A lay follower asked: when someone we know goes back to their family home in another province and the family refuses to let them return to build merit at the temple with the community, blocking them at every turn, what factors could help that person return to building merit as easily and quickly as possible?

Everything We've Done Before Manifests According to Habit

The teacher explained that everything we have done in the past manifests its results in the present, whether good or bad. Whatever cause we have generated, the corresponding wholesome, unwholesome, or neutral "body within a body" appears within us, and controls us to the degree we are habituated to it. The more familiar we are with a given side, the more easily it can possess us. Once it possesses us and takes over as master of the house, it directs our thoughts, speech, and actions — and at that point, we lose our freedom entirely.

Turning Obstacles Into Opportunities Through Sincere Wishing

The teacher advised that beyond wishing for our own ease in doing good, we must take the very obstacles and problems that appear in our life and turn them into something beneficial — turning crisis into opportunity — by wishing that neither we nor our relatives, close ones, and dependents ever have to face such wrongful obstruction again. Resolve one thing at a time, day by day. A "problem" is something we don't understand; an "obstacle" is something we understand but still lack the ability to overcome. When facing a problem, don't just sit and worry — seek out someone knowledgeable, whether an external expert or an inner source of power, and ask for their help in resolving it.

Helping Others Understand How to Build Merit Is Helping Ourselves

Helping others gain the knowledge and understanding needed to build merit is equally necessary, because helping them is, in effect, helping ourselves too. If we are blocked in this life, we should keep making the wish into the future — in this life and the next — that we face no such obstacles, that we can build merit with ease, that we never obstruct anyone else's merit-building, and that we always have the opportunity to support others in building their own merit. Make this wish repeatedly, and whenever an opportunity arises, act on it by genuinely helping others — starting with giving them knowledge and understanding, supporting them until they succeed, and then reinforcing their awareness of the good results that follow, to encourage them to keep doing good. Whenever we see someone do a good deed, rejoice in it. Doing this consistently makes everything easier, because we come to abide within the wholesome system, which then helps resolve difficulties for both ourselves and others.

Fear While Staying Away From Home

Another lay follower asked: when traveling for work and staying overnight in a hotel in another province, it's often hard to sleep well, feeling unsettled in an unfamiliar place and afraid of things unseen, with the imagination running toward negative thoughts. Trying to meditate rarely brings stillness — the mind mostly stays restless.

The teacher explained that fear arises from impurity present in the mind — if the mind holds no impurity, there is nothing to haunt it. When fear arises, take the precepts right there on the spot; if you haven't already, do so at that moment. Then recall the purity of each precept one by one, reaffirming to yourself that you are a person of purity, a keeper of the precepts. A stream of merit will flow continuously through you, purifying the impurities that cloud the mind. As the impurity thins, the difficulties will naturally lessen. Use the precepts themselves as a meditation object — they become a protective armor. If fear still remains, cultivate loving-kindness; once loving-kindness is established, it shines bright — radiate it out to fill the entire room. The light of loving-kindness dispels any lingering unease in the atmosphere. If fear persists even then, hold nibbana as the object of your mind — recollect every Fully Enlightened Buddha, every Solitary Buddha, and all the Arahants, and feel that you are abiding at the very center of nibbana. As you recollect them, they appear bright and clear within you, and you in turn appear bright within them, for they are beings of knowledge and boundless power, replete with supreme wisdom, utter purity, and great compassion. That brightness fills you completely; radiate that light of nibbana outward to cover the entire space, and fear will dissolve away. As for meditation not settling and staying restless, that's simply ordinary — it happens because impurity is still there, getting in the way.