Characteristics of the Third and Fourth Fruit Arhats

When one truly has no greed towards any state or realm, that is the third fruition practitioner. At this stage, the manifest activities of certain greed and aversion afflictions have been eradicated. When there is no attachment to any state or realm, that is the fourth fruition Arhat, who has eliminated ego-attachment in the mental faculty and severed all desire for the Three Realms. Before attaining the third fruition, no matter how pure the mind may seem, it only suppresses the afflictions rather than eradicating them. The afflictions remain latent within, seldom manifesting outwardly. However, when confronted with significant events, they inevitably surface and manifest as active afflictions. Very few can genuinely and thoroughly examine their own afflictions. Therefore, some often mistakenly believe they are free from afflictions or consider themselves to have attained the second fruition, when in reality they remain far from reaching it.