[1] These four fruits or states are Sotāpanna (stream-enterer), Sakadāgāmi (once-returner), Anāgāmi (non-returner), and Arahant (conqueror, "worthy one").
Those with no attainments are called puthujjanas (Sanskrit: pṛthagjana), i.e. the unenlightened commoners or "worldly" people.
These are unenlightened commoners or "worldly" people trapped in the endless cycling of samsara in which one will continue to be reborn into many different lives.
[5] Thus, a common worldly person can be a non-buddhist layperson or sage, a buddhist lay follower (an upāsaka), or a monk that has not attained any stage of awakening.
Because the stream-enterer has attained an intuitive grasp of Buddhist doctrine (samyagdṛṣṭi or sammādiṭṭhi, "right view") and has complete confidence or Saddha in the Three Jewels: Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha, and has removed the sankharas that force rebirth in lower planes, that individual will not be reborn in any plane lower than the human (animal, preta, or in hell).
They do, however, only have one more rebirth in the realm of the senses, excluding, of course, the planes of hell, animals and hungry ghosts.
A stream-enterer, having abandoned the first three fetters, is guaranteed enlightenment within seven lifetimes, in the human or heavenly realms.
They have abandoned all ten fetters and, upon death (Sanskrit: Parinirvāṇa, Pāli: Parinibbāna) will never be reborn in any plane or world, having wholly escaped saṃsāra.
This contrasts with the śraddhānusārin ("follower of faith"), whose spiritual practice and realization are based on trust and confidence in the teachings as presented by others.
These are ranked according to their intellectual and spiritual development:[8] The Sarvastivada tradition argued that the attainment of these paths was gradual.