The Profound Meaning of the Diamond Sutra from the Consciousness-only Perspective (53)

Why do all sages and saints, having realized the true Dharma and realized the unconditioned Dharma, still differ from one another? The sages and saints include śrāvaka arhats from the first fruit to the fourth fruit, pratyekabuddhas who have realized the Dharma of dependent origination at various grades, and bodhisattvas from the seventh abode of seeing the mind up to wondrous enlightenment. Śrāvakas of the first and second fruits are worthy ones (śaikṣa); those of the third and fourth fruits, along with pratyekabuddhas, are noble ones (aśaikṣa); bodhisattvas before the first bhūmi are worthy ones, and from the first bhūmi onward they are all noble ones. What they realize is all the unconditioned Dharma, yet the content and levels of this unconditioned Dharma differ greatly. A person of the first fruit realizes that the five aggregates are empty and without self, eradicates the three fetters, and from then on will not enter the three evil destinies, having no further action with regard to the paths of the three evil destinies—this is the initial unconditionedness of the five aggregates.

A person of the second fruit, having realized the emptiness of self regarding the person, has fewer mental activities, afflictions become faint, the mind becomes somewhat purer and somewhat more unconditioned; a person of the third fruit further realizes the falsity of the five aggregates, the meditative concentration states of the form realm manifest, realizes the first dhyāna and extinguishes greed and desire, eradicates hatred, eradicates afflictions so the mind is pure, no longer creates evil karma, and the seven consciousnesses begin to be truly unconditioned; a person of the fourth fruit is further unconditioned, extinguishes the conceit of self, eradicates craving for the form realm and the formless realm, afflictions are completely eradicated, attains liberation by wisdom, is unconditioned with respect to the three realms, and can use the wisdom of liberation to transcend the three realms; whereas an arhat liberated by concentration can enter the fourth dhyāna, with breath and pulse both ceasing, realizing unshakable unconditionedness, entering the samādhi of no perception and realizing the cessation of the aggregate of consciousness, the mind attaining unconditionedness; an arhat liberated in both ways can enter the samādhi of cessation anytime and anywhere, extinguishing the two mental factors of feeling and perception of the manas, realizing the unconditionedness of the cessation of perception and feeling, and can at any time attain nirvāṇa and leave the three realms. Because śrāvakas realize that the five aggregates are without self, their mental activities become more and more unconditioned and more and more pure, and the unconditionedness among them differs greatly.

Pratyekabuddhas include solitary realizers (pratyekabuddhas who awaken alone) and condition-realizers (those awakened through conditions). Solitary realizers, because of the roots of goodness cultivated life after life, when there is no Buddha and no Dharma abiding in the world, upon seeing a single phenomenon of arising and ceasing in the world, are stirred to deep contemplation; they go alone to a quiet place to cultivate the path, investigating the source of these phenomena of arising and ceasing, probing the Dharma of the twelve links of dependent origination and the Dharma of the ten links of dependent origination, finding that the root of sentient beings' birth-and-death saṃsāra is ignorance, and that the source is the eighth consciousness mind, and attain the fruit of the pratyekabuddha. Condition-realizers, on the other hand, cultivate following the Buddha and awaken to the Dharma of the twelve links and the ten links of dependent origination by hearing the Buddha preach the Dharma, thereby attaining the fruit. Their wisdom of the unconditioned Dharma is deeper than that of śrāvaka arhats, and the fruit, wisdom, and supernatural powers of pratyekabuddhas also differ in shallow and deep levels—that is to say, there are differences in the degree of unconditionedness of their mental activities.