To What Degree of Cultivation Does One Become Free from Distress

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 eliminated, the mind will become tranquil, without so many afflictions and distresses. After the elimination of self-view (ātma-dṛṣṭi) and the attainment of the first dhyāna, greed and ill will will be eliminated. Add to this the three fetters eliminated at the first fruit—self-view, grasping at precepts and vows, and doubt—and the five lower fetters are eliminated, so a person can be somewhat at ease, but not as at ease as one of the fourth fruit. The fourth fruit eliminates the conceit of self and self-grasping, so one is 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. Before the seventh bhūmi, bodhisattvas are all third-fruit beings; they do not take up the fruit of the fourth-fruit arhat, retaining a trace of affliction so as to remain within the three realms. An eighth-bhūmi bodhisattva has eliminated all afflictions completely and exhausted self-grasping, with most of the grasping at dharmas eliminated as well.

When a bodhisattva of the third fruit comes again to the human world, afflictions are very slight. Although such a bodhisattva can be influenced by environmental conditioning and may create some unwholesome karma, that unwholesome karma is also extremely slight. After studying Buddhism, it is eliminated as soon as one repents of it, or it is eliminated simply by understanding the principles, without needing repentance, because there is no root affliction in the mind. Noble ones of the third fruit and above almost never wish to mingle with the crowd; they spend more time alone, and only when liberating sentient beings do they stay among them. The great bodhisattvas of the past all first cultivated themselves in solitude, and only then came forth to teach the Dharma and liberate sentient beings. If they felt their power of meditative concentration was insufficient—clearly having much wisdom but little concentration—they would return to solitary practice to advance their cultivation of the Path, and only 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 liberating sentient beings, not always staying among sentient beings. If one always stays among sentient beings, the power of concentration will regress, one's cultivation will be dragged back somewhat by sentient beings, and the power of the Path will be insufficient.