Attachment to Fruition and Realization of Fruition Are Also Identity-View

Nowadays, seeing hundreds and thousands outside who claim enlightenment and fruition, saints practically filling the streets, yet so many of these saints show no difference whatsoever in their mental afflictions and vexations before and after their supposed enlightenment. They possess no elevated state of thought, no samadhi states; their body, speech, and mind remain entirely as before, even more defiled than previously, with arrogance heavier than before. How can it be proven whether those people have truly attained fruition and realized the mind? It fundamentally cannot be proven. They haven’t cultivated the Thirty-seven Aids to Enlightenment; morality, concentration, and wisdom are completely lacking. Many are merely at a level of intellectual understanding, a grasp and comprehension on the plane of knowledge. Even more lack even this theoretical knowledge; they cannot correspond to or reach even the state of consciousness, let alone the mental faculty.

Therefore, there are far too many in the current scene committing gross false speech. Why do they engage in gross false speech? Only those with a strong view of self, who cling to their own views as correct, commit gross false speech. Those with a slight view of self are extremely cautious, very careful, and utterly factual; they seek verification everywhere regarding their actual state of practice – whether it truly constitutes realization or not. They do not blindly elevate themselves, claiming how accomplished they are. If someone with a strong view of self believes they have attained fruition, and you tell them that isn’t realization, they will immediately become agitated. Why do they get agitated? Because they are deeply attached to the idea of attaining fruition, deeply attached to the notion of being a saint, deeply attached to being special and different, deeply attached to the fruition and status, caring intensely about their own position and identity.

This attachment signifies that the sense of 'I' still exists within their mind, just as before, or even stronger than before. If you tell them that realization by the consciousness is not true realization, that emotional thinking, intellectual understanding, and speculative guessing do not count as realization, and that realization must occur at the level of the mental faculty, they will, in order to protect their own status and reputation, resort to all kinds of opposition, refutation, and attack. They will not think, not reflect, completely disregard the facts, and certainly not engage in self-examination. Because within their mind there is an 'I' – the 'I' that has attained fruition, the extraordinary 'I', the different 'I', the superior 'I' – and by taking this 'I' as truly real, they fiercely protect it. They also take the fruition as truly their own and fiercely protect it. This demonstrates that this person’s view of self exists in its entirety; they have fundamentally not attained fruition. One who has truly severed the view of self, and whose wisdom gradually increases thereafter, gains the ability to discern whether others possess the 'I' in their mental conduct, whether they are someone who has severed the view of self, to what degree the view of self remains, and whether it is severe.