The Merit and Benefits of Attaining the First Fruit (Sotāpanna)

The stage of seeing the Path in both the Great and Small Vehicles—that is, the first fruit—is like meeting a person: you have encountered this person and know of this person, but you do not yet understand them very well; your acquaintance is not deep. Still, after all, you have met face to face and gained an initial recognition, which is utterly different from the understanding and cognition you had before meeting. In the subsequent course of interacting with this person, you gradually come to know them to a certain degree, deepening your impression, gaining some understanding of their speech and conduct. As time goes on, your understanding grows, and your recognition becomes deep and thorough; your trust will continually strengthen.

It is the same principle when one attains the first fruit and first sees the true mind. Although the seeing of the Path at the first fruit has not yet eliminated afflictions, one has, after all, initially realized no-self and gained a certain cognition of the five aggregates and eighteen realms of self and others, which is utterly different from before attaining the first fruit. Therefore, body and mind should undergo some transformation, an essential difference from ordinary beings. Although afflictions have not been severed, they must have been subdued to a certain degree—this is the benefit and functional efficacy of realizing no-self through seeing the Path. If, because a first-fruit person has not severed afflictions and is not a third-fruit person, one believes their afflictions should be the same as those of ordinary beings, that is a great misunderstanding, enough to mislead many people, causing many who have not attained the fruit to believe they have attained it, and to think it normal that their afflictions remain heavy. In reality this is not normal. If one's afflictions have not changed and been effectively subdued, it shows that one has not seen the Path, has not actually realized the no-self of the five aggregates, and has not truly understood the principle of no-self. Many who hold this view do not conceal their afflictive nature, yet take it for granted that they have attained the fruit and eliminated self-view (ātma-dṛṣṭi), without the slightest doubt as to whether their so-called fruit is genuine or false, not knowing the gravity of the karmic consequences of impersonating a sage.

After the first fruit's seeing of the Path, through subsequent encounters with conditions and circumstances, one gradually deepens one's understanding and cognition of the five aggregates and eighteen realms; the realization of no-self strengthens, afflictions are further subdued and lightened, and one becomes a second-fruit person. By deepening further the cognition of the no-self of the five aggregates, cultivating away the five hindrances, and gradually initiating first dhyāna, the afflictions of greed and lust will be eliminated; next, ill will will also be eliminated—over an uncertain span of time—and one becomes a third-fruit person who has severed the afflictions of greed and ill will. With further diligent practice and an even deeper cognition of the no-self of the five aggregates, one's insight becomes deeply rooted, all afflictions completely fall away, and self-grasping is severed entirely—one then becomes a fourth-fruit arhat.

The path of cultivation from ordinary being to the fourth fruit is similar to the process of hearing about a person, then meeting this person, and finally becoming thoroughly familiar with and understanding this person. It is impossible to become very familiar with someone the moment you first meet them. Attaining the first fruit is the same: upon just seeing the Path, it is impossible to understand and cognize no-self very deeply and thoroughly, and thereby sever afflictions. But there must be a difference from before eliminating self-view and realizing no-self—there is a change. One's body-mind world must have transformed, and there must be an initial liberated benefit and functional efficacy. If there is no initial liberation benefit, then self-view has not been truly eliminated, the Path has not been truly seen, and no-self has not been truly realized; for once one knows no-self, the afflictions rooted in self will be subdued.