The Characteristics of Anāgāmin and Arhat of the Fourth Fruit

When one truly has no greed toward sense objects, one is a third-fruit person (Anāgāmin), at which point one has already eliminated part of the manifest activity of greed and anger afflictions. When one has no attachment toward sense objects, one is a fourth-fruit arhat, having eliminated the manas's self-grasping and the craving for the three realms. Before the third fruit, no matter how tranquil the mind is, it is merely suppressing afflictions, not eliminating them; the afflictions are hidden within the mind and rarely manifest, but when a major matter arises, they certainly cannot be hidden and will definitely manifest as afflictions. Those who can truly and comprehensively examine their own afflictions are extremely few, so some people often believe they no longer have afflictions, or believe they have attained the second fruit, when in fact they are still very far from the second fruit.