The sravakas
A sravaka (literally, a “listener”) is someone who fears the sufferings of samsara. Concerned chiefly with his own liberation, he listens to the teachings of the Buddha, realizes the suffering inherent in all conditioned phenomena, and meditates upon the Four Noble Truths: suffering, the cause of suffering (the negative emotions), the extinction of suffering, and the path to attain this extinction.
View: A sravaka understands that there is no truly existent self inherent in an individual, but maintains that other phenomena have a real basis in indivisible particles and moments of consciousness that he holds to be truly existent. Such views define the Vaibhasika school.
Meditation: Steeping himself in flawless ethics and lay or monastic self-discipline, the practitioner listens to the teachings, ponders their meaning, and assimilates this meaning through meditation. Applying antidotes, such as considering the unpleasant aspects of objects of desire, he conquers the negative emotions (klesas) and attains inner calm (samatha). Then, by cultivating insight (vipasyana) he comes to understand that an individual possesses no truly existent, independent self.
Action: The practitioner performs the twelve ascetic virtues and acts chiefly to achieve personal liberation.
Fruit: Beginning with the stage of “stream-enterer,” and continuing with the stages of “once-returner” (he who will be reborn only one more time) and of “non-returner” (he who will no longer be reborn in samsara), the practitioner liberates himself and eventually becomes an arhat, “one who has destroyed his foe”, the negative emotions.
