, laid down the burden, attained their own goal, with the fetter of becoming destroyed, and who are liberated by right and penetrative knowledge.<\/p>\n

(MN 34:\u00a0ye te bhikkh\u016b arahanto kh\u012b\u1e47\u0101sav\u0101 vusitavanto katakara\u1e47\u012by\u0101 ohitabh\u0101r\u0101 anuppattasadatth\u0101 parikkh\u012b\u1e47abhavasa\u1e43yojan\u0101 sammada\u00f1\u00f1\u0101 vimutt\u0101<\/em>).<\/p>\n

In the same way, with the influx-free liberation of the mind and liberation by wisdom my disciples are able to destroy the influxes, here and now personally knowing and realizing: \u201cBirth for me has been eradicated, the holy life has been established, what had to be done has been done, I myself know that there will be no acquiring of further existence.\u201d<\/p>\n

(S\u0100 1248:\u00a0\u5982\u662f\u6211\u8072\u805e\u80fd\u76e1\u8af8\u6f0f,\u00a0\u7121\u6f0f\u5fc3\u89e3\u812b,\u00a0\u6167\u89e3\u812b,\u00a0\u73fe\u6cd5\u81ea\u77e5\u4f5c\u8b49:\u00a0\u6211\u751f\u5df2\u76e1,\u00a0\u68b5\u884c\u5df2\u7acb,\u00a0\u6240\u4f5c\u5df2\u4f5c,\u00a0\u81ea\u77e5\u4e0d\u53d7\u5f8c\u6709; the original abbreviates and has been supplemented from S\u0100 110).<\/p>\n

My disciples are again also like that: their influxes are destroyed by accomplishing the influx-free liberation of the mind and liberation by wisdom, here and now personally realizing it and themselves dwelling in it.<\/p>\n

(E\u0100 43.6:\u00a0\u6211\u5f1f\u5b50\u4ea6\u5fa9\u5982\u662f,\u00a0\u76e1\u6709\u6f0f,\u00a0\u6210\u7121\u6f0f\u5fc3\u89e3\u812b,\u00a0\u667a\u6167\u89e3\u812b,\u00a0\u65bc\u73fe\u6cd5\u4e2d\u4ee5\u8eab\u4f5c\u8b49\u800c\u81ea\u904a\u5316).<\/p>\n

The three parallels agree in qualifying arahants, those who have reached the highest of the four levels of awakening, as having destroyed the influxes (\u0101sava\/\u0101\u015brava\/<\/em>\u6f0f\/zag pa<\/em>). In the early discourses these influxes are usually listed as three, comprising the influxes of sensuality, of becoming, and of ignorance (An\u0101layo 2012). The next level of awakening, corresponding to cattle that are weaker than the strong bulls, finds the following description:<\/p>\n

[In the same way are] those monastics who, with the eradication of the five lower fetters, will be of spontaneous appearance and attain final Nirvana there, not being subject to returning from that world.<\/p>\n

(MN 34:\u00a0ye te bhikkh\u016b pa\u00f1canna\u1e43 orambh\u0101giy\u0101na\u1e43 sa\u1e43yojan\u0101na\u1e43 parikkhay\u0101 opap\u0101tik\u0101 tattha parinibb\u0101yino an\u0101vattidhamm\u0101 tasm\u0101 lok\u0101<\/em>).<\/p>\n

In the same way, with the eradication of the five lower fetters my disciples attain non-return and will experience birth there, without returning to this world.<\/p>\n

(S\u0100 1248:\u00a0\u5982\u662f\u6211\u8af8\u8072\u805e\u65b7\u4e94\u4e0b\u5206\u7d50,\u00a0\u5f97\u963f\u90a3\u542b,\u00a0\u65bc\u5f7c\u53d7\u751f,\u00a0\u4e0d\u9084\u6b64\u4e16).<\/p>\n

My disciples are again also like that: by eradicating the five lower fetters they accomplish non-return and will attain final Nirvana there, without returning here.<\/p>\n

(E\u0100 43.6:\u00a0\u6211\u8072\u805e\u4ea6\u5fa9\u5982\u662f,\u00a0\u65b7\u4e94\u4e0b\u7d50,\u00a0\u6210\u963f\u90a3\u542b,\u00a0\u65bc\u5f7c\u822c\u6d85\u69c3,\u00a0\u4e0d\u9084\u4f86\u6b64\u9593).<\/p>\n

The parallels agree in mentioning the five lower fetters (sa\u1e43yojana<\/em>), which are elsewhere listed as comprising the fetters of identity belief, doubt, clinging to (specific) moral behaviors and observances (as in themselves leading to liberation), sensual lust, and ill will. The three versions also allude, in complementary ways, to the type of rebirth to be expected of non-returners. These are so called because they will\u00a0not return<\/em>\u00a0to be born in this human world and instead be reborn only in a particularly elevated celestial realm. The next level of awakening, corresponding to still weaker cattle, finds depiction as follows:<\/p>\n

[In the same way are] those monastics who, with the destruction of the three fetters and the weakening of lust, anger, and delusion, are once-returners; coming once to this world they will make an end of\u00a0dukkha<\/em>.<\/p>\n

(MN 34:\u00a0ye te bhikkh\u016b ti\u1e47\u1e47a\u1e43 sa\u1e43yojan\u0101na\u1e43 parikkhay\u0101 r\u0101gadosamoh\u0101na\u1e43 tanutt\u0101 sakad\u0101g\u0101mino sakideva ima\u1e43 loka\u1e43 \u0101gantv\u0101 dukkhass\u2019 anta\u1e43 karissanti<\/em>).<\/p>\n

In the same way, with the eradication of the three fetters and the weakening of lust, ill will, and delusion my disciples attain once-return; coming once to this world they will [gain] the final transcendence of\u00a0dukkha<\/em>.<\/p>\n

(S\u0100 1248:\u00a0\u5982\u662f\u6211\u8072\u805e\u65b7\u4e09\u7d50,\u00a0\u8caa,\u00a0\u605a,\u00a0\u7661\u8584,\u00a0\u5f97\u65af\u9640\u542b,\u00a0\u4e00\u4f86\u6b64\u4e16,\u00a0\u7a76\u7adf\u82e6\u908a).<\/p>\n

My disciples are again also like that: with the eradication of the three underlying fetters and the weakening of sensual lust, anger, and delusion they accomplish once-return; coming once to this world they will completely make an end of\u00a0dukkha<\/em>.<\/p>\n

(E\u0100 43.6:\u00a0\u6211\u5f1f\u5b50\u4ea6\u5fa9\u5982\u662f,\u00a0\u65b7\u4e09\u7d50\u4f7f,\u00a0\u5a6c,\u00a0\u6012,\u00a0\u7661\u8584,\u00a0\u6210\u65af\u9640\u542b,\u00a0\u4f86\u81f3\u6b64\u4e16,\u00a0\u76e1\u65bc\u82e6\u969b).<\/p>\n

The reference in the parallels to three fetters intends the first three in the list of five given above (personality belief, doubt, and clinging to moral behaviors and observances). The once-returner will experience only one more rebirth, differing from the non-returner insofar as this can take place in the human world. The lowest of the four stages of awakening is explained in this way:<\/p>\n

[In the same way are] those monastics who, with the destruction of the three fetters are stream-enterers, having a fixed destiny and being bound to full awakening without [ever] being subject to perdition.<\/p>\n

(MN 34:\u00a0ye te bhikkh\u016b ti\u1e47\u1e47a\u1e43 sa\u1e43yojan\u0101na\u1e43 parikkhay\u0101 sot\u0101pann\u0101 avinip\u0101tadhamm\u0101 niyat\u0101 sambodhipar\u0101yan\u0101<\/em>).<\/p>\n

In the same way, with the eradication of the three fetters my disciples attain stream-entry, are certain of rightly progressing toward full awakening without falling into a bad destiny and will [gain] the final transcendence of\u00a0dukkha<\/em>\u00a0within seven rebirths among humans and celestials.<\/p>\n

(S\u0100 1248:\u00a0\u5982\u662f\u6211\u8072\u805e\u65b7\u4e09\u7d50,\u00a0\u5f97\u9808\u9640\u6d39,\u00a0\u4e0d\u58ae\u60e1\u8da3,\u00a0\u6c7a\u5b9a\u6b63\u5411\u4e09\u83e9\u63d0,\u00a0\u4e03\u6709\u5929\u4eba\u5f80\u751f,\u00a0\u7a76\u7adf\u82e6\u908a).<\/p>\n

My disciples are again also like that: with the eradication of the three underlying fetters they accomplish stream-entry, being certain of obtaining the crossing over.<\/p>\n

(E\u0100 43.6:\u00a0\u6211\u5f1f\u5b50\u4ea6\u5fa9\u5982\u662f,\u00a0\u65b7\u4e09\u7d50\u4f7f,\u00a0\u6210\u9808\u9640\u6d39,\u00a0\u5fc5\u81f3\u5f97\u5ea6; the reference to\u00a0\u4e09\u00a0is based on adopting a variant reading).<\/p>\n

The parallel versions agree that stream-enterers have eradicated the three fetters and are destined to reach full awakening. Further indications not mentioned explicitly in all versions are that stream-enterers will reach the final goal within up to seven more rebirths, having won the assurance that none of these will take place in any of the lower realms of existence recognized in ancient Indian cosmology.<\/p>\n

The chief point that emerges from the material common to the parallel versions on the topic of the four levels of awakening is an overall concern with the eradication or destruction of defilements, expressed in terms of fetters and influxes. In the traditional setting, mindfulness practice was aimed at completely overcoming all these mental negativities (rather than just learning to be at ease with one\u2019s negative emotions). The centrality of purification of the mind receives a complementary highlight in another discourse (MN 40 and M\u0100 183), according to which monastic disciples of the Buddha must dedicate themselves to purifying their minds to deserve the very appellation \u201crecluse.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another noteworthy element in the above descriptions is the degree to which these four levels of awakening are interrelated with the notion of rebirth (An\u0101layo 2018). In fact, two of the four levels take their appellation from this notion, as the non-returner and the once-returner are so-called precisely because of the type of rebirth that awaits them. This does not imply that the early Buddhist teaching on purification of the mind is confined to the context of rebirth. It does mean, however, that the idea of rebirth has to be taken into account in order to understand properly the implications of awakening in early Buddhist thought.<\/p>\n

The Four Levels of Awakening<\/strong><\/h5>\n

According to some scholars, some of the four levels of awakening are later additions to the teachings of early Buddhism. Before examining a selection of relevant arguments, it needs to be noted that a proper appreciation of \u201cearly Buddhism\u201d requires a comparative study of the different parallel versions of a particular discourse, in the manner exemplified above. In keeping with proper scientific procedure, a survey of all relevant data is needed before developing interpretations and drawing conclusions on the nature of early Buddhist doctrine. Exclusive reliance on P\u0101li texts can for this reason only provide a basis for conclusions confined to the P\u0101li tradition on a particular issue, simply because such a procedure neglects to take into account the substantial body of evidence for early Buddhist thought preserved in non-P\u0101li texts.<\/p>\n

Moreover, the early discourses show the Buddha to have had a clear awareness of the limitations of language, allowing for a flexible use of different complementary terms to express the same meaning. A case in point is a discourse which lists various terms that could be used to refer to the begging bowl of a monastic, encouraging the audience not to insist on one particular term as the only right one (An\u0101layo 2011, p. 796). It is only in later exegesis that doctrinal terminology comes to be more tightly defined and streamlined. Hence, lack of streamlining of terminology also does not warrant being considered as problematic in itself, making it commendable to beware of overly literal readings of a particular expression or phrase.<\/p>\n

A third point to be taken into account is that the early discourses are records of individual oral teachings whose content and manner of exposition stood in close dialogue with the type of audience and setting within which a particular exposition was given. Each discourse is contextual and needs to be evaluated accordingly. This differs from later exegesis, which shows a growing concern with comprehensive coverage of a particular topic (An\u0101layo 2014). For this reason, the expectation that each discourse should treat a particular topic or issue in a thoroughly comprehensive manner, failing which there must be a substantial doctrinal problem, is based on a category mistake.<\/p>\n

Based on these preliminary considerations, the first argument to be examined here relates to the expectation of finding already in the early discourses the type of comprehensive coverage provided in later exegesis. Horner (1934, p. 788) considered the idea of four levels of awakening to be a later development, based on noting that the<\/p>\n

omission of the four Ways from among the Fours of the\u00a0Sa\u1e45g\u012bti Suttanta\u00a0<\/em>\u2026 suggests that at the time when this Suttanta was written down the Four Ways had not been established as a group.<\/p>\n

The reasoning is unexpected, as she herself (p. 787) noted that the\u00a0Sa\u1e45g\u012bti-sutta\u00a0<\/em>covers the four fruits of recluseship, which are the fruits of stream-entry, of once-return, of non-return, and of arahantship (DN 33:\u00a0catt\u0101ri\u00a0s\u0101ma\u00f1\u00f1aphal\u0101ni: sot\u0101pattiphala\u1e43, sakad\u0101g\u0101miphala\u1e43, an\u0101g\u0101miphala\u1e43, arahattaphala\u1e43<\/em>).\u00a0<\/em>It could be added that the presentation in the\u00a0Sa\u1e45g\u012bti-sutta\u00a0<\/em>receives support from its parallels, which list the same four (Stache-Rosen 1968, p. 98 (reconstructed):\u00a0catv\u0101ri \u015br\u0101ma\u1e47yaphal\u0101ni: \u2026 \u015brota\u0101pattiphala\u1e43 sak\u1e5bd\u0101g\u0101miphalam an\u0101g\u0101miphalam agraphalam arhatvam<\/em>, D\u0100 9:\u00a0\u56db\u6c99\u9580\u679c:\u00a0\u9808\u9640\u6d39\u679c,\u00a0\u65af\u9640\u542b\u679c,\u00a0\u963f\u90a3\u542b\u679c,\u00a0\u963f\u7f85\u6f22\u679c, and T 12:\u00a0\u56db\u6c99\u9580\u679c: \u2026\u00a0\u8b02\u9808\u9640\u6d39\u679c,\u00a0\u65af\u9640\u542b\u679c,\u00a0\u963f\u90a3\u542b\u679c,\u00a0\u963f\u7f85\u6f22\u679c). Since these four fruits are to be attained by the corresponding four ways (or paths), once the four fruits are mentioned explicitly in the different versions of this discourse, there is hardly any room left to problematize the absence of an additional reference to the corresponding group of four ways.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em>Horner (p. 791) also saw a problem with the third level of awakening in relation to full awakening, reasoning that it is<\/p>\n

not easy to reconcile to this concept [of full awakening] the concept of the Way of No-return as a stage on the way to this same arahanship. For if, after a person has left this earth, he is not to return to it, if he is to pass utterly away in the realm where he is reborn after his bodily death here, how can he become an arahan as this is ordinarily conceived by the texts, with their insistence on\u00a0di\u1e6d\u1e6dhe va dhamme\u00a0<\/em>(here and now, lit.:, in these very seen conditions)? \u2026 the gulf between the non-returner and the arahan is physically unbridgeable, and therefore the inclusion of the third Way is out of place if it is thought that the attainment of arahanship here and now is the ideal of those on the Way of No-return.<\/p>\n

The qualification of arahant-ship as being attained \u201chere and now\u201d applies to those who reached full awakening in the same lifetime in which they came into contact with the Buddha\u2019s teaching. It does not follow that those who reached lower levels of awakening or even none could not progress to full awakening in a subsequent life. In fact, one of the possible solutions proposed by Horner (p. 791) to resolve the perceived problem is that, in the case of those progressing beyond lower levels of awakening in a subsequent life, \u201cthe arahanship thus thought of did not fulfil the \u2018here and now\u2019 condition.\u201d Although this suggestion would indeed settle the issue, the same alledged problem has been pursued further by Mann\u00e9 (1995, p. 94):<\/p>\n

The stage\u00a0an\u0101g\u0101min<\/em>\u00a0[non-returner] contradicts the basic Buddhist teaching that Enlightenment is attainable in the present lifetime. This discrepancy shows that this stage was invented later, and most likely after the time of the Buddha. The same must be said about the stage of\u00a0sakad\u0101g\u0101min<\/em>\u00a0[once-returner] which is so minimally developed in the texts. The close comparison between the etymological structure of these two terms suggests that they came into being together to serve the same purpose \u2026 Originally, then, at the time of the Buddha, there were converts, and Arahats \u2013 practitioners who had attained Liberation. The invention of the stages of\u00a0an\u0101g\u0101min<\/em>, and\u00a0sakad\u0101g\u0101min<\/em>, however, necessitated the elaboration of the state of being a convert into the stage of\u00a0sot\u0101panna\u00a0<\/em>[stream-enterer].<\/p>\n

The attainability of full awakening in the present life does not imply that every single Buddhist disciple must reach the final goal in the same lifetime in which a first exposure to Buddhist teachings took place. Another occurrence of the phrase \u201chere and now\u201d concerns the fruition of karma, which can take place either in this life or else on a later occasion (AN 10.208:\u00a0di\u1e6d\u1e6dhe va dhamme upapajja\u1e43 v\u0101 apare v\u0101 pariy\u0101ye<\/em>). The parallels agree in considering such ripening in the present life to be just an alternative possibility (M\u0100 15:\u00a0\u6216\u73fe\u4e16\u53d7, \u6216\u5f8c\u4e16\u53d7\u00a0and Up 4081:\u00a0mthong ba\u2019i chos nyid la dang, skyes nas dang, lan grangs gzhan na myong bar \u2019gyur ba\u2019o<\/em>). The main difference between the parallels is that the Chinese version just refers to a later life in general as a single alternative, whereas the P\u0101li and Tibetan discourses distinguish two alternatives, which are either the next life or a later time.<\/p>\n

The same sense of the phrase \u201chere and now\u201d (di\u1e6d\u1e6dhe va dhamme\u00a0<\/em>and its counterparts\u00a0\u73fe\u4e16\u00a0and\u00a0mthong ba\u2019i chos<\/em>) holds for full awakening, whose attainment in this life is just one possibility and not the only one. It can also be attained in the next life (namely by once-returners and non-returners) or at a later time (namely by stream-enterers). It is only by relying on an unwarranted literal reading of the phrase that this fairly straightforward situation becomes obscured.<\/p>\n

Mann\u00e9 (p. 112) further reasoned that a discourse in the\u00a0A\u1e45guttara-nik\u0101ya\u00a0<\/em>served to authenticate the four levels of awakening \u201cby attributing the Buddha with the fruits of each of these stages, thus making them a part of his personal history,\u201d so that in this discourse \u201cthe Buddha is attributed with each of these fruits\u201d (p. 88). The relevant P\u0101li passage in the\u00a0A\u1e45guttara-nik\u0101ya\u00a0<\/em>proceeds in this way:<\/p>\n

Monastics, with the manifestation of one person, of the thus-gone one, the arahant, the fully awakened one\u00a0\u2026<\/em>\u00a0there is the realization of the fruit of knowledge and liberation, the realization of the fruit of stream-entry, the realization of the fruit of once-return, the realization of the fruit of non-return, and the realization of the fruit of arahant-ship.<\/p>\n

(AN 1.13.6:\u00a0tath\u0101gatassa arahato samm\u0101sambuddhassa, imassa kho, bhikkhave, ekapuggalassa p\u0101tubh\u0101v\u0101 \u2026 vijj\u0101vimuttiphalasacchikiriy\u0101\u00a0hoti,<\/em>\u00a0sot\u0101pattiphalasacchikiriy\u0101 hoti, sakad\u0101g\u0101miphalasacchikiriy\u0101 hoti, an\u0101g\u0101miphalasacchikiriy\u0101 hoti, arahattaphalasacchikiriy\u0101 hoti<\/em>).<\/p>\n

This passage does not attribute the attainment of each of the four levels of awakening to the Buddha. Instead, the point of the passage is that the coming into existence of a Buddha, here referred to as the manifestation of a thus-gone one (tath\u0101gata<\/em>), makes it possible that these four levels can be attained by others. One needs a Buddha as one\u2019s teacher to be able to realize these four fruits. This type of presentation is fairly common in the early discourses, in that certain teachings only become available once a Buddha has manifested in the world. Another example of this type presents the factors of the eightfold path as something that only arises when a Buddha has arisen (SN 45.16, see also S\u0100 766).<\/p>\n

Based on relating the P\u0101li version of this passage (SN 45.16) to the indication that only a Buddha can arouse the unaroused path (SN 22.58, see also S\u0100 75), Masefield (1986\/1987, p. 141) reasoned that this is \u201cno doubt, to be understood in the sense of causing the path to arise to a specific person at a given time.\u201d According to his assessment, this then implies that, after the passing away of the Buddha, it is no longer possible to reach any of the four levels of awakening, since \u201cthe Buddha alone can establish persons on the supramundane path.\u201d This reasoning also misunderstands the import of P\u0101li passages like the one translated above. A continuity of the possibility of attaining a level of awakening does not need the Buddha to remain alive; it only requires his teachings to be still accessible.<\/p>\n

Another argument based on the expectation of finding a comprehensive coverage was proposed by Pande (1957, p. 539), who argued for the lateness of the four levels of awakening since \u201chad the theory of the Maggas [four paths] and the corresponding Phalas [four fruits] been early, we might have expected some reference to them in the S\u0101ma\u00f1\u00f1aphala.\u201d Before examining this in detail, it needs to be noted that an additional argument by him refers to the entry for the term\u00a0an\u0101g\u0101min<\/em>\u00a0in the P\u0101li-English dictionary, Rhys Davids and Stede 1921\/1993, p. 31, reasoning that this testifies to \u201can earlier non-technical use of the word \u2018An\u0101g\u0101min.\u2019\u201d This argument appears to be based on a misunderstanding of this entry, which only reports that some passages refer to the non-returner without explicitly mentioning the fetters. This is entirely natural, as they instead describe the practices or qualities required for reaching this level of awakening.<\/p>\n

Turning to the\u00a0S\u0101ma\u00f1\u00f1aphala-sutta<\/em>\u00a0(DN 2), this discourse reports the Buddha providing an account of the gradual path to a king who had inquired about the fruits to be expected from going forth. One of several parallels to the\u00a0S\u0101ma\u00f1\u00f1aphala-sutta<\/em>, extant in the\u00a0Ekottarika-\u0101gama<\/em>, does not mention the gradual path at all (E\u0100 43.7). This leaves open the possibility that the gradual path account was not from the outset an integral part of this particular discourse.<\/p>\n

In the\u00a0D\u012bgha-nik\u0101ya<\/em>, an account of the gradual path is given in full in the\u00a0S\u0101ma\u00f1\u00f1aphala-sutta\u00a0<\/em>and then abbreviated in subsequent discourses. The Chinese\u00a0D\u012brgha-\u0101gama<\/em>\u00a0counterpart to the\u00a0S\u0101ma\u00f1\u00f1aphala-sutta<\/em>, however,\u00a0<\/em>only present the gradual path in abbreviation (D\u0100 27). The order of discourses in this collection differs, wherefore the full account occurs in a previous discourse in this collection. This exemplifies the fact that the description of the gradual path in the collections of long discourses is not specific to the narrative setting of the\u00a0S\u0101ma\u00f1\u00f1aphala-sutta\u00a0<\/em>(or its parallels). Instead, it is a formulaic passage used again and again to provide an overview of the Buddhist path of practice to various outsiders.<\/p>\n

Moreover, a comparative study of gradual path descriptions in the early discourses shows that variations in coverage occur even among discourses of the same reciter tradition (An\u0101layo 2016). This shows that such descriptions were not invariably meant to provide exhaustive accounts of all practices and attainments.<\/p>\n

Confirmation for this assessment can be found in the\u00a0S\u0101ma\u00f1\u00f1aphala-sutta\u00a0<\/em>and its parallels, according to whose concluding section the Buddha told his disciples that the king could have reached the stage of stream-entry on hearing this discourse, had he not been a patricide. Most of the parallel versions refer to this potential in terms of the arising of the Dharma eye (DN 2:\u00a0viraja\u1e43 v\u012btamala\u1e43 dhammacakkhu\u1e43 uppajjissatha<\/em>, D\u0100 27:\u00a0\u5f97\u6cd5\u773c\u6de8, and T 22:\u00a0\u9060\u5875\u96e2\u57a2,\u00a0\u8af8\u6cd5\u773c\u751f, with the difference that in the version mentioned last this is not just a potential but something that actually happened). Alternative formulations speak of penetrative insight into the four noble truths (Gnoli 1978, p. 252:\u00a0catv\u0101ri \u0101ryasaty\u0101ny abhisamit\u0101ny abhavi\u1e63yan<\/em>) or mention that he became one of the four pairs and eight persons (E\u0100 43.7:\u00a0\u5728\u56db\u96d9\u516b\u8f29\u4e4b\u4e2d), a standard reference to those on the path to and those who have attained the four levels of awakening (on distinct perspectives regarding the temporal duration of these paths in early and later tradition see An\u0101layo 2014, p. 144).<\/p>\n

In spite of employing different formulations, the parallels testify to knowledge of the first of the four stages of awakening, even though this has not been explicitly included in their respective versions of the gradual path account (if they provide such an account.) This shows that the lack of reference to the lower three of the four stages of awakening in those gradual path accounts is best understood as an intentional choice rather than as testifying to their supposedly late nature. As mentioned above, it is a category mistake to assume that, since later exegesis strives to give a comprehensive coverage of a particular topic, the same must hold for the early discourses. The assumption that the account of the gradual path in the\u00a0S\u0101ma\u00f1\u00f1aphala-sutta<\/em>\u00a0must cover all four levels of awakening is a good example for such a category mistake.<\/p>\n

Another argument raised by Nanda (2019, p. 223) is that none of the records of the Buddha\u2019s awakening \u201cpresent any indication of the Buddha going through the four stages,\u201d the same also being the case for reports of disciples who become arahants. However, the early Buddhist doctrine of four levels of awakening does not imply that everyone must attain these one after the other. Someone with a high degree of maturity of the five spiritual faculties (indriya\/<\/em>\u6839\/dbang po<\/em>) can proceed straight through to full awakening. The discourses in fact explicitly indicate that the degree of maturation of the five spiritual faculties expresses itself in which of the four levels of awakening will be attained (SN 48.14 and S\u0100 652).<\/p>\n

References to these four levels of awakening often take the form of an eightfold listing, which mentions those on the path to any of the four levels alongside those who have attained them. Sometimes the order of such eightfold listings appears to have suffered from transmission errors (An\u0101layo 2012). The standard P\u0101li phrase introducing such listings is\u00a0catt\u0101ri purisayug\u0101ni a\u1e6d\u1e6dha purisapuggal\u0101\u00a0<\/em>(e.g. MN 7) which has a counterpart in\u00a0\u56db\u96d9\u516b\u8f29\u00a0(in the parallel E\u0100 13.5 and the otherwise unrelated D\u0100 2, M\u0100 128, and S\u0100 931); alternative expressions convey the same sense, such as\u00a0\u56db\u96d9\u4eba\u516b\u8f29\u00a0(M\u0100 202) or\u00a0\u56db\u96d9\u516b\u58eb\u00a0(S\u0100 550). Often such references are followed by explicit listings of the four paths and fruits. These occur not only in the P\u0101li discourses of the Therav\u0101da reciter tradition but also in discourses from each of the four Chinese\u00a0\u0100gama<\/em>s, probably representing Dharmaguptaka, Sarv\u0101stiv\u0101da, M\u016blasarv\u0101stiv\u0101da, and perhaps Mah\u0101s\u0101\u1e45ghika reciter traditions. Once comparative study shows that different reciter lineages agree on a particular doctrine, this reflects \u201cearly Buddhist thought\u201d to the extent to which we are still able to reconstruct it nowadays. In other words, from a comparative perspective the idea of four levels of awakening emerges as an integral dimension of early Buddhist thought.<\/p>\n

Stream-entry<\/strong><\/h5>\n

Regarding the first of the four levels of awakening, Masefield (1986\/1987, p. 134) argued that the term\u00a0sot\u0101panna\u00a0<\/em>does not refer to a \u201cstream-enterer,\u201d as according to his assessment it means \u201crather \u2018one who has come into contact with (or undergone) the hearing.\u2019\u201d This suggestion is based on the ambiguity of the P\u0101li term\u00a0sota\u00a0<\/em>(or of its Sanskrit equivalent\u00a0\u015brota<\/em>), which can mean \u201cstream\u201d but also \u201cthe organ of hearing.\u201d The proposed reasoning overlooks the fact that the P\u0101li term for receiving teachings by hearing is\u00a0sot\u0101nugata<\/em>\u00a0rather than\u00a0sot\u0101panna<\/em>\u00a0(AN 4.191). It also does not take into account that a P\u0101li discourse (in agreement with its parallel) offers a definition of\u00a0sota\u00a0<\/em>in the context of a discussion of aspects of stream-entry, which clearly shows the relevant meaning to be the \u201cstream\u201d:<\/p>\n

The noble eightfold path is the stream.<\/p>\n

(SN 55.5:\u00a0ariyo a\u1e6d\u1e6dha\u1e45giko maggo soto<\/em>).<\/p>\n

What has been spoken of by the Blessed One as \u201cthe stream,\u201d this is reckoned to be the noble eightfold path.<\/p>\n

(S\u0100 843:\u00a0\u4e16\u5c0a\u6240\u8aaa\u6d41\u8005,\u00a0\u8b02\u516b\u8056\u9053).<\/p>\n

Mann\u00e9 (1995, p. 66) saw a problem in the above definition of the stream as the eightfold path, as it implies that the stream-enterer is endowed with the eightfold path. According to her assessment, this \u201cis a problem because a classical aspect of the attainments of the Arahat is that he has completely followed and fully achieved the path leading to the extinction of the\u00a0\u0101sav\u0101<\/em>s [influxes], which is precisely this Noble Eightfold Path.\u201d<\/p>\n

This suggestion does not give due recognition to the fact that the cultivation of the eightfold path is relevant to various levels of awakening, and that each of its eight factors can be developed to differing degrees. Moreover, with the attainment of full awakening, the arahant is considered to be endowed with a tenfold path (e.g. MN 117 and its parallels M\u0100 189 and Up 6080), which comprises right knowledge and right liberation in addition to the eight factors of the path. Being endowed with the tenfold path is unique to the arahant, unlike the eightfold path.<\/p>\n

Mann\u00e9 (p. 87) also argued that the phrase designating that someone is on the path to the realization of stream-entry, \u201csot\u0101pattiphalasacchikiriy\u0101ya pa\u1e6dipannno<\/em>, may be construed to qualify the term\u00a0sot\u0101panno<\/em>,\u201d\u00a0the stream-enterer. This then led her to the conclusion that it \u201cmakes sense that if one has attained something, one will, by definition, enjoy its fruit,\u201d hence it follows that \u201cthe division into stage and fruit is spurious.\u201d Yet, to\u00a0be\u00a0on the path to a certain goal does not mean that one must have already reached the final destination of that path. As already noted by Harvey (2013, p. 10 n. 23), the above argument \u201cfails to see that a\u00a0pa\u1e6dipanna\u00a0<\/em>[being on the path] person is one who is still practicing to attain the relevant fruit.\u201d In other words, the distinction between being on a particular path and reaching its final destination is not spurious, and this holds for the path to a mundane goal just as for the path to a level of awakening.<\/p>\n

Mann\u00e9 (1995, p. 48) also reasoned that \u201cusually the disappearance of the three fetters is presented as the characteristic of the\u00a0sot\u0101panna\u00a0<\/em>[stream-enterer], and this attainment coupled with the reduction of\u00a0r\u0101ga<\/em>,\u00a0dosa<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0moha<\/em>\u00a0[lust, anger, and delusion] is presented as the characteristic of the\u00a0sakad\u0101g\u0101min\u00a0<\/em>[once-returner],\u201d hence this \u201cpoints to a time when these two attainments were not yet clearly differentiated into separate and discrete stages of attainment.\u201d In support of the position taken by Mann\u00e9, Nanda (2019, p. 237) additionally argued that \u201cstream-enterers also attenuate greed, hatred and delusion,\u201d since \u201cit is difficult to concede that any spiritual progress could be possible without attenuating the three.\u201d In particular the eradication of the first fetter of identity belief \u201ctheoretically reduces a great extent of delusion, greed, and hatred.\u201d<\/p>\n

The indication in the discourses that a once-returner has substantially diminished the three root poisons in the mind is found similarly in parallel versions representing different transmission lineages, as evident from the discourse that compares the Buddha to a cowherd, translated above. It does not imply that a stream-enterer does not diminish these three root poisons at all. The point is simply that the most salient characteristic of stream-entry is the disappearance of the three fetters, whereas the most salient characteristic of once-return is a substantial diminishing of the three root poisons.<\/p>\n

The discourses regularly describe the \u201climbs of stream-entry\u201d as qualities characteristic of a stream-enterer. These are experiential confidence (aveccapas\u0101da<\/em>) in the Buddha, his teaching, and the community of disciples at various levels of awakening, often combined with the quality of having a firm commitment to moral conduct. Masefield (1986\/1987, p. 131) proposed a distinction between the acquisition of the limbs of stream-entry and the actual attainment of stream-entry, supposedly evident in the example of An\u0101thapi\u1e47\u1e0dika who, although endowed with the limbs of stream-entry, only reached the actual attainment of stream-entry when on his deathbed (the reference is to MN 143, which has parallels in S\u0100 1032 and E\u0100 51.8). However, none of the extant versions of this discourse reports that An\u0101thapi\u1e47\u1e0dika attained stream-entry at that time. Instead, tradition associates his attainment of stream-entry with his first encounter with the Buddha, long before he passed away (An\u0101layo 2010). This exemplifies the fact that the relationship between the attainment of stream-entry and the limbs of stream-entry is the inverse of the above proposal. The acquisition of these limbs is a result of the attainment of stream-entry<\/p>\n

The same perspective also helps to correct the assumption by Nanda (2017, p. 24) that the four limbs of stream-entry are \u201cnecessary preconditions for establishing the stage of stream-entry.\u201d Instead, it is because of having already and personally experienced the first level of awakening with stream-entry that the stream-enterer will be endowed with experiential confidence that the Buddha had indeed reached awakening, that the Buddha\u2019s teaching indeed leads to awakening, and that the community of the Buddha\u2019s practicing disciples is indeed on the path to awakening.<\/p>\n

Understood in this way, the tendency in the early discourses to highlight such firm confidence, together with firm ethical conduct, reflects the importance accorded to the personal transformation to be expected from the gaining of stream-entry. Such personal transformation offers a way of self-evaluation more reliable than any subjective experience that one may have had, be this in formal meditation or apart from it. The early discourses clearly distinguish the confidence that results from stream-entry from confidence in general. They qualify the former by using specific terminology, here rendered as \u201cexperiential confidence\u201d: P\u0101li\u00a0aveccapas\u0101da<\/em>, Sanskrit\u00a0avetyapras\u0101da<\/em>, Chinese\u00a0\u4e0d\u58de\u6de8, Tibetan\u00a0shes nas dad pa<\/em>. Cone (2001, p. 259) explained that the P\u0101li term\u00a0avecca<\/em>\u00a0conveys \u201cunderstanding, having penetrated,\u201d hence in her words the phrase\u00a0aveccappas\u0101da\u00a0<\/em>conveys the idea of a \u201ctrust founded in knowledge.\u201d This differs from just having gained confidence or faith by way of conversion to the Buddhist tradition, for which the early discourses use a different term: P\u0101li\u00a0saddh\u0101<\/em>, Sanskrit\u00a0\u015braddh\u0101<\/em>, Chinese\u00a0\u4fe1, Tibetan\u00a0dad pa<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The clear terminological distinction drawn in this way has apparently been overlooked by Mann\u00e9 (1995, p. 57), who considered descriptions of the endowments of a stream-enterer to be simply mentioning \u201cthe qualities that any religion would require of its followers,\u201d an assessment that then led her to perceive a \u201cgeneral blithe tendency to open the stage of\u00a0sot\u0101panna\u00a0<\/em>[stream-enterer] to all and sundry through simplifying the required attainment to that of faith alone\u201d (p. 62). This assumption then led her to propose that stream-entry \u201cwas originally the stage, or perhaps more accurately the\u00a0state\u00a0<\/em>of convert. The\u00a0sot\u0101panna\u00a0<\/em>was originally no more and no less that [sic] someone who had converted to Buddhism\u201d (p. 94). The proposed conclusion fails to do justice to the textual evidence.<\/p>\n

The Higher Levels of Awakening<\/strong><\/h5>\n

Some scholars have proposed that becoming an arahant features in the early texts as the sole reserve of monastics (e.g., Hwang 2006, p. 34, Lamotte 1952, p. 388, and Nanda 2019, p. 240). Others instead have asserted that discourses in the\u00a0A\u1e45guttara-nik\u0101ya\u00a0<\/em>(AN 6.119 and 6.120) prove the existence of lay arahants (e.g., Bluck 2002, p. 10, Dutt 1957, p. 145, Harvey 1990, p. 218, Samuels 1999, p. 238, Schumann 1982\/1999, p. 217, and Somaratne 2009, p. 153). Both positions do not reflect the perspective of the texts accurately. The\u00a0A\u1e45guttara-nik\u0101ya\u00a0<\/em>passages in question list several lay disciples who are endowed with six qualities, which include the four limbs of stream-entry. The passages then state that each of these lay disciples \u201chas come to certainty in relation to the thus-gone one, is a seer of the deathless, and proceeds having realized the deathless\u201d (tath\u0101gate ni\u1e6d\u1e6dha\u1e45gato amataddaso amata\u1e43 sacchikatv\u0101 iriyati<\/em>). Several of the lay disciples mentioned in this passage are on record elsewhere for being still at a lower level of awakening when passing away (An\u0101layo 2010). A case in point is An\u0101thapi\u1e47\u1e0dika, already mentioned above. This shows that the reference to a realization of the deathless, Nirvana, intends something that happens before becoming an arahant. It refers to something already experienced with the attainment of stream-entry.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, it also does not follow that lay practitioners can in principle never reach the highest level of awakening. But reported cases of such attainment in the early discourses invariably indicate that the one who has now become an arahant goes forth and lives as a monastic, unless death intervenes.\u00a0In sum, the passage in question has no direct implication for the attainment of arahant-ship. What it does clarify is rather that stream-entry already involves an experience of the deathless.<\/p>\n

This clarification helps to put into perspective a suggestion by Sirimane (2016, p. 164) that \u201ca\u00a0stream-enterer understands\u00a0Nibb\u0101na<\/em>\u00a0only through\u00a0anvaye \u00f1\u0101\u1e47a<\/em>\u00a0(knowledge by entailment),\u201d as \u201cNibb\u0101na\u00a0<\/em>has not been fully experienced even by a trainee (sekha<\/em>). A stream-enterer can also only \u2018deduce\u2019 it\u201d (p. 199). Instead, as the above-quoted passage shows, stream-enterers have already had a direct experience of Nirvana, and it is this experience that results in the breaking of the three fetters and in establishing them in the limbs of stream-entry.<\/p>\n

Regarding the eventual attainment of the highest level of awakening, Horner (1934, p. 796) proposed that \u201cthe arahan was regarded as having some bourn beyond, when this life was over.\u201d This proposal is based on her assumption (p. 786), in relation to the Buddha, that \u201ca great teacher would not have seen perfection as realisable under physical conditions: he would have thought of man growing up to perfection as he ran on and fared on, his thought, word and deed becoming finer and purer in each new rebirth.\u201d Moreover, according to her assessment (p. 789), the \u201cocean of\u00a0sa\u1e43s\u0101ra\u00a0<\/em>(rebirths) had originally been regarded as a thing full of the promise of infinite opportunities for progress.\u201d<\/p>\n

As already noted by Bond (1984, p. 236), this presentation involves \u201ca misinterpretation stemming from false presuppositions imposed on the material.\u201d The textual records point to the exact opposite of such a position, namely a consideration of\u00a0sa\u1e43s\u0101ra\u00a0<\/em>as something to be transcended and of arahants as having definitely achieved this when they attained full awakening, which implies that they were beyond any further rebirth.<\/p>\n

Mann\u00e9 (1995, p. 85) voiced the impression that \u201cat a certain point in the history of Buddhism there was a confusion between the stages of Arahat and\u00a0an\u0101g\u0101min\u00a0<\/em>[non-returner], and a problem in separating them.\u201d This suggestion is based on the indication that one will become only a non-returner instead of an arahant if one still has a remainder of clinging. An example in case occurs in the\u00a0Satipa\u1e6d\u1e6dh\u0101na-sutta\u00a0<\/em>and its\u00a0Madhyama-\u0101gama\u00a0<\/em>parallel (not found in a third parallel in the\u00a0Ekottarika-\u0101gama<\/em>), which describe the results to be expected from proper practice of the four establishments of mindfulness (this is also another instance showing that a reference to \u201chere and now\u201d only functions as an alternative option, as discussed above). The descriptions take the following form:<\/p>\n

either\u00a0final knowledge here and now or, if there is a trace of clinging left, non-returning.<\/p>\n

(MN 10:\u00a0di\u1e6d\u1e6dhe va dhamme a\u00f1\u00f1\u0101, sati v\u0101 up\u0101disese an\u0101g\u0101mit\u0101<\/em>).<\/p>\n

either\u00a0final knowledge here and now or, if there is a remainder [of clinging], the attainment of non-returning.<\/p>\n

(M\u0100 98:\u00a0\u6216\u73fe\u6cd5\u5f97\u7a76\u7adf\u667a, \u6216\u6709\u9918\u5f97\u963f\u90a3\u542b).<\/p>\n

The problem, according to Mann\u00e9 (p. 86), is that such passages give \u201cno information regarding the condition under which a remainder would exist, and thus no explanation why one stage rather than another should be attained.\u201d It is not clear what additional specifications and explanations should be required. The main point is simply to clarify that even a trace of clinging will prevent whole-hearted practice of the four establishments of mindfulness from issuing in the attainment of the final goal. This seems clear enough, and no further details would be required for this qualification to separate the two levels of awakening in question and for clarifying what reaching the higher of the two requires, namely the total removal of any form of clinging.<\/p>\n

Needless to say, this presentation does not imply that the practice described\u00a0in the\u00a0Satipa\u1e6d\u1e6dh\u0101na-sutta\u00a0<\/em>and its\u00a0Madhyama-\u0101gama\u00a0<\/em>parallel\u00a0could not issue in stream-entry or once-return. These are best understood to be implied in the reference to non-return and full awakening, whose explicit mention seems to serve to highlight the potential of a cultivation of the four establishments of mindfulness to result in a complete purification of the mind from the root defilements of\u00a0lust and anger, which according to the early Buddhist analysis are the chief culprits for a broad range of troubles and miseries.<\/p>\n

Compliance with Ethical Standards<\/strong><\/p>\n

Ethical Approval: This article does not contain any studies performed by the author with human participants or animals.<\/p>\n

Conflict of Interest: The author declares that he has no conflict of interest.<\/p>\n

Abbreviations<\/strong><\/p>\n

AN,\u00a0A\u1e45guttara-nik\u0101ya<\/em>; D\u0100,\u00a0D\u012brgha-\u0101gama<\/em>\u00a0(T 1); DN,\u00a0D\u012bgha-nik\u0101ya<\/em>; E\u0100,\u00a0Ekottarika-\u0101gama<\/em>\u00a0(T 125); M\u0100,\u00a0Madhyama-\u0101gama\u00a0<\/em>(T 26); MN,\u00a0Majjhima-nik\u0101ya<\/em>; S\u0100,\u00a0Sa\u1e43yukta-\u0101gama<\/em>\u00a0(T 99); SN,\u00a0Sa\u1e43yutta-nik\u0101ya<\/em>; T, Taish\u014d edition; Up,\u00a0Abhidharmako\u015bop\u0101yik\u0101-\u1e6d\u012bk\u0101<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong>References<\/strong><\/p>\n

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An\u0101layo, Bh. (2010). Teachings to lay disciples: the Sa\u1e43yukta-\u0101gama parallel to the An\u0101thapi\u1e47\u1e0dikov\u0101da-sutta.\u00a0Buddhist Studies Review<\/em>,\u00a027<\/em>(1), 3\u201314, doi: 10.1558\/bsrv.v27i1.3 .<\/p>\n

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By Bhikkhu An\u0101layo Key words: Arahant; Awakening;\u00a0bodhi; Enlightenment; Four Fruits; Four Paths; Once-return; Nirvana; Non-return; Stream-entry Abstract The early discourses present the realization of four levels of awakening as the chief purpose of mindfulness practice. 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