Monastic information on four levels of attainment

Joshua

I was wondering if one joins a monastery would it be likely that a superior informs a person of his or her having achieved a particular attainment, such as stream-entry?

Cloud

As I understand it, "attainments" are not spoken of in monastic settings. There's no "self" to attain anything, it's very difficult to actually know if someone else has reached a "stage" or not (even difficult for the person who thinks they reached it), and they're not truly attainments at all... they're more markers of progress, certain insights that come at a certain point in your practice together. Of course they are good to know for that reason, but the only one that is of true importance is the final one, Nirvana.

A seasoned bhikkhu (this would be your teacher) could describe what each stage is all about, the insights and fetters that go along with it and such, and you'd have some idea if maybe you had passed such a point... but there's such uncertainty that it's best not to think of them as attainments or to cling to the idea of "being" a stream-winner, once-returner, etc.; the idea is to let go of this kind of thinking. It's certainly frowned upon to make any claims of enlightenment in the monastic life -- you're either still on the path, or you're free.

This information is available on the internet also, if you're good at Googling.