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Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Book Preview: 

#1 The Buddhist universe is made up of three primary realms, with several subsidiary planes. The grossest tier is the sense-desire realm, which consists of eleven planes: the hells, the animal kingdom, the sphere of ghosts, the human realm, the sphere of titans, and the six sensuous heavens.

#2 The distinction between the two types of disciples is based on their relationship to the goal of Buddhism. The class of ordinary disciples, who are still technically worldlings or commoners, are those who have gone for refuge to the Three Jewels and are devoted to the practice of the Dhamma. However, they have not yet reached the plane where liberation is irreversible.

#3 The first stage of awakening is called stream-entry, because it is with this attainment that the disciple can properly be said to have entered the stream of the Dhamma. It is won with the first arising of the vision of the Dhamma and is marked by the eradication of the coarsest three fetters: personality view, the view of a substantial self within the empirical person, doubt in the Buddha and his Teaching, and wrong grasp of rules and vows.

#4 The path of arahantship is attained by the elimination of the five subtle fetters that remain unbroken in the non-returner: desire for existence in the form and formless realms, conceit, restlessness, and ignorance. When the path of arahantship arises fully comprehending the Four Noble Truths, ignorance collapses, and all the other residual defilements follow suit.

Summary of Nyanaponika & Hellmuth Hecker's Great Disciples of the Buddha

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