The Ten Dharma Realms Are Not Beyond a Single Thought (Issue 286)

(4) The Dharma Realm of Hearers

The Shravaka Sangha,
Both men and women,
Contemplate and practice the four holy truths,
Concealing the real and
displaying the provisional.

The Dharma Realm of Hearers consists of Hearers of the First Fruition, Hearers of the Second Fruition, Hearers of the Third Fruition, and Hearers of the Fourth Fruition. These are further divided into the following, namely: threshold to the first fruition (those who haven’t actually realized the first fruition), first fruition, threshold to the second fruition, second fruition, threshold to the third fruition, third fruition, threshold to the fourth fruition, fourth fruition. Those in the thresholds are turning from the small toward the great.

Hearers are also called Arhats. They can fly through the air and manifest transformations. They have spiritual powers. People who have realized fruition in their cultivation do not casually say, “I have certified to fruition; I am an arhat.” They cannot do that. When the sagely ones who have certified to fruition walk, their feet don’t touch the ground. They seem to be walking on the ground, but actually they are walking in air, their shoes don’t touch the ground. Even when it’s very muddy, their shoes stay very clean. For example, when Venerable Fashun walked across very soft mud, his shoes didn’t get muddied at all. That’s a manifestation of one who has certified to sagehood.

Those of the first fruition have to sever the delusions of views. Those of the second fruition have to sever the delusions of thoughts. Those of the third fruition have to sever the delusions like dust and sand. Those of the fourth fruition have to sever the delusions like dust and sand too. What about ignorance? They have abolished a bit of it, but they haven’t abolished it all. Once they have completely abolished ignorance, they become Buddhas. Even Bodhisattvas at the state of equal enlightenment still have a small amount of production-mark ignorance which keeps them from becoming Buddhas. What do the sages of the fourth fruition cultivate? They cultivate the Four Noble Truths of suffering, accumulation, cessation, and the Way.

In the beginning, Shakyamuni Buddha first went to Deer Wild Park to convert the five Bhikshus. These five Bhikshus were the Buddha’s relatives. They had been cultivating the Way with the Buddha, but some of them couldn’t endure the bitterness. When Shakyamuni Buddha was in the Himalayas, he ate one sesame seed and one grain of wheat each day, and he became as thin as a matchstick. Three of his relatives left because they were starving and couldn’t endure the suffering. Two remained.

Later, on the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month, a heavenly maiden made an offering of milk to the Buddha. When the Buddha drank the milk, his two remaining companions likewise left, saying, “Cultivation consists of ascetic practice. Now that you drank the milk, it shows that you can’t cultivate and endure suffering.”. All five of them went to Deer Wild Park.

After Shakyamuni Buddha enlightened to buddhahood, he first spoke the Avatamsaka Sutra, but no people were able to hear it. Later, the Buddha bestowed the provisional for the sake of the real, and expounded the Agama Sutras. To whom did he expounded the sutras? The Buddha contemplated, “Oh! I should first go and teach the five people who used to be my fellow cultivators.”