Enlightenment - Can it be notcied when someone attains nibbana?

A.

Can you see whether someone else is mindful or not mindful? Who knows the

cittas of other people? If we haven't developed the 'supernormal

power' (abhinna) of knowing the cittas of other people, we cannot know when

someone else is mindful of nama and rupa or when he attains nibbana.

B.

Can one attain, in the course of one life, the four stages of enlightenment,

which are the stages of the sotapanna, the sakadagami, the anagami and the

arahat?

A.

All four stages can be attained in the course of one life. We read in the suttas

about disciples of the Buddha who attained the ariyan state but not yet

arahatship and realized arahatship later on. For example, Ananda did not

attain arahatship during the Buddha's life, but he became an arahat after the

Buddha had passed away, the evening before the first great council was to

start.

B.

The arahat has eradicated all defilements and thus he has reached the end of

the cycle of birth, old age, sickness and death; he has realized the end of

dukkha. He will not be reborn, but he still has to die; therefore, has he really

attained the end of dukkha at the moment he realizes arahatship?

A.

Even the arahat is subject to death, since he was born. He can also

experience unpleasant results of akusala kamma committed before he

attained arahatship.

However, since he has no more defilements and cannot accumulate any more

kamma which might produce vipaka, he is really free from sorrow.

In 'As it was said' ('ltivuttaka', Ch. II, par. 7, 'Khuddaka Nikaya') two

'conditions of nibbana' (dhatu, which literally means element) are explained.

Sa-upadi-sesa nibbana is nibbana with the five khandhas still remaining.

For the arahat who has not finally passed away yet, there are still citta,

cetasika and rupa arising and falling away, although he has eradicated all

defilements. An-upadi-sesa nibbana is nibbana without the khandhas

remaining. For the arahat who has finally passed away, there are no longer

citta, cetasika and rupa arising and falling away.

We read in the verse, after the explanation:

These two nibbana-states are shown by him  Who sees, who is such and

unattached. One state is that in this same life possessed. With base

remaining, though becoming's stream  Be cut off. While the state without a

base  Belongs to the future, wherein all  Becomings utterly do come to cease. 

They who, by knowing this state uncompounded  Have heart's release, by

cutting off the stream, They who have reached the core of dhamma, glad  To

end, such have abandoned all  becomings.