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The Breakthrough
Bunks
Australia Veteran
...for when we aspire to the highest goal we may become daunted and demotivated, but if we set our sights on something that is a bit more practical it will serve us extremely well. Once stream-entry has been realized there are no more than seven lifetimes before reaching total enlightenment, and there is no longer any possibility of falling into the lower realms. And the Buddha says this over and over again. It's not just one statement here and there - over and over again he says that if stream-entry has been realized, total enlightenment is inevitable, if not in this lifetime, within seven lifetimes - absolutely guaranteed. Total enlightenment is necessarily going to be realized.
Ajahn Amaro - The Breakthrough
So who's in?? 
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Once upon a time, in the long ago and far-away, there was a period during which levitation caught the public eye. Maybe in the 1970's or '80's. A lot of people wanted to get in on the action and my mother, who was a curious soul, read a bit here and there, took a bit of instruction here and there and finally put her particular period on that ability: "What," she asked, "would you have if you had it?"
I wonder if "absolutely guaranteed" enlightenment is anything like that.
@genkaku: What would you have if you had it? Nothing, nothing at all.
In Buddhism, a sotāpanna (Pali), srotāpanna (Sanskrit; Chinese: 入流; pinyin: rùliú, Tibetan: རྒྱུན་ཞུགས་, Wylie: rgyun zhugs[1]), "stream-winner",[2] or "stream-entrant"[3] is a person who has seen the Dharma and consequently, has dropped the first three fetters (saŋyojana) that bind a being to rebirth, namely self-view (sakkāya-ditthi), clinging to rites and rituals (sīlabbata-parāmāsa), and skeptical indecision (Vicikitsa).
So
@ Bunks: I just checked on what a stream enterer is. Half serious, i ponder where we will we during 7 lifetimes unless we reincarnate somewhere other than earth. With the climate change and nukes, there may be no life forms to return to, or possibly just cockroaches, who have a high tolerance to radioactivity? I'm actually becoming a bit more serious as i write this.
I've reached a point where I have stopped pondering and asking questions. It's getting boring.
Maybe I'm ready to take a leap of faith......
I hope there's no place to land. Could be very instructive. Sounds like you already have a feel for it from what i've read.
I'm way out - as usual.
Looking for it, the vision cannot be seen: cease your search. It cannot be discovered through meditation, so abandon your trance states and mental images. It cannot be accomplished by anything you do, so give up the attempt to treat the world as magical illusion. It cannot be found by seeking, so abandon all hope of results.
— Shabkar Lama, 19th Century Tibetan mystic
http://sufiway.org/teaching/seven-contemplations-on-the-open-path/14-teachings/41-the-art-of-awakening
Ay caramba. Do we get a refund? Abandon raft, dervishes, tantrikas and crustaceans first ... No wonder I do Shikantaza
Every summer as a kid I would get a pass to the local recreation center and go swimming quite a lot. So I've at least attained pool-entry if not full blown stream-entry.
On a more serious note. I think it's a good goal and can be skillful in as much as it can motivate a practice. For myself I've found focusing on and enjoying the day to day behaviors and smaller fruits of the path to be more effective and more stable than focusing on the long term goal.