Different stages of fruition have different meritorious enjoyments.

To make the Dharmakāya come alive, one must eliminate the wrong thought that takes the five aggregates as the self, not establishing a self of the five aggregates; then the Dharmakāya will be easy to discover. However, in the process of seeking the Dharmakāya there is the thought of investigation, which suppresses the greedy, hateful, and deluded thoughts concerning worldly dharmas. With such diligent effort, one day one will be able to see the Dharmakāya.

But as for an awakening that has not gone through the process of investigation—whether it truly counts as realizing the Way, and what its ultimate result will be—even the Buddha's word does not decide the matter; it is decided by cause and condition and by King Yama. The god of death best illustrates the problem, for he holds the greatest power. If one desperately wishes oneself to be a person who has realized the fruit and seen the true mind, desperately wishes oneself to be a noble one, while disregarding the truth of the facts, this is still a very serious self—the "I must be such-and-such"—and this is precisely the self. If one has truly eliminated self-view and is without self, has truly seen the true mind and realized the emptiness of the five aggregates, one should fully manifest one's liberated mind; what fruit one has attained or what stage one occupies does not matter at all, it makes no difference. When there is no self, there is also no fruit; only when there is a self is there a fruit.

Someone will say: both the elimination of self-view and seeing the true mind belong to the first fruit, and a stream-enterer has not eliminated afflictions; one's afflictions are the same as an ordinary being's, so there is no liberating merit. Then what is the difference between having eliminated self-view and not having eliminated it? If realizing the first fruit carries not the slightest liberating merit or benefit, and seeing the true mind and realizing the tathāgatagarbha carries not the slightest liberating merit or benefit, being the same as an ordinary being—then what is called fruit-merit? Every fruit has its merit. If after realizing the fruit there is no fruit-merit, then it is merely a name, a mere designation, without any meaning. Even if this name were given by the Buddha himself, it is not originally existent, not unborn and unceasing, and therefore has no substantive meaning. But both genuine realization and false speech each have their own cause and effect.

When one truly begins cultivating the Way, there is already a certain degree of merit and benefit. Throughout the process of cultivating the thirty-seven aids to the Way, there are varying degrees of merit and benefit; it is only that at that time there is no liberating merit and benefit, because without eliminating self-view there is no liberation. But after eliminating self-view and seeing the true mind, there is liberating merit of varying degrees: a first-fruit person has the liberating merit of the first fruit, a second-fruit person has the liberating merit of the second fruit, a third-fruit person has the liberating merit of the third fruit, and a fourth-fruit person has the liberating merit of the fourth fruit. Although eliminating afflictions is a matter from the third fruit onward, the afflictions of a first-fruit person differ greatly from those of an ordinary being, and the afflictions of a Buddhist practitioner in the process of cultivating the Way also differ to a certain degree from those of one who has not yet begun cultivating. Otherwise, what use would studying Buddhism and practicing be?

So many people love the fruit—why do they love the fruit and pay no attention to the facts? Because a serious self and self-grasping are at work. Even if the Buddha specially bestowed a fruit upon someone, yet that person's merit does not correspond to this fruit, and in fact that person has not truly realized the fruit—if they still care deeply about and cling to this fruit, that is also self-view and self-grasping, still a self. Obtaining a false fruit and feeling delighted in one's heart, publicizing it everywhere, swaggering about everywhere—this shows that the nature of self is still very heavy, and one will not escape birth and death. This is called deceiving oneself and deceiving others.

A true practitioner should pay no heed to what fruit there is, and should instead focus on whether the mind has truly changed, whether one has truly been liberated, and whether one's practice has yielded merit and benefit. If one truly has merit and benefit, even if the Buddha issues no certificate and no one acknowledges one's attainment of the fruit, in fact you yourself still have the fruit, the liberation, and the realization, and can attain liberation. Conversely, if one has no merit and benefit, no genuine liberating realization, then even if the Buddha issues a certificate and everyone respectfully regards you as a great virtuous one, an arhat, or a bodhisattva, in reality you are still an ordinary being, still mired in the karmic obstructions of birth and death.

Everyone who studies Buddhism and cultivates the path seeks true liberation and true progress on the Way, not vanity. What is vain is unreliable; what it brings is still vanity, like a soap bubble. We should not gaze at how beautiful the soap bubble is, should not delight in bubbles and shadows, but should seek what is actual and obtain what is real. Saying it is one thing; actually doing it is very difficult. Only after the wave of fruit-realization has passed can the Buddhist community begin to be pragmatic. The present belongs to a period of frenzied pursuit of fruits and glory, when true practitioners are hard to encounter. Only when the splendor fades can the truth be revealed.