Sotāpanna

Attainment

The first moment of the attainment is termed the path of stream-entry (sotāpatti-magga), which cuts through the first three fetters. The person who experiences it is called a stream-winner (sotāpanna).

The sotāpanna is said to attain an intuitive grasp of the dharma, this wisdom being called right view (sammā diṭṭhi) and has unshakable confidence in the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha. The Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha, sometimes taken to be the triple refuge, are at other times listed as being objects of recollection. In general though, confirmed confidence in the Buddha', Dharma and Sangha, respectively, is considered to be one of the four limbs of stream-winning (sotāpannassa angāni). The sotapanna is said to have "opened the eye of the Dharma" (dharmacakkhu), because they have realized that whatever arises will cease (impermanence). Their conviction in the true dharma would be unshakable.

They have had their first glimpse of the unconditioned element, the asankhata, in which they see the goal, in the moment of the fruition of their path (magga-phala). Whereas the stream-entrant has seen nirvāṇa and, thus has verified confidence in it, the adept can drink fully of its waters, so to speak, to use a simile from the Kosambi Sutta (SN 12.68) — of a "well", encountered along a desert road.

However, the remaining three paths, namely: once-return (sakadāgāmin), non-return (anāgāmin), and sainthood (arahatta) become 'destined' (sammatta niyāma) for the stream-entrant. Their enlightenment as a disciple (ariya-sāvaka) becomes inevitable within seven lives transmigrating among gods and humans; if they are diligent (appamatta, appamāda) in the practice of the Teacher's (satthāra) message, they may fully awaken within their present life. They have very little future suffering to undergo.

The early Buddhist texts (e.g. the Ratana Sutta) say that a stream-entrant will no longer be born in the animal womb, or hell realms; nor as a hungry ghost. The pathways to unfortunate rebirth destinations (duggati) have been closed to them.

It's impossible for them to commit the six "heinous crimes" (abhithanani), which would otherwise lead to aeons in hell. These six being: i. matricide, ii. patricide, iii. the murder of an arahat, iv. shedding a Buddha's blood with malicious intent, v. causing schism in the monastic Sangha, and vi. taking another teacher.

They are reborn only in "noble" human families, or as divine beings.

Three fetters

In the Pali Canon, the qualities of a sotāpanna are described as:

…those monks who have abandoned the three fetters, are all stream-winners, steadfast, never again destined for states of woe, headed for self-awakening. This is how the Dharma well-proclaimed by me is clear, open, evident, stripped of rags.

The three fetters which the sotāpanna eradicates are:

1. Self-view — The view of substance, or that what is compounded (sankhata) could be eternal in the five aggregates (form, feelings, perception, intentions, cognizance), and thus possessed or owned as 'I', 'me', or 'mine'. A sotāpanna doesn't actually have a view about self (sakkāya-ditthi), as that doctrine is proclaimed to be a subtle form of clinging.
2. Clinging to rites and rituals - Eradication of the view that one becomes pure simply through performing rituals (animal sacrifices, ablutions, chanting, etc.) or adhering to rigid moralism or relying on a god for non-causal delivery (issara nimmāna). Rites and rituals now function more to obscure, than to support the right view of the sotāpanna's now opened dharma eye. The sotāpanna realizes that deliverance can be won only through the practice of the Noble Eightfold Path. It is the elimination of the notion that there are miracles, or shortcuts.
3. Skeptical doubt - Doubt about the Buddha, his teaching (Dharma), and his community (Sangha) is eradicated because the sotāpanna personally experiences the true nature of reality through insight, and this insight confirms the accuracy of the Buddha’s teaching. Seeing removes doubt, because the sight is a form of vision (dassana), that allows one to know (ñāṇa).

Defilements

According to the Pali Commentary, six types of defilement would be eventually abandoned by a sotāpanna, and no major transgressions:

1. Envy
2. Jealousy
3. Hypocrisy
4. Fraud
5. Denigration
6. Domineering

Rebirth

A sotāpanna will be safe from falling into the states of misery (they will not be born as an animal, ghost, or hell being). Their lust, hatred and delusion will not be strong enough to cause rebirth in the lower realms. A sotāpanna will have to be reborn at most only seven more times in the human or heavenly worlds before attaining nibbāna. It is not necessary for a sotāpanna to be reborn seven more times before attaining nibbāna, as an ardent practitioner may progress to the higher stages in the same life in which he/she reaches the Sotāpanna level by making an aspiration and persistent effort to reach the final goal of nibbāna.

Six actions that cannot be committed

A sotāpanna is not capable of committing six wrong actions:

1. Murdering one's own mother.
2. Murdering one's own father.
3. Murdering an arahant.
4. Maliciously injuring the Buddha to the point of drawing blood.
5. Deliberately creating a schism in the monastic community.
6. Taking another Teacher [besides Buddha].

Chán

According to Mahāyāna Master Bhikshu Hsuan Hua's Commentary on the Vajra Sutra,

A Shrotaapanna is a first stage Arhat. Certification to the first fruit of Arhatship, which is within the Small Vehicle, comes when the eighty-eight categories of view delusions are smashed." p. 77

Venerable Hsuan Hua continues,

The first fruit is that of Srotāpanna, a Sanskrit word which means "One Who Has Entered the Flow." He opposes the flow of common people's six dusts and enters the flow of the sage's dharma-nature. Entering the flow means entering the state of the accomplished sage of the Small Vehicle.