To What Degree of Cultivation Does One No Longer Suffer?

Question: To what degree of cultivation can one remain tranquil and unmoved amid the forms, sounds, smells, tastes, and touches of the mundane world, or at least not be so afflicted with suffering?

Answer: After afflictions are eradicated, the mind will become tranquil, without so many afflictions and distresses. After the view of self (satkāya-dṛṣṭi) is eradicated and one attains the meditative concentration of the first dhyāna, greed and resentment will be eliminated. Together with the three fetters eradicated at the first fruit—the view of self, the view of clinging to precepts and observances, and the view of doubt—when the five lower fetters are severed, a person becomes somewhat at ease, but not as at ease as one at the fourth fruit. The fourth fruit eradicates the conceit of self and self-grasping, leaving one almost entirely unburdened.

A bodhisattva who has attained such tranquility and ease is also called a bodhisattva of the third fruit. Having passed through the three barriers of the Chan school, such a person is qualified to enter the first bhūmi. All bodhisattvas before the seventh bhūmi are third-fruit persons; they do not take up the fruit of the fourth-fruit arhat, retaining a trace of affliction in order to remain in the three realms. An eighth-bhūmi bodhisattva has completely severed all afflictions and completely eradicated self-grasping, and has eliminated most of the grasping at dharmas.

When a bodhisattva of the third fruit comes again to the human world, his afflictions are very slight. Although he can be influenced and conditioned by the environment and may create some unwholesome karma, that unwholesome karma is also extremely slight. After studying Buddhism, it is eliminated as soon as he repents, or it is eliminated simply by understanding the principles, without needing repentance, because he has no fundamental afflictive mind. Noble ones of the third fruit and above almost never wish to mingle with the crowd; they spend more time in solitude, and only when delivering sentient beings do they stay among them. The great bodhisattvas of the past all first cultivated themselves in solitude, and only then came out to teach the Dharma and deliver sentient beings. If they felt their power of meditative concentration was insufficient—clearly having much wisdom but little concentration—they would again cultivate in solitude to advance their practice of the Path, and afterward return among sentient beings to teach the Dharma. In this way, they would spend a period of time in self-cultivation and a period of time delivering sentient beings, not always staying among sentient beings. If one always stays among sentient beings, the power of meditative concentration will regress, one's cultivation will be pulled back somewhat by sentient beings, and the power of the Path will be insufficient.