What is Stream Entry?

Entering the Stream is entering the stream of the noble path to liberation. To attain liberation, one must first eradicate the erroneous view of self that binds one to the cycle of birth and death. From then on, one is no longer an ordinary person fettered by the three fetters. This process indispensably requires meditative concentration. One must possess at least the dhyāna preceding the first dhyāna or higher meditative attainments within the desire realm to sever the view of self and enter the noble stream. Merely possessing meditative concentration, even the first dhyāna, without severing the view of self and the three fetters, cannot enable one to enter the noble stream. If it were otherwise, then non-Buddhist practitioners possessing the four dhyānas and eight samāpattis would all have entered the noble stream. Would that not mean that cultivating the four dhyānas and eight samāpattis according to non-Buddhist paths could also lead to liberation? Once the three fetters have been severed, one will enter the noble stream; it is not that one gains the ability to sever them only after entering.