Only with Complete Meditative Concentration Can One Quickly Attain the Fruit

The cases recorded in the Āgama sūtras, as well as the cases recorded in the Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra, are all authentic. Indeed, there were some non-Buddhist practitioners who, after cultivating the four dhyānas and eight samādhis, heard the Buddha expound the Dharma and, after deliberating for only a few minutes, eradicated the view of self (satkāya-dṛṣṭi-prahāṇa) and eradicated self-grasping, becoming arhats of the fourth fruit, and then entered Nirvāṇa without remainder. These non-Buddhist practitioners were extraordinary, and the merit of the four dhyānas and eight samādhis was extraordinary. Many of us listen to the Buddha's teachings for an entire lifetime yet cannot eradicate the view of self, whereas those non-Buddhists, possessing the four dhyānas and eight samādhis, needed only a few minutes or even less time to not only eradicate the view of self but also eradicate self-grasping, and could immediately enter Nirvāṇa without remainder—inconceivable. Consider this: why were their spiritual faculties (indriya) so keen? Because in the course of their cultivation of the four dhyānas and eight samādhis, the manas had already been subdued; there was only one mistaken view remaining that had not been clarified and eliminated. Once this wrong view (mithyā-dṛṣṭi) was eradicated, all afflictions and attachments fell away at that very moment—this is the merit of the four dhyānas and eight samādhis. From this we can see that subduing the afflictions of the manas is very closely related to the four dhyānas and eight samādhis; meditative concentration (samādhi) is extremely important.