The Merits and Benefits of Realizing Srotāpanna

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. Nevertheless, you have after all met face to face and gained an initial understanding, which is utterly different from the understanding and knowledge you had before meeting. In the course of subsequent interactions with this person, you gradually come to know them to a certain extent, and thus your impression deepens; you gain a certain understanding of their speech and conduct. As time goes on, your understanding grows, and your knowledge becomes deep and thorough, and your trust will continuously increase.

It is the same principle when one attains the first fruit and has just seen the mind. Although the seeing of the path at the first fruit has not eradicated 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, and there should be 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 enjoyment of the merit of seeing the path and realizing no-self. If, because a first-fruit person has not severed afflictions and is not a third-fruit person, one believes that 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 is normal that their afflictions are very heavy. In reality, this is not normal. If one's afflictions have not changed and been effectively subdued, it shows that they have not seen the path, have not actually realized the no-self of the five aggregates, and have not truly understood the principle of no-self. There are many people who hold this view who do not conceal their afflictive nature, yet take it for granted that they have attained the fruit and eradicated the view of self (satkāya-dṛṣṭi), without the slightest doubt about 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 of seeing the path, in subsequent encounters with conditions and circumstances, one gradually deepens one's understanding and cognition of the five aggregates and eighteen realms; the nature of no-self strengthens, and afflictions are further subdued and lightened, and one becomes a second-fruit person. By further deepening the cognition of the no-self of the five aggregates, cultivating away the five hindrances, and gradually giving rise to the first dhyāna, the affliction of greed and desire will be extinguished; next, ill will will also be extinguished—the time this takes is not fixed—and one becomes a third-fruit person who has severed the afflictions of greed, desire, and ill will. With further diligent cultivation, one's cognition of the no-self of the five aggregates deepens even more, the view becomes deeply rooted, all afflictions completely fall away, and self-grasping is severed entirely—one then becomes an arhat of the fourth fruit.

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 then becoming completely 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: having just seen 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, a change from before eradicating the view of self and realizing no-self; the body-mind world must have changed, and there must be an initial benefit and enjoyment of the merit of liberation. If there is no initial merit of liberation, then the view of self has not been truly eradicated, the path has not been truly seen, and no-self has not been truly realized—because once one knows no-self, the afflictions rooted in self will be subdued.