The Stage of Non-returning

With this understanding of the shift of the character of the stream-enterer, this chapter moves on to investigate the concept of non-returner in early Buddhist discourses and its subsequent development in Pāli commentaries. It discusses the origins of the concept, its association with the concept of a pure-abode (suddhāvāsa), and the pre-requisites for the attainment of this stage, such as the five lower fetters and the attainment of jhānas. This approach reveals that the concept of a non-returner is found somewhat earlier than the concept of pure abode. In the earliest phase, there was no fixed and exclusive destiny for non-returners. Rather, it was understood that they may be born in the form realm (rūpa-loka) or formless realm (arūpa-loka) corresponding to their attainment of jhānas. Later, towards the end of the Pāli canonical period, the concept of the pure abode was developed and associated with non-returners. The chapter also argues that the attainment of jhānas is a pre-requisite for the attainment of the stage of non-returning. Consequently, the Pāli commentarial interpretation of the ‘dry-insight arahant’ (sukkhavipassaka-arahatta) theory in which one attains the four stages by mere insight and without reliance on any of the meditative absorptions is not coherent with the theory of the four stages to arahantship. In light of this, it would appear that it is purely an arbitrary relation that has been developed by the Pāli commentators in order to justify how a ‘dry-insight arahant’ is capable of taking rebirth in a pure abode. Finally, we consider how, insofar as the Pāli Nikāyas are concerned, abandoning the five lower fetters is not an exclusive criterion for becoming a non-returner.