Why Does Attaining the Fruits of Realization Require Corresponding Meditative Concentration

Attaining the fruits of realization is the product of the combination of precepts, meditation, and wisdom, and also the product of severing afflictions; moreover, wisdom cannot be separated from meditative concentration (samādhi). Only after attaining the fruits can one obtain liberation, and liberation means liberation from the entanglement of afflictions. Severing afflictions is not merely an accomplishment of wisdom but even more the result of meditative concentration; without meditative concentration one cannot sever afflictions, and thus cannot attain the fruits.

The first fruit and the second fruit require preparatory concentration (anāgamya-samādhi); without preparatory concentration, one cannot even become a candidate for the first fruit. The first fruit severs the afflictions to be eliminated on the path of seeing, which are the coarsest, low-grade afflictions of the desire realm, and these must be severed within preparatory concentration. The second fruit requires severing the afflictions to be eliminated on the path of cultivation, which are the middle-grade and high-grade afflictions of the desire realm, and these even more require preparatory concentration to be severed. After death, those of the first fruit and the second fruit can only be reborn in the desire-realm heavens, and cannot be reborn in the form-realm heavens or the formless-realm heavens, because they lack the first dhyāna of the form realm.

Those of the second fruit need to continue contemplating the principle of the Four Noble Truths on the foundation of the first fruit. Direct realization is inseparable from preparatory concentration; otherwise, direct realization is impossible—one can only rely on the mind consciousness's deliberation and analysis, without the wisdom of direct perception and valid observation, and thus cannot attain the third fruit, nor obtain the first dhyāna. Those of the third fruit must sever all afflictions of the desire realm, and must also sever at least one grade of afflictions of the form realm, becoming noble ones liberated in mind (cetovimutti); therefore, at the very minimum they must possess the first dhyāna of the form realm. Those of the third fruit will, upon death, be reborn among the five Pure Abodes (the five non-returner heavens) of the form realm, or else sever all afflictions within the antarā-bhava (the intermediate state), attain the fourth fruit, and enter nirvāṇa without remainder. If those of the third fruit had no form-realm concentration, how could they be reborn among the five Pure Abodes, and how could they sever all afflictions?

If meditative concentration is not complete, one cannot sever the corresponding afflictions. Without form-realm concentration, the afflictions of the desire realm and the form realm cannot be severed; without preparatory concentration, the afflictions of the desire realm cannot be severed, and the principle of the Four Noble Truths would not be the basis of the path of liberation. Those who say that one can attain bodhi without severing afflictions are precisely those who lack meditative concentration; the afflictions in their minds cannot be subdued. Their mind consciousness's intellectual superiority may seem very clever, but without the wisdom of actual realization, they cannot free themselves from the entanglement of afflictions and cannot escape the cycle of the six realms of rebirth. Studying Buddhism without cultivating meditative concentration, relying entirely on conjecture—all of that is conceptual proliferation (prapañca) and cannot withstand birth and death.