After Eradicating the View of Self, Is There Still Fear?

After eradicating the view of self (satkāya-dṛṣṭi-prahāṇa), there is a certain liberating benefit of merit and virtue, and this liberating benefit varies to some degree depending on each person's level of realization. The so-called liberating benefit means that the psychological attachment to the physical body and the five aggregates (pañca-skandha) is reduced and lightened; one can let go of many things and no longer fuss over them so much. Especially when meditative concentration (samādhi) is present, the attachment becomes even lighter and fainter. This also depends on the depth of the wisdom of eradicating the view of self and the degree of meditative concentration, which differs from person to person.

However, when encountering major events, one still feels afraid; afterward, upon reflection, the fear is not so great. Those of the third and fourth fruits feel it very lightly. But it is impossible to feel no fear at all. For example, the arhats of the fourth fruit who followed alongside the Buddha—when an intoxicated elephant charged toward them, they were afraid and ran away. Even those of the fourth fruit who had eradicated self-grasping still feared the drunken elephant. Why? Because they had not realized the tathāgatagarbha, and still regarded the five-aggregate body as truly existent and suffering as truly existent; it is only that these things arise and cease moment by moment, constantly changing, and cannot be grasped. They had not realized the principle that the five aggregates are illusory, conjured forth by the tathāgatagarbha, and therefore they still had a mind of fear. If it is an arhat liberated in both ways (ubhayatobhāga-vimukta), supported by profound meditative concentration, there is no mind of fear, and he is comparatively more at ease and unimpeded.

If it is an eighth-bhūmi bodhisattva, there would not be the slightest mind of fear at all; a fourth-bhūmi bodhisattva probably would no longer have a mind of fear. Bodhisattvas of the fourth bhūmi and above have not only eradicated self-grasping but also eradicated a portion of dharma-grasping. Not only have they realized the profound tathāgatagarbha, they also possess the four dhyānas and eight samādhis, and have realized that all dharmas are illusory appearances, not truly existent; the five-aggregate body is empty and illusory, and everything is the tathāgatagarbha. Because the Hīnayāna arhats had not realized the tathāgatagarbha, they regarded the five aggregates as still truly existent in the world, and therefore entered nirvāṇa to escape suffering. There is a great difference in level between Hīnayāna realization of the fruits and Mahāyāna realization of the fruits: the dharma realized by the Hīnayāna is not ultimate, whereas only the Mahāyāna dharma can thoroughly reach the source of the mind and is the ultimate dharma. Therefore, a first-fruit person who has eradicated the view of self still has fear regarding certain relatively major events, because this attachment to the body cannot be eradicated too thoroughly, and there is also the problem of dharma-grasping.