Yogācārabhūmi-śāstra, Volume Ten (The Twelve Links of Dependent Origination)

(38) Direct realization of precepts (śīlābhisamaya) means that one is already able to firmly uphold the various precepts established by the Buddha without violating them, and can no longer create the karmic actions leading to the three evil destinies. A person who has accomplished the direct realization of precepts will absolutely never again intentionally kill, take what is not given, engage in sexual misconduct, speak falsely, or consume alcohol; their bodily, verbal, and mental actions are pure and untainted, they have already been liberated from the suffering of the three evil destinies, they have departed from the ten unwholesome paths of action, and their very birth is that of a stream-enterer (Srotaāpanna) up to an arhat, as well as the fruit of a pratyekabuddha, the fruit of a bodhisattva, and the fruit of a Buddha—that is to say, only those who have accomplished the noble fruits can possess the direct realization of precepts. 

According to what is said in the fifty-fifth fascicle of the Yogācārabhūmi Śāstra cited above, noble persons of the initial fruit and above who are endowed with the direct realization of precepts will no longer violate the five precepts or the various precepts they have undertaken; their minds do not accord with the three evil destinies, so they will not create the ten unwholesome karmic actions that lead toward the three evil destinies, and they will not violate the five precepts, the bhikṣu and bhikṣuṇī precepts, or the bodhisattva precepts. If a person cannot even uphold the five precepts, one may conclude on the basis of the Yogācārabhūmi Śāstra and the Prakaraṇāryavācā Śāstra that this person has no realization of the initial fruit or above; the claimed attainment of the fruit is a misjudgment, a false realization, and is not to be trusted. 

As for the direct realization of the truths through direct-realization wisdom, according to what is said in the fifty-fifth fascicle of the Yogācārabhūmi Śāstra, during the process of cultivating the path of preparation, one must first accumulate the merit provisions for the path of seeing to an extremely complete degree, and the mind must have been effectively subdued and made pliant; then, relying on and according with the limit of the worldly conformative stage of decisive discernment (nirvedha-bhāgīya), unbroken wholesome roots arise. This means that through cultivating the path of preparation, the manas has been sufficiently steeped and infused with wholesome dharmas, the mind-ground has become soft, subdued, and pliant, and the wholesome roots have manifested. In the cultivation of the Buddha's path, "unbroken" (nirantara) generally refers to the manas; the mind consciousness is intermittent, constantly ceasing, and unreliable. Only when cultivation reaches the manas can wholesome dharmas be considered to have reached a stage, can there be a qualitative leap, and can one's progress on the path ascend to a higher level.

After the manas gives rise to wholesome roots, the mind will preliminarily eliminate the false dharmas of sentient beings, meaning that one has preliminarily realized the path and realized that the five aggregates are empty, false, and illusory; at this time one can remove the dausthulya afflictions that are eliminated at the first seeing of the path. This meaning has been stated very clearly: at the initial fruit, seeing the path does eliminate the manifest active states of dausthulya afflictions, and can remove some coarse and heavy afflictions. Only after the manas too has seen the path can the dausthulya afflictions be eliminated; the mind consciousness has no way to eliminate afflictions. 

After attaining the initial fruit, the wisdom realization of seeing the path of the initial fruit will manifest and continue unbroken; then, for the second time, the merit and wisdom of seeing the path arise, and the mind further eliminates the various false dharmas of the sentient beings of the five aggregates; the self-view is further eliminated in greater depth, one attains the second fruit, and can remove the dausthulya afflictions eliminated at the middle-grade seeing of the path. The meaning of this is that the initial fruit's seeing of the path is not ultimate; the self-view has only been eliminated in the initial, soft-grade portion, and there are still two more middle-grade eliminations to come; the dausthulya afflictions are also not eliminated completely, and at the second fruit's seeing of the path, one must continue to eliminate the dausthulya afflictions. The second fruit, of course, is also attained by the manas; only then can unbroken wisdom arise to further eliminate the dausthulya afflictions. 

After attaining the second fruit, the wisdom realization of seeing the path of the second fruit will manifest and continue unbroken; then, for the third time, the merit and wisdom of seeing the path arise, arising in even greater depth as a universal elimination of the false dharmas of the five aggregates of all sentient beings; the self-view is eliminated in still greater depth, and by this merit, all the manifest active states of the dausthulya afflictions to be eliminated at the seeing of the path are eliminated. The fifty-fifth fascicle of the Yogācārabhūmi Śāstra says that this seeing of the path is the dual path of the first dhyāna and the wisdom of contemplative practice (vipaśyanā-caryā); not only must there be profound contemplative wisdom of eliminating self-view, there must also be first-dhyāna meditative concentration in order to eliminate all dausthulya afflictions. This is the elimination of self-view of the noble ones of the third and fourth fruits, called the seeing of the path of the third and fourth fruits. 

The preceding initial and second fruits do not require first-dhyāna meditative concentration, but they absolutely require preparatory concentration (anāgamya-samādhi), and the preparatory concentration must be complete; otherwise, the contemplative wisdom that eliminates self-view will not arise, and one cannot eliminate self-view and attain the initial and second fruits. When attaining the third fruit, one is endowed with the three grades of vipaśyanā contemplative wisdom of eliminating self-view accomplished through three occasions, and at the same time is endowed with the three grades of path-of-seeing meditative mind of śamatha; together with the dual operation of meditative concentration and wisdom, these are collectively established as the three minds, and thus in a single instant, the śamatha and vipaśyanā of the third fruit are all completely fulfilled.

All benevolent ones who study the four noble truths must rely on the Dharma, not on persons; you should all follow the standard for eliminating self-view and seeing the path taught by Bodhisattva Maitreya in the Yogācārabhūmi Śāstra to measure whether oneself or others have truly seen the path with the equal cultivation of Samādhi and Prajñā, or merely have a self-proclaimed false seeing of the path. Once the standard for seeing the path is clarified, one will not confuse and mislead others, commit the grave karmic offense of great false speech, and destroy the Buddha's teachings.