Why Do the Levels of Dharma Realization Differ Among Practitioners?

When contemplating the five aggregates, if one has very deep meditative concentration (samādhi), the deliberation will be very deep and subtle, able to penetrate ever deeper into the meaning of the Dharma, and thereby unravel the mysteries of the Dharma layer by layer. When engaging in contemplative practice (vipaśyanā-caryā) and deliberation, one must proceed slowly, finely, and deeply, comparing against one's own body, speech, and mind in the present moment, investigating and gathering evidence within as broad a scope as possible to prove that the five aggregates are not the self. One must investigate why this aspect is not the self, why that aspect is not the self, trying to find evidence one by one, asking "why," and resolving each such question. One must deliberate deeply and subtly. If there is only a formal, superficial understanding without truly landing in the mind, then all theoretical knowledge is hollow and cannot resolve the fundamental or practical problems.

How does one engage in contemplative practice and deliberation? For example, in contemplating that the physical body is not the self—"not the self" is a conclusion, but it is the Buddha's conclusion, not ours. Therefore this conclusion has nothing to do with us. Only after contemplative practice, when we ourselves have genuinely and truly arrived at this conclusion, does the conclusion become our own, the crystallization of our own wisdom, and only then does it yield the merit and liberating benefit of liberation. The Buddha's conclusion is merely a starting point, serving as a reference to develop our own wisdom. We can follow this conclusion and contemplate backward: why is the physical body not the self? Because the physical body is empty. Why is the physical body empty? Because the physical body is suffering. Why is the physical body suffering? This is the entry point of our initial contemplative practice, requiring us to slowly deliberate and search for various kinds of evidence.

Finally, we arrive at the conclusion that the physical body is indeed not the self, and this eliminates the view of body and the self-view (ātma-dṛṣṭi). After contemplative practice, the fruit each person attains is not necessarily the same, because the degree to which the view of body is eliminated differs, with certain variations—it depends on what degree has been realized and what degree of practice has been accomplished. Even attaining the first fruit, the stream-enterer (Srotaāpanna; Pali Sotāpanna), is divided into different degrees, and the degree of benefit and transformation of body and mind also differs. For example, children may all be in the first grade, yet their level of learning within the same class is not the same. Attaining the fruit is like graduation, so at graduation each person's level is also different, and some graduate early while others graduate late. Each practitioner's level of realizing the Dharma differs because the scope, angle, and depth of their investigation differ, their power of deliberation differs, and the depth and force of their evidence also differ; consequently, the wisdom they obtain differs. And since their wisdom differs, the degree of change in their conduct also differs. The deeper and subtler the deliberation, the better the meditative concentration; the better the meditative concentration, the deeper and subtler the deliberation; and thus the deeper and more ultimate the degree of realization, and the more thorough the transformation of one's mental conduct.