Sotāpanna

In Buddhism, a sotāpanna (Pali) or srotāpanna (Sanskrit)—translated variously as "stream-enterer", "stream-entrant" or "stream-winner"—is one who has reached the first of the four stages of enlightenment. Stream entry is purportedly followed by three subsequent stages of awakening: Sakadāgāmi (once-returner), Anāgāmi (non-returner), and Arahant (fully liberated).

The word sotāpanna literally means "one who entered (āpanna) the stream (sota); stream-enterer", after a metaphor which calls the noble eightfold path a stream which leads to a vast ocean, nibbāna. It describes a person who has grasped the dharma and thereby dropped the first three fetters (Pāli: samyojana), namely self-view (sakkāya-ditthi), skeptical indecision (vicikicchā), and clinging to rites and rituals (sīlabbata-parāmāsa). A stream entrant is said to be free from possible rebirth in one of the three lower realms.

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