Why Attaining the Fruits Requires Corresponding Meditative Concentration

Attaining the fruits of realization is the product of the combination of precepts, meditative concentration (samādhi), and wisdom, and also the product of eradicating afflictions, while wisdom cannot be separated from meditative concentration. Only after attaining the fruits of realization can one obtain liberation, and liberation means liberation from the entanglement of afflictions. Eradicating afflictions is not only an accomplishment of wisdom but even more the result of meditative concentration; without meditative concentration one cannot eradicate afflictions, and thus cannot attain the fruits of realization.

Those of the first fruit and the second fruit need preparatory concentration (anāgamya-samādhi); without preparatory concentration, one cannot even become a candidate for the first fruit (srotāpanna-phala-pratipannaka). The first fruit eradicates the afflictions to be abandoned on the path of seeing, which are the coarsest, low-grade afflictions of the desire realm, and they must be eradicated within preparatory concentration. The second fruit requires eradicating the afflictions to be abandoned on the path of cultivation, which are the middle-grade and high-grade afflictions of the desire realm, and these even more require preparatory concentration to be eradicated. After death, those of the first and second fruits can only be reborn in the desire-realm heavens, and cannot be reborn in the form-realm heavens or the formless-realm heavens, because they lack the first dhyāna of the form realm.

Those of the second fruit need to continue contemplative practice (vipaśyanā-caryā) on the principle of the Four Noble Truths on the basis of the first fruit; direct realization cannot be separated from preparatory concentration—otherwise direct realization is impossible, and one can only rely on the mind consciousness's deliberation and analysis, without the wisdom of direct perception, unable to attain the third fruit, and also unable to obtain the first dhyāna. Those of the third fruit must eradicate all afflictions of the desire realm, and must also eradicate at least one grade of the form-realm afflictions, becoming noble ones liberated in mind; therefore, at the very minimum they must possess the first dhyāna of the form realm. Those of the third fruit will, upon death, be reborn among the five Pure Abodes (ākaniṣṭha heavens) of the form realm, or else, within the antarābhava, further eradicate all afflictions completely, attain the fourth fruit, and enter Nirvāṇa without remainder (Anupadhiśeṣa-nirvāṇa). If those of the third fruit lack form-realm meditative concentration, how could they be reborn among the five Pure Abodes, and how could they eradicate all afflictions completely?

If meditative concentration is not complete, one cannot eradicate the corresponding afflictions. Without form-realm meditative concentration, the afflictions of the desire realm and the form realm cannot be eradicated; without preparatory concentration, the afflictions of the desire realm cannot be eradicated, and the principle of the Four Noble Truths would not be the basis of the liberation path. Those who say that one can attain bodhi without eradicating afflictions are precisely those who lack meditative concentration; the afflictions in their minds cannot be subdued. Their mind consciousness may seem clever in its understanding, but they lack the wisdom of realized attainment, cannot free themselves from the entanglement of afflictions, and thus cannot escape the cycle of the six realms of rebirth. Studying Buddhism without cultivating meditative concentration, relying entirely on speculation—all of that is conceptual proliferation (prapañca) and cannot withstand birth and death.