The Sequential Stages of Practice After Enlightenment

After enlightenment, there are two paths of practice. One is to see the Buddha-nature with one's own eyes and attain the illusion-like contemplation, feeling that body, mind, and the world are all like illusions, thereby entering the tenth abode (daśa-vihāra); then continuing to cultivate upward, attaining the first dhyāna, eliminating the afflictions of greed and hatred, becoming a non-returner (Anāgāmin), and then through contemplative practice (vipaśyanā-caryā) attaining the mirage contemplation, becoming a bodhisattva of the tenth conduct (daśa-caryā); then, after passing through the three barriers of the Chan school, attaining the dream-like contemplation through contemplative practice, one gains the ability to enter the first bhūmi, and thereafter cultivates progressively from the eighth bhūmi to the Buddha ground. This is one path of realization and cultivation.

The other path is that one may skip the stage of seeing the Buddha-nature with one's own eyes, as long as one can see the Buddha-nature before reaching the ninth bhūmi. After enlightenment, one diligently engages in contemplative practice and cultivates meditative concentration (samādhi), weakening greed, hatred, and delusion, becoming a once-returner (Sakṛdāgāmin); then giving rise to the first dhyāna, becoming a non-returner, and subsequently carrying out various progressive contemplative practices, attaining the mirage contemplation and the dream-like contemplation respectively, thereafter entering the first and second bhūmis, all the way to the eighth and ninth bhūmis, and finally perfectly accomplishing the Buddha Way.

Attaining the illusion-like contemplation is equivalent to the second fruit of the Small Vehicle: knowing that everything inside and outside, body and mind, is false appearance and illusory manifestation, not truly existent, no longer taking any dharma of the five-aggregate world as real. From then on, the afflictions of greed, hatred, and delusion become extremely faint, almost nonexistent, and meditative concentration will arise. After seeing one's true mind, one gradually feels that everything inside and outside, body and mind, is unreal like an illusion; from then on, greed, hatred, and delusion all become extremely faint. Later, meditative concentration will deepen, reaching the first dhyāna, cutting off sensual craving and ill will—one then becomes a non-returner. If one cuts them off cleanly and passes through the three barriers of the Chan school in sequence, becoming thoroughly versed in the dharmas of the three vehicles, one enters the first bhūmi. Of course, this also requires many other realizations, which I will not detail one by one, because everyone is still very far from the first bhūmi.

If one does not see one's true mind but directly attains the second fruit, with greed, hatred, and delusion weakened, one cannot attain the illusion-like contemplation; even if one cultivates to the fourth fruit, one cannot reach the seventh abode, let alone the tenth abode. However, once the great arhats see their true mind, they are not necessarily at the seventh abode—perhaps higher—and their cultivation of the Mahāyāna path will be extremely rapid. There is a kind of first-bhūmi bodhisattva who proceeds directly through precepts and concentration, who has cultivated supernormal powers and can fly to a hundred Buddha worlds to meet a hundred Buddhas. But their wisdom is not deep, and they cannot expound the Dharma for sentient beings. This is an example of entering the first bhūmi by relying solely on meditative concentration and supernormal powers.