The Bodhisattvas' Practice on the Teachings of the Great and Small Vehicles

For Śrāvakas, after attaining the third fruit, afflictions are eliminated rather than merely suppressed; because they are eliminated, one can avoid being entangled by the five desires and the six sense objects, and thereby transcend the three realms and attain liberation. Suppressing afflictions means subduing them, which occurs before the second fruit—especially before seeing the path, when afflictions are subdued. Only at the third fruit can afflictions be eliminated. Mere suppression cannot free one from afflictions and cannot bring liberation.

Moreover, the practice of Mahāyāna bodhisattvas cannot be separated from what Śrāvaka practitioners do. To depart from the practice of the small vehicle is not to be called a bodhisattva; one can only be an ordinary being. At the very beginning of their personal cultivation, bodhisattvas, just like Śrāvakas, observe the precepts and maintain all proper deportment, serving as models for sentient beings. Only by observing the precepts can they attain meditative concentration (samādhi), and thereby see the path. Bodhisattvas must also begin their cultivation from the small vehicle's elimination of self-view (ātma-dṛṣṭi); without realizing the fruits, one cannot attain Mahāyāna seeing of the path. The small vehicle's precepts, concentration, and wisdom, as well as seeing the path and obtaining purity of the Dharma eye—Mahāyāna bodhisattvas cannot bypass any of these; otherwise there would be neither Mahāyāna bodhisattvas nor small vehicle practitioners.

After bodhisattvas attain the small vehicle's seeing of the path and realize the first fruit, they must continue to additionally cultivate the dhyāna of the first jhāna in order to eliminate the five lower fetters—the three fetters plus the afflictions of greed and aversion. Only then are they qualified to pass through the three checkpoints of the Chan school within the Mahāyāna Dharma, as well as the checkpoint of mirage contemplation and the dream-like contemplation, and further become qualified to enter the first bhūmi. After entering the first bhūmi, they deliberately do not eliminate afflictions completely and do not take up the entry into the certainty of rightness (samyaktva-niyāma) of the arhat—that is, they do not realize the fruit of the fourth fruit arhat—retaining the most minute afflictions uneliminated, so that they do not enter nirvāṇa without remainder (anupadhiśeṣa-nirvāṇa); entering nirvāṇa without remainder would sever the seed of Buddhahood.

No matter how eager a bodhisattva is for enlightenment, they cannot bypass the various checkpoints of the small vehicle. If one deliberately wishes to bypass them, then such a person is not a true practitioner, let alone a Mahāyāna bodhisattva. A bodhisattva who possesses the four marks and afflictions is not a bodhisattva, and is identical to an ordinary being. If a bodhisattva has the mental activity of being eager for enlightenment, this mind is a seeking mind, not a mind of non-action. A mind with private aims certainly has the four marks and has afflictions—that is the mind of an ordinary being. If it accords with the mind of an ordinary being, one cannot become a true bodhisattva. A true bodhisattva is certainly a bodhisattva who has shattered marks, without the mark of self, the mark of a person, the mark of sentient beings, or the mark of a life span, and also without the mark of realizing a fruit or the mark of enlightenment. Whoever has these marks is an ordinary being.