The History of Buddhist Thought c17.61

c17.61

This scheme is not a course of training, like the four contemplations or the three stages of morality, concentration, and full knowledge, but it is a scholastic elaboration of the stages attained by liberation from the ten fetters. Each stage is also subdivided into the path and the fruit. It depends upon the training, not upon any external act, for a man may enter the Order and yet be far from entering the stream. We are told of a learned disciple who had learnt the three Piṭakas and expounded them to five hundred disciples. He was able to answer Buddha’s questions about the Trances and the Attainments, but he was put to shame by an ignorant monk who had won insight, for he was unable to answer a question about Entering the stream.³