Numinous Nonsense

Then something just snapped. Something inside of me. I didn’t care anymore. I didn’t care about being better than Kakarot. I didn’t care about being a Super Saiyan. I didn’t care if I lived. I didn’t care about anything. And then it happened… That is how I became a Super Saiyan. The sleeper has awakened. – Prince Vegeta, from Dragon Ball Z

Pretty much all of the mystical traditions, East and West, have maps that describe the territory of spiritual awakening. In the Buddhist tradition one need only look at the Zen Ox-Herding pictures, Tozan’s Five Ranks, The Tibetan Five-Path Model, or the Theravada Four-Path Model to find extremely sophisticated maps describing the process of enlightenment. The map I’ve studied the most, and which I find most helpful at this point is the Theravada model, which describes 4 distinct stages of enlightenment.

The original model, created during the time of the Buddha and expanded since, described four progressive stages leading to the attainment of Arhantship. One who reaches the first stage was called a stream-winner (sotapanna), one who reaches the second stage a once-returner (sakadagami), one who reaches the third stage a non-returner (anagami), and finally there is the 4th stage, the arhant. Traditionally these designations were referring to re-birth, and the number of lifetimes that it would take to attain the 4th and final stage. They were also described in terms of various fetters that kept one stuck to the wheel of samsara. The 1st stage was said to cut 3 of 10 fetters (skeptical doubt, attachment to rites and rituals, and personality belief), the 2nd stage was said to weaken the 4th & 5th fetters (greed and hatred), and the 3rd stage was said to eliminate these two fetters. The last stage was said to cut the remaining 5 fetters (attachment to the first 4 jhanas, attachment to the formless jhanas, restlessness and worry, conceit, and the last veil of unknowing).

But don’t worry too much about the fetter-model as I’m going to largely ignore it in favor of Daniel Ingram’s revised 4-stage model. Ingram takes the same 4 stages but describes them much more in terms of how one’s perception changes, what the fundamental insights are, and the relationship to the diminishment of duality. He gets rid of the dogma surrounding certain emotional capacities completely disappearing as a result of enlightenment—what he calls the limited emotional-range models—and instead opts for a less dogmatic and more pragmatic understanding of these models. There is still quite a bit of overlap, and one can see how these two different models relate. That being said, if you’re a big fan of the original Theravada dogma, you may not be interested in reading any further. If instead, you’re interested in having an empowering, realistic, and achievable model of enlightenment, then keep on reading.

The Revised Four-Path Model of Enlightenment

In Ingram’s model he uses the same names and designations for each of the stages. The difference is in the descriptions. The stream-winner, in this case, has gone through the full progress of insight, has “experienced” the discontinuity moment of fruition, and now cycles through the insight stages on a continual basis. In terms of their core perception of reality however, Ingram claims that they, “do not have all that different an experience of most sensations from those who are not yet stream enterers.” In a sense, they have gotten a powerful hint of what’s to come, in the experience of nirvana, but has not yet become integrated with most of their experience. Stream-entry is also said to be the opening of what’s called the “dharma eye,” the importance of which I may try to explain one day.

With further practice the stream-winner will go through another full-blown insight cycle, starting again from the very beginning, re-experiencing Mind & Body, and going through the same basic pattern of the progress of insight. At the end of the next full cycle they will again experience fruition, and this is the attainment of the 2nd stage of enlightenment. The primary insight of the 2nd stage is that one will continue to go through cycle after cycle, and this is seen as the way to make further progress. Still, for those of 2nd path, nothing fundamentally has changed in their dualistic perception of reality.

After a while, and it can vary for different people, one will have gone through many cycles—with what will appear to be an underlying cycle beneath these surface cycles. When the underlying cycle comes to completion, the surface cycles and deeper cycle converge with a fruition, and there is a dramatic shift in perception where one begins to see what is meant by emptiness, now in real-time. This shift, which is the 3rd stage of enlightenment, has to do with seeing the empty, selfless nature of reality upon mere reflection. Where once emptiness was contained in the discontinuity experience at the end of an insight cycle, it now permeates all of experience. It comes obvious, for those of 3rd path, what is meant by the lines from the Heart Sutra, “form is emptiness.”

The time between 3rd path and 4th path tends to be the longest yet. Ingram breaks 3rd path into early and mature phases. In the early phase one is still looking for the cycles to bring further progress, whereas in the mature phase emptiness is so ordinary and integrated into one’s experience that the inquiry turns away from the cycles and toward the last subtle hints of duality, which remain.

Finally, there is another radical shift in perspective, in which the sense of a separate center-point, observer, or doer is completely undone. Apparently this realization can occur and then fade for some time, until finally the shift is permanent (i.e. nothing can interrupt this centerless perspective). This is the opening of the “wisdom eye”, the attainment of arhantship, and as Ingram says is the end of insight path: “For the arahat who has kept the thing open, there is nothing more to be gained on the ultimate front from insight practices, as ‘done is what is to be done’.” It’s also interesting to note that it’s difficult to predict how long it will take from 3rd to 4th path. It tends to be the longest path, though I have so little data (even anecdotal) that it’s really hard to say. One of my teachers, while on retreat, suggested that from 3rd to 4th path is largely dependent on one’s karma. That seems as good an explanation as any, given the lack of data. ¹

My hope is that those who are interested in making genuine spiritual progress will be empowered and excited by a map like this. It is extremely practical, describes territory that is absolutely achievable, and can help us refine our understanding of the way that deep spiritual insight unfolds. To find out more about this particular map, I would recommend checking out my absolute favorite Dharma book, Mastering the Core Teachings of the Buddha (also free online here).

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1. The one person who I do have data on is Daniel Ingram, who took 6 years from the time of stream-entry to the point where there were no vestiges of duality left. He spent several months on retreat during this period, but his longest retreat was a month in length and he got from 1st to 4th path while in medical school. I know other people who I strongly suspect have also “done it” but who I don’t have reliable data on. Maybe one day… [↩]