“Grades” of Enlightenment

While enlightenment is often described as a singular awakening, many traditions recognise that it unfolds through stages or “grades,” each reflecting deeper levels of realisation and freedom from delusion. These stages do not represent rigid categories but serve as helpful models for understanding the gradual dissolution of ignorance.

In early Buddhist teachings, for example, the path is divided into four primary stages:

1. Stream-Enterer (Sotāpanna): The initial breakthrough where the first three fetters — self-view, attachment to rituals, and doubt — are permanently abandoned. The practitioner is assured of eventual full liberation.

2. Once-Returner (Sakadāgāmi): Further weakening of sensual desire and ill-will. Only one more rebirth remains before final liberation.

3. Non-Returner (Anāgāmi): Complete abandonment of sensual desire and ill-will. No return to the human world; remaining rebirths occur in subtle realms of form.

4. Arahant: Full liberation — the complete cutting of all ten fetters, including subtle attachments to existence, conceit, restlessness, and ignorance.

Other traditions offer different frameworks, but all point to a similar process: the gradual refinement of perception, reduction of clinging, and deepening of wisdom. Each stage represents not an achievement to boast of, but a letting go — a surrendering of increasingly subtle forms of attachment and illusion.

Ultimately, all models dissolve in the direct simplicity of presence, where the distinctions between grades no longer apply.

“The highest stage is to have no stage.”
— Zen Saying