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By Root 2319 0

the Tathāgata is deep, immeasurable, hard to fathom like the ocean. ‘Is reborn’ does not apply; ‘is not reborn’ does not apply; ‘both is reborn and is not reborn’ does not apply; ‘neither is reborn nor is not reborn’ does not apply. The Tathāgata has abandoned that feeling by which one describing the Tathāgata might describe him … has abandoned that perception by which one describing the Tathāgata might describe him … has abandoned those volitional formations by which one describing the Tathāgata might describe him … has abandoned that consciousness by which one describing the Tathāgata might describe him; he has cut it off at the root, made it like a palm stump, done away with it so that it is no longer subject to future arising. Liberated from reckoning in terms of consciousness, the Tathāgata is deep, immeasurable, hard to fathom like the ocean. ‘Is reborn’ does not apply; ‘is not reborn’ does not apply; ‘both is reborn and is not reborn’ does not apply; ‘neither is reborn nor is not reborn’ does not apply.” (from MN 72: Aggivacchagotta Sutta; I 486–88)

X. The Planes of Realization

INTRODUCTION

The cultivation of wisdom, as we have seen, aims at the realization of Nibbāna. The Nikāyas stipulate a fixed series of stages through which a person passes on the way toward the attainment of Nibbāna. In passing through these stages one evolves from an “uninstructed worldling,” blind to the truths of the Dhamma, into an arahant, a liberated one, who has attained full comprehension of the Four Noble Truths and realized Nibbāna in this present life. I have already referred to several of these stages in the earlier chapters of this book. In the present chapter we will explore them in a more systematic manner.

On entering the irreversible path to the attainment of Nibbāna, one becomes a noble person (ariyapuggala), the word “noble” (ariya) here denoting spiritual nobility. There are four major types of noble persons. Each stage is divided into two phases: the path (magga) and its fruition (phala).1 In the path phase, one is said to be practicing for the attainment of a particular fruition, which one is bound to realize within that same life; in the resultant phase, one is said to be established in that fruition. Thus the four major types of noble persons actually comprise four pairs or eight types of noble individuals. As enumerated in Text X,1(1), these are: (1) one practicing for the realization of the fruit of stream-entry, (2) the stream-enterer, (3) one practicing for the realization of the fruit of once-returning, (4) the once-returner, (5) one practicing for the realization of the fruit of nonreturning, (6) the nonreturner, (7) one practicing for arahantship, (8) the arahant. Text X,1(2) grades these eight according to the relative strength of their spiritual faculties, so that those at each subsequent stage possess stronger faculties than those at the preceding stage. The first seven persons are collectively known as sekhas, trainees or disciples in the higher training; the arahant is called the asekha, the one beyond training.

The four main stages themselves are defined in two ways: (1) by way of the defilements eradicated by the path leading to the corresponding fruit; and (2) by way of the destiny after death that awaits one who has realized that particular fruit. Text X,1(3) gives standard definitions of the four types that mention both the defilements abandoned and their future destiny.

The Nikāyas group the defilements abandoned into a set of ten fetters (saṃyojana). The stream-enterer abandons the first three fetters: identity view (sakkāyadiṭṭhi), that is, the view of a truly existent self either as identical with the five aggregates or as existing in some relation to them; doubt (vicikicchā) about the Buddha, the Dhamma, the Saṅgha, and the training; and the wrong grasp of rules and observances (sīlabbataparāmāsa ), the belief that mere external observances, particularly religious rituals and ascetic practices, can lead to liberation. The stream-enterer is assured of attaining