What Are the Gross Afflictions Eliminated upon Attaining the First Fruit (Srotāpanna)?

A thing has coarse marks and subtle marks. The coarse marks are relatively obvious and conspicuous, visible and perceptible at a glance, while the subtle marks manifest after the coarse marks, are not easy to discern, and require careful attention to be seen and perceived. Likewise, a dharma is divided into coarse and subtle parts, and even the conscious mind is divided into coarse and subtle.

Since afflictions are dharmas, and moreover mental dharmas, they are also divided into coarse and subtle. Coarse afflictions refer to gross afflictions; gross afflictions refer to the relatively obvious parts, the contents that are easy to notice. "Gross" means serious: obvious and coarse afflictions are necessarily relatively serious afflictions, or very heavy afflictions, the parts that everyone can see and perceive, which should not exist, which are not accepted or tolerated by worldly people, and which are the afflictions that should be eliminated first. Since even worldly people cannot accept these gross afflictions, in the sphere of cultivation—especially in the realm of the noble ones—they are even less permitted to exist and manifest.

Greed, hatred, delusion, arrogance, doubt, and wrong views—these six root afflictions—each is divided into two major parts, coarse and subtle, and the subtle afflictions can be further subdivided. Coarse and subtle are relative terms: after removing the coarsest part, the subtle part is itself divided into coarse and subtle, and so on, subdividing endlessly, until the afflictions that can no longer be divided are the subtlest, most extremely subtle afflictions. Ordinary beings simply cannot discover or discern these afflictions; even bodhisattvas at several bhūmis probably cannot discover or discern them—only bodhisattvas at the eighth bhūmi and above can eliminate them. As for somewhat subtler afflictions, ordinary beings, lacking wisdom and not having eliminated them themselves, cannot discover or discern them; even those who have newly attained fruition and awakened to the true mind cannot discern them, because their experience and wisdom are insufficient.

All afflictions can be roughly divided into three grades—superior, middle, and inferior—and each grade can be further divided into superior, middle, and inferior. Superior-grade afflictions are relatively obvious, conspicuous, and serious; they are the ones that should be eliminated first and should least exist; they are called gross afflictions. These are what should be eliminated during the cultivation of the Four Noble Truths, at the stage of stream-entry aspiration. Only when the gross superior-grade afflictions are eliminated can one have the opportunity to become a stream-enterer at the stage of the fruit of assurance; otherwise one cannot even attain stream-entry aspiration, let alone the fruits from the first to the fourth.

For example, the affliction of greed can be divided into nine grades of coarse and subtle, and if further subdivided, it can be divided even more. The coarsest part of greed is extremely serious, or relatively serious; ordinary people can see it and perceive it and cannot tolerate it—such greed should not exist. If it still exists, then one is an ordinary being with heavy afflictions. For example, great greed for money, great greed for sexual desire and romantic feelings, great greed for the physical body, great greed for fame and gain, and so on—there is no end to the aspects one could enumerate. The other afflictions are the same: their serious and obvious parts all belong to gross afflictions, and all must be eliminated at the time of attaining the first fruit or the aspiration to the first fruit.

If a person claims to have attained fruition, to have awakened to the true mind and seen their nature, yet his afflictions are still very heavy, still very obvious, easily discovered by others, and intolerable to them, we can judge that this person has committed great false speech. Although this person may have theory after theory, and when expounding the dharma his words flow like a river and his mouth produces lotus flowers, based on the afflictions manifested in his bodily, verbal, and mental actions, we can conclude that he is an ordinary being. There is no need to consider his eloquence or theoretical level; theoretical knowledge does not represent actual realization.

If a person says he has attained such-and-such fruit or stage, and then tells others, and if others harbor doubts, he becomes extremely afflicted, gives rise to hatred, becomes angry at them, curses and retaliates against them, and forms bad karmic ties with them—then it can be concluded that this person has not attained anything at all, because his afflictions are too gross, even exceeding those of an ordinary worldly person. Those who rely on the dharma they have learned to look down on the multitude, to slander and attack others, to use strength to bully the weak—these can basically be concluded to be ordinary beings with gross afflictions.