STAGES OF AWAKENING

STAGES OF AWAKENING

§ 107. “There are these ten fetters. Which ten? Five lower fetters & five higher fetters. And which are the five lower fetters? Self-identity views, uncertainty, grasping at habits & practices, sensual desire, and ill will. These are the five lower fetters. And which are the five higher fetters? Passion for form, passion for what is formless, conceit, restlessness, and ignorance. These are the five higher fetters. And these are the ten fetters.” — AN 10:13

§ 108. “There are in this community of monks, monks who, with the wasting away of [the first] three fetters, are stream-enterers, never again destined for states of woe, steadfast, headed for self-awakening.…

“There are… monks who, with the wasting away of [the first] three fetters and the attenuation of passion, aversion, & delusion, are once-returners. After returning only once to this world they will put an end to stress.…

“There are… monks who, with the wasting away of the five lower fetters, are due to be spontaneously reborn [in the Pure Abodes], there to be totally unbound, never again to return from that world.…

“There are… monks who are arahants, whose effluents are ended, who have reached fulfillment, done the task, laid down the burden, attained the true goal, totally destroyed the fetter of becoming, and who are released through right gnosis.” — MN 118

§ 109. “There is the case where a monk is wholly accomplished in virtue, moderately accomplished in concentration, and moderately accomplished in discernment.… With the wasting away of [the first] three fetters, he is a stream-enterer, never again destined for states of woe, steadfast, headed for self-awakening.

“There is the case where a monk is wholly accomplished in virtue, moderately accomplished in concentration, and moderately accomplished in discernment.… With the wasting away of [the first] three fetters, and with the attenuation of passion, aversion, & delusion, he is a once-returner, who—after returning only once to this world—will put an end to stress.

“There is the case where a monk is wholly accomplished in virtue, wholly accomplished in concentration, and moderately accomplished in discernment.… With the wasting away of the five lower fetters, he is due to be spontaneously reborn [in the Pure Abodes], there to be totally unbound, never again to return from that world.

“There is the case where a monk is wholly accomplished in virtue, wholly accomplished in concentration, wholly accomplished in discernment.… With the ending of the effluents, he enters & remains in the effluent-free awareness-release and discernment-release, having directly known and realized them for himself right in the here-&-now.” — AN 3:87