Characteristics of Persons at the Second and Third Fruits

Original text of the Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra: 大慧。云何斯陀含相。谓顿照色相妄想。生相见相不生。善见禅趣相故。顿来此世。尽苦际。得涅槃。是故名斯陀含。大慧。云何阿那含。谓过去未来现在色相。性非性。生见过患。使妄想不生故。及结断。故名阿那含。

Explanation: The Buddha said, "Mahāmati, what is the characteristic of the once-returner (Sakṛdāgāmin)? When the once-returner comes into contact with people, he can instantly see through the appearance of his own and others' physical bodies, and has no delusive thoughts about the physical body, knowing that it is unborn, that it has no real birth, and that its marks are suffering, empty, impermanent, and non-self; he knows this upon seeing the marks, without needing the mind consciousness to deliberate. The manas already knew this at the stage of the stream-enterer (Srotaāpanna), and after further cultivation, upon reaching the stage of the once-returner, it knows more deeply and thoroughly. The once-returner is skilled at observing the characteristics and direction of meditative concentration (samādhi); at the end of his life he goes to the heavens, and then returns directly from the heavens to the human world, so as to exhaust the limit of suffering and attain nirvāṇa without remainder (anupadhiśeṣa-nirvāṇa). Therefore he is called a once-returner."

"Mahāmati, what is the characteristic of the non-returner (Anāgāmin)? The non-returner knows the physical body's appearance in the past, future, and present, that its nature has no self-nature of its own; he can see the faults and perils of the body's birth, knows the fault of delusively taking the physical body as self and belonging to self, and has no delusive thoughts about the appearance of the physical body. Moreover, with the power of the first dhyāna, he has severed the manifest afflictions of all greed and hatred; therefore he is called a non-returner, the third fruit."