พระอาจารย์ขยายความคำสอนของหลวงพ่อธัมมชโยที่ตอบคำถามผู้ท้อใจว่าทำบุญมาตลอดแต่ชีวิตยังแย่อยู่ อธิบายว่าบุญกับบาปชิงช่วงกันส่งผลบนไทม์ไลน์ชีวิต ต้องรู้จักคิดให้บุญขยาย อย่าปล่อยให้ความท้อใจเปิดช่องให้บาปเข้ามาซ้ำเติมPra Ajarn expands on a teaching by Luang Phor Dhammajayo, who answered someone who felt discouraged that life stayed hard despite a lifetime of good deeds: merit and demerit take turns bearing fruit on life's timeline, so we must learn to let merit expand in our thinking rather than let discouragement open the door for more misfortune.
Someone asked: why does it sometimes feel discouraging that, despite doing good throughout this life, life still seems to stay hard?
Merit and Demerit Take Turns Bearing Fruit
Luang Phor once answered a similar question this way: you tend to feel discouraged because it feels like you've done good your whole life yet life is still hard. That happens because merit and demerit take turns coming to fruition — it's not as though you've been doing good in every single lifetime without exception. If your past life had been unbroken goodness, there would be no problem, and there would be nothing to feel discouraged or complain about. If you keep thinking this way, your mind grows clouded, and the habit carries across lifetimes — bringing no benefit, only harm. Instead, think of it this way: the merit you've built is certainly the wellspring of and success in life, but it is waiting its turn to bear fruit — just as demerit is too. Keep the merit from shrinking; learn to think in a way that lets merit expand, and let your heart expand — so that demerit finds no opening. One day, things will turn out as you wished, and your mind will grow clear as well.
Pra Ajarn added: during the period when side is bearing its fruit on the timeline of our life, we cannot avoid experiencing the results of that demerit — because we ourselves once created the causes, building up what amounts to a time bomb over a very long time, a mountain of accumulated causes. Whoever's turn it is, it is theirs to bear; the released energy of demerit draws in the problems and obstacles that arise, and misfortune keeps eroding away at our good fortune all the while.
Who Is Really Telling Us to Feel Discouraged
Luang Phor also pointed to a deeper danger: the discouraged thoughts that arise are not purely our own — there is something behind them. When the unwholesome side seizes its turn, it plants subtle thoughts asking why life has become so hard, in order to press the mind down. Once the mind sinks — weary, disheartened, hopeless, gloomy, restless, irritable, tight with resentment — all of these are tools the unwholesome side uses to draw in more tainted, misfortune-laden energy, piling new adversity on top of the old. The moment we accept those discouraged thoughts as our own, it becomes easier and easier for that influence to take hold — both in this life and, as a habit, carrying forward into future lives. It brings no benefit at all, only harm.
Merit and Demerit Both Need Time to Work
Pra Ajarn explained that side, too, is constantly trying to help — constantly finding ways to bring in pure energy and refined qualities to fix things. The fruit of our merit likewise keeps trying to cleanse away the stains of demerit and misfortune; both sides are working all the time. But they are waiting their turn to act — much like ordering something online: it doesn't arrive the instant you place the order. It has to be packed, shipped, and take time in transit. Demerit works the same way merit does — both need time to do their work. This is why Luang Phor taught us to think differently, to learn how to let merit expand: because whatever time we spend dwelling on unwholesome thoughts draws in more demerit and adds to it, and the merit we already have then has to be spent clearing away that new demerit instead — wasted time, no benefit, only harm.
Think of Merit, and Demerit Finds No Opening
Luang Phor taught us to use our limited time to think of what is right and good, so that the system of wholesome settles within us and draws in pure energy to help fix things. Once things are fixed, merit expands and grows — meaning we can clear away the stains of defilement more easily and more thoroughly. That pure energy unlocks us from the confinement of the coarser dimension where we'd been bound by unwholesome demerit; we become free from that suffocating, constricted state and move into a more refined, spacious, relaxed dimension. The mind expands. Every time we break free from a coarser dimension, the mind expands further. So by continuously thinking of what is right and good, demerit finds no opening — because an opening only appears when we ourselves connect with unwholesome thinking. One day, things will turn out as we wished, and the mind will grow clear too, because the merit flowing in keeps cleansing away the tainted, defiling causes of suffering, making the mind ever clearer, cleaner, purer, and more refined.