Bodhisattvas' Practice in the Mahāyāna and Hīnayāna Dharma

After attaining the third fruit, śrāvakas eradicate afflictions rather than merely suppressing them; because they are eradicated, they are no longer entangled by the five desires and the six sense objects, and can thus transcend the three realms and attain liberation. Suppressing afflictions means subduing them; this occurs before the second fruit, especially before seeing the path, when afflictions are subdued. Only at the third fruit can afflictions be eradicated. Suppression cannot free one from afflictions and cannot bring liberation.

As for the practice of Mahāyāna bodhisattvas, it likewise cannot depart from what śrāvaka practitioners do. To depart from the Hīnayāna practice is not to be called a bodhisattva—one can only be an ordinary person. At the very beginning of their personal cultivation, bodhisattvas, just like śrāvakas, observe the precepts and possess all proper deportment, serving as a model for sentient beings. Only by observing the precepts can they attain meditative concentration (samādhi), and thereby see the path. Bodhisattvas must also begin their cultivation from the Hīnayāna eradication of the view of self (satkāya-dṛṣṭi-prahāṇa); without attaining the fruits, they cannot realize Mahāyāna seeing of the path. The Hīnayāna precepts, concentration, and wisdom, as well as seeing the path and obtaining purity of the dharma eye—Mahāyāna bodhisattvas cannot bypass any of these; otherwise there would be neither Mahāyāna bodhisattvas nor Hīnayāna practitioners.

After bodhisattvas have seen the path in the Hīnayāna and attained the first fruit, they must continue to additionally cultivate the dhyāna of the first jhāna, in order to eradicate the five lower fetters—the three fetters plus the afflictions of greed/craving and hatred/ill will. Only then are they qualified to pass through the three barriers of the Chan school in the Mahāyāna dharma, as well as the barrier of mirage-like phenomena and the contemplation of things being like a dream, and further become qualified to enter the first bhūmi. After entering the first bhūmi, they deliberately do not eradicate afflictions completely and do not take up the arhat's state of arising from the noble nature—that is, they do not realize the fruit of the arhat of the fourth fruit—retaining extremely minute afflictions un-eradicated, so that they will not enter Nirvāṇa without remainder (Anupadhiśeṣa-nirvāṇa); entering Nirvāṇa without remainder would sever the seed of Buddhahood.

No matter how eager a bodhisattva is for enlightenment, they cannot bypass the various checkpoints of the Hīnayāna. If one deliberately wishes to bypass them, then such a person is not a true practitioner, let alone a Mahāyāna bodhisattva. A bodhisattva who possesses the four marks and afflictions in full is not a bodhisattva, and is equivalent to an ordinary person. If a bodhisattva has the mental activity of being eager for enlightenment, this mind is a mind that seeks something, not a mind of non-action (wu-wei). A mind with private aims certainly has the four marks and afflictions—that is the mind of an ordinary person. If it accords with the mind of an ordinary person, one cannot become a true bodhisattva. A true bodhisattva is certainly a bodhisattva who has broken through marks, without the mark of self, the mark of a person, the mark of sentient beings, and the mark of a life span, and also without the mark of attaining a fruit or the mark of enlightenment. Whoever has these marks is an ordinary person.