There are 16 stages--also known as the "16 vipassana nanas" or "the stages of insight"--that people progress up and down during their attempts to get to the stream entry and subsequent stages and they are largely independent of insight tradition and much more a description of what happens when people expand and hone their awareness of their sensate world. This terminology comes from the vipassana tradition of Theravada Buddhism. It is only one of many possible maps of this territory, albeit one of the very best. They are as follows:

1. Mind and Body
2. Cause and Effect
3. The Three Characteristics
4. The Arising and Passing Away
5. Dissolution
6. Fear
7. Misery
8. Disgust
9. Desire for Deliverance
10. Re-observation
11. Equanimity
12. Conformity
13. Change of Lineage
14. Path
15. Fruition
16. Review

related links

This 3-part essay by DhO Kenneth Folk on "The Progress of Insight:"

• The Progress of Insight (part one)
• The Progress of Insight (part two)
• The Progress of Insight (part three)