พระอาจารย์ขยายความโอวาทหลวงปู่ที่ว่าความบริสุทธิ์สำเร็จได้ด้วยทาน ศีล และภาวนา อธิบายว่าทานส่งผลให้ไปสวรรค์ 6 ชั้น ศีลส่งผลให้ไปพรหม 16 ชั้น และภาวนาเท่านั้นที่นำไปสู่พระนิพพาน พร้อมแนะนำการนำหลักนี้ไปใช้รับมือกับวิบากกรรมที่กำลังให้ผลPra Ajarn expands on the teacher's teaching that purity is accomplished through giving (dāna), morality (sīla), and meditation (bhāvanā) — giving leads to the six heavens, morality leads to the sixteen brahma realms, and only meditation leads all the way to nibbana. He also shows how to apply this to face karmic results that are currently ripening.
Someone asked Pra Ajarn to expand on the teaching that accomplished through giving, morality, and meditation each lead to different results — giving leads to the six heavenly realms, morality to the sixteen brahma realms, and meditation alone to nibbana.
Giving: The Quality of Mind Determines the Heaven
Pra Ajarn explains that the same act of giving yields different results depending on the giver's state of mind. Giving with no awareness of its benefit can't lift the mind very high — at most reaching the lowest heaven, Catumahārājika. Understanding and appreciating the benefit of giving reaches Tāvatiṃsa. Giving with respect for the act itself and for the Triple Gem reaches Yāma. Giving with an awareness of one's duty within the wider order of things — such as a layperson consistently supporting the ordained — reaches Tusita. Giving with a refined, gentle, tender devotion reaches Nimmānaratī. And giving with the strongest possible faith reaches Paranimmitavasavattī, the highest heaven. The same act, then, can yield entirely different results depending on the quality of mind behind it.
Morality: The Normalcy That Leads to the Brahma Realms
Morality is the steady normalcy of a wholesome mind. Keeping precepts and dwelling continuously in that purity leads the mind to focus on it until and arise, progressing through the first to the fourth in sequence of refinement — and this determines which of the sixteen brahma realms one reaches.
Meditation: The Only Path to Nibbana
Meditation has two aspects: cultivation of mind (calming into stillness) and cultivation of wisdom ( that connects with the knowing power within). Only meditation can forge that inner connection — making it the sole path that leads all the way to nibbana.
Applying This to Face Karmic Results
Someone asked for advice about a friend who had been unwell for months with unexplained muscle and tendon pain. Pra Ajarn explains this is a "time bomb" of past unwholesome karma set to go off on life's timeline — when its time comes, it must give its result. The remedy is to rely on the spheres of morality, concentration, and wisdom already present within us as tools: keeping precepts to draw the mind into subtler levels, and practicing meditation with steady awareness so merit flows in to cleanse the defilements and ease the suffering from the karma currently ripening.