Sotapanna

In Buddhism , Sotāpanna ( Pali ; Sanskrit Śrotrāpanna ) describes a person who has overcome the first three of a total of ten fetters of the mind (saṃyojana) . In German it is mostly translated as "Stromeinerganger", Stromeintritt means in Pali Sotāpatti . In the pictorial language of Buddhism, samsara is the bank on this side (afflicted with suffering), Nibbāna is the bank on the other (free from suffering) and to reach the other bank (Nibbāna) it is necessary to cross a river. Stream entry means that one has entered the stream of enlightenment , i.e. H. the way to Nibbāna is no longer reversible for him. Sotāpatti is the first of the four degrees of holiness .

A Sotāpanna is said to have an intuitive understanding of the Buddha's teaching ( right view ) and complete trust in it. In addition, it is said of those who entered the stream that the “eye of the Dhamma” (dhammacakkhu) has opened to them because the unshakable realization has matured in them that “everything that has somehow arisen must also perish” ( non-permanence ).

The three fetters that were destroyed at Sotāpatti are:

Belief in personality (sakkāya-diṭṭhi) - the self-view that one of the five aggregates or aggregates ( khandhas ) is a permanent being, an atta ; identify with desire ( Tanha ).

Doubt (vicikicchā) - about the Buddha's teaching

Clinging to rules and rites (sīlabbata-parāmāso) - the belief that performing rules and rites is sufficient for liberation.

A Sotāpanna is safe from falling back into deeper realms , he will not be reborn as an animal, hunger spirit or hell being . A sotāpanna has to go through a maximum of seven rebirths before attaining nibbāna.

What a Sotāpanna cannot do is:

consider any form (saṅkhāra) to be permanent,
consider any design pleasant,
take any thing ( Dhamma ) for self,
kill his mother,
kill his father,
kill an arahant ,
maliciously shed the blood of a Buddha
split the order,
follow a teacher other than the Buddha .

In the Pali Canon in the Alagaddūpama Sutta of the Majjhima-Nikaya, a Sotapanna is described as follows:

“Your bhikkhus, the Dhamma that I have well proclaimed in this way is clear, open, evident and free from patchwork. In this Dhamma, well proclaimed by me in such a way that is clear, open, evident, and free from patchwork, those bhikkhus who have overcome three fetters are all stream-enterers who are no longer subject to perdition, those on the Are the path (to liberation) that are going towards enlightenment. "