The Characteristics of the Srotāpanna and the Karma of the Grave False-Speech Offense

Answer: The elimination of self-view (ātma-dṛṣṭi) at the first fruit is accomplished by both the manas and the mind consciousness together; both have acknowledged that the five aggregates are suffering, empty, impermanent, and not-self. However, the elimination of self-view at the first fruit is not thorough; at the second fruit it goes somewhat deeper, which is why the afflictions of greed, hatred, and delusion become attenuated. At the third fruit the elimination of self-view goes deeper still, and thus the afflictions of greed, hatred, and delusion can be eliminated. Only at the fourth fruit is self-view completely eradicated, and only then can self-conceit and self-grasping be exhausted, so that one is not tainted in the slightest by worldly dharmas and has the ability to attain nirvāṇa without remainder (anupadhiśeṣa-nirvāṇa). 

Although a stream-enterer still has greed, hatred, and delusion—these are not yet attenuated—the merit of having eliminated self-view at the first fruit enables the afflictions of greed, hatred, and delusion to be effectively subdued, so that, unlike ordinary worldlings (pṛthagjana), their greed, hatred, and delusion do not easily manifest or become conspicuous. In the course of cultivating the path, the stream-enterer has completed the practice of the thirty-seven aids to enlightenment and is endowed with the Noble Eightfold Path, which shows that the mind-ground is upright and wholesome and that they are walking on the correct path of practice. Having completed the four right efforts (samyag-vyāyāma) shows that the stream-enterer's afflictions and bad habits have been subdued and no longer arise easily, that wholesome dharmas have been established, and that they possess the goodness befitting a stream-enterer. Through the merit of eliminating evil and cultivating goodness, they are endowed with the liberating merit and benefit of enjoyment befitting a stream-enterer. This is unlike the claim of some who have not actually realized the fruit, that stream-enterers have the same afflictions of greed, hatred, and delusion as ordinary worldlings—such words and deeds constitute a grave slander of stream-enterers, and in reality it is not so at all. 

If anyone encounters a supposed stream-enterer whose greed, hatred, and delusion are as heavy as those of an ordinary worldling, one may conclude that this person is a false stream-enterer, an ordinary worldling pretending to be a stream-enterer. In today's world, deception is rampant, and there is much deception in Buddhism as well. A few individuals do it deliberately, but most do it unintentionally—it is merely that their mind of self is heavy and they overestimate themselves; their eyes do not turn inward to look at themselves, they do not know how to examine and introspect; they crave prominence and love to compete with others for superiority, and in the end they only harm themselves. After death, because of the great false speech, they automatically fall into hell. 

Why is the karma of great false speech so grave? As the Buddha said in the Śūraṅgama Sūtra: it is like a poor man falsely claiming to be the emperor, who is seized by the king, beheaded as a public example, and whose entire family is exterminated. In Buddhism, for an ordinary worldling to impersonate a sage carries even heavier karmic offense than impersonating an emperor in worldly affairs, for a sage far surpasses an emperor. Impersonating a sage disrupts Buddhism and confuses people's perception, making sentient beings unable to distinguish sages from worldlings, and thereby throwing the sequence of Buddhist cultivation and realization into disorder. Impersonating a sage is a pārājika offense, a beheading offense; after death one must enter hell to undergo punishment and atone for the offense.