Who has abandoned the impurities?

Ven. Nyanatiloka, Buddhist Dictionary; Dhr. Seven, Ashley Wells (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Can I reach the first stage of enlightenment?

The "stream-winner" or "stream-enterer" (sotapanna) is the first and lowest of the eight Noble Ones or enlightened disciples.

Three kinds of stream-winners may be distinguished:

• one "with up to seven more rebirths"
• one "passing from one noble family to another"
• one "germinating only once more"

As it is said (e.g., Pug.37-39; A.III.87):

 

(1) "If a person, after the disappearance of the first three fetters [of the ten] (personality-belief, skeptical doubt, and attachment to rules and rituals), has entered the stream (to nirvana), that person is no longer subject to rebirth in any of the lower subhuman worlds.

"Instead, that person is firmly established (and can never fall below the human plane of existence), and is destined to full enlightenment (arhatship).

"After having passed among devas and human beings at most only seven more times more in the Round of Rebirths (samsara), that person puts an end to suffering once and for all. Such a person is called "one with up to seven more rebirths" (sattakkhattu-parama).

 

(2) "If a person, after the disappearance of the Three Fetters...is destined to full enlightenment, that person, after having passed among noble families two or three times in the Round of Rebirths, puts an end to all suffering. Such a person is called "one passing from one noble family to another" (kolankola).
 

(3) "If a person, after the disappearance of the Three Fetters...is destined to full enlightenment, that person, after having only once more returned to the human plane of existence, puts an end to all further suffering. Such a person is called "one germinating only once more"  (eka-bījī).

For further details, see the Sotāpatti-Samyutta (S.55).