True Attainment of Fruition and False Attainment of Fruition

In the Mahāsatipaṭṭhāna Sūtra, when the World-Honored One expounded on the five aggregates of grasping, He also spoke of the inner dharmas and outer dharmas of form, feeling, perception, formations, and consciousness. Inner form is the physical body; outer form is the six sense objects. Inner feeling, perception, formations, and consciousness refer to the manas; outer feeling, perception, formations, and consciousness refer to the mind consciousness.

When the World-Honored One expounded on the seven factors of enlightenment, He also divided the seven factors of enlightenment into inner factors and outer factors. The factor of investigation of dharmas, the factor of effort, the factor of joy, the factor of tranquility (passaddhi), the factor of meditative concentration (samādhi), and the factor of equanimity are all divided into the outer factors pertaining to the mind consciousness and the inner factors pertaining to the manas. When the inner seven factors of enlightenment have not been accomplished, it is impossible to realize the fruits of the Small Vehicle, impossible to eliminate self-view (ātma-dṛṣṭi), let alone to see one's true mind and perceive one's nature. If the thirty-seven aids to enlightenment are not cultivated to accomplishment, do not speak of any fruit of either the Great or Small Vehicle. If tranquility of body and mind is not accomplished, if meditative concentration is not accomplished, if the neutral feeling (upekṣā-vedanā) within the mind does not exist, then self-view cannot be eliminated, and one cannot see one's true mind and perceive one's nature. These are the hard criteria for the cultivation and realization of the Buddha-Dharma, which no one can bypass. If someone insists that so-and-so has realized a fruit or has seen the true mind, those are all plastic fruits—fine to look at, but they cannot fill the belly and have no real value.

From the World-Honored One's description of the seven factors of enlightenment, the manas possesses the factor of investigation of dharmas, the factor of effort (true diligence), the factor of joy (the manas does not merely experience neutral feeling), the factor of tranquility, the factor of meditative concentration (being in accord with samādhi), and the factor of equanimity. Only afterward, when the mental actions accord with the Noble Eightfold Path, can the conditions for realizing the fruits of the Small Vehicle be complete, can self-view be eliminated and the first fruit be realized; otherwise, all are false fruits, plastic fruits. When the conditions are not complete and the causes and conditions are not complete, forcibly guiding someone can only yield a false fruit.

Among the seven factors of enlightenment, there is the factor of investigation of dharmas. When one cultivates to this stage, one has the ability to discern. But when something far exceeds one's current level, one again lacks the capacity for decisive judgment, and so one must continue cultivating. The factor of investigation of dharmas must be continuously advanced until it is perfectly complete, so that one can immediately and correctly discern all dharmas without doubt.