พระอาจารย์อธิบายว่ากุศล อกุศล และอัพยากตะแย่งชิงปกครองใจเราอยู่ตลอดเวลาไม่ขึ้นกับวันพระ เวทนาจะบอกได้ว่าฝ่ายใดกำลังครองใจ ศีลคือเกราะป้องกันเบื้องต้นที่ยิ่งละเอียดยิ่งป้องกันได้มาก พร้อมอธิบายว่าเหตุใดคนปฏิบัติธรรมบ่อยบางคนจึงยังไม่เห็นตัวเองและไม่เปิดรับความรู้ใหม่Pra Ajarn explains that the wholesome, unwholesome, and indeterminate forces compete for control of us at all times, regardless of the calendar. Feeling itself reveals which force holds the mind; precepts serve as first-line protection, and the more refined they are, the greater the protection. He also explains why some frequent meditators still fail to see themselves and resist new understanding.
Someone asked: is it true that on holy days (wan phra), hell stops tormenting its inhabitants, and does that mean making merit on such a day engages only side working in our favor, or does something else happen as well?
The Three Natural Forces Compete for Control of Us at All Times, Regardless of the Calendar
The three natural forces — wholesome, unwholesome, and indeterminate — compete for control of us as a matter of course, every single day, and this cannot be prevented; it happens to everyone alike. Even if hell pauses its torment on a holy day, people still suffer, because the ongoing struggle among the three forces never stops. The only real way to fix both ourselves and the world is through practice — including giving, upholding wholesome causes of every kind, and inviting others to do the same. The more we do this, the more each person's mind becomes a dwelling place for the Triple Gem and Nibbana, shining brightly, with a stream of merit flowing through — and this benefits not just us, but everyone around us, society, the world, and beyond.
Cultivate Wholesome Activity Every Day, Not Just on Holy Days
There's no need to wait for a holy day — the more often we do this, the better. Whether through giving, keeping precepts, meditating, or listening to dhamma — anything that lets the wholesome system settle into us counts. This means we need to deliberately structure activities into each day: waking up to chant and pay respects, taking precepts, sending , meditating, and closing with a resolve that carries our wishes into the bright sphere of merit that has formed. Structuring as much of the day this way as possible brings enormous benefit.
Why the Simplest Thing Is the Hardest to Do
Simply keeping the mind mindful is the easiest thing imaginable — it requires no tools or equipment at all, just an act of will. And yet it's the hardest thing to actually do, because the moment we try, and indeterminate forces refuse to allow it. Once they refuse, no matter how simple the task, it becomes impossible without deliberate resistance and practice.
Feeling Reveals Who Currently Controls the Mind
Someone asked further: why do people who meditate frequently often fail to see themselves clearly, when meditation is supposed to be about looking inward? Pra Ajarn explained: what we call "ourselves" is really the mind and its s — the mind knows the object in each moment, and the mental factors are the feelings present in that moment. In every single moment, one of the three natural forces is present, overlaying our own mind and mental factors with its own. Learning to observe "mind within mind, dhamma within dhamma" means learning to read what the feeling that arises is telling us: if it's suffering, the unwholesome side has taken the seat; if it's and ease, the wholesome side has; if it's neutral — neither pleasant nor unpleasant — side has. Feeling itself reveals which force currently occupies us.
Why the Unwholesome Side Always Presses and Pushes
Whenever the unwholesome side takes hold, a feeling of pressure and constraint always follows — this is exactly the state the Buddha described as suffering, something that must be endured, and endured with difficulty. Anyone who habitually pressures and pushes others is themselves under the influence of the unwholesome side. By contrast, when the wholesome side takes hold, our thoughts, words, and conduct tend toward encouragement, inspiration, and a grounding in what is right and good, and a sense of ease follows — free of any pressure or constraint at all.
The Indeterminate Side: The Quiet Thief That Drains Over 90% of Our Time
The indeterminate side seems harmless — neither good nor bad — but it lures us into wasting time on trivial things: games, movies, music, television — anything that kills time without producing any real benefit. Pra Ajarn pointed out that more than 90% of our time, day after day, month after month, year after year, gets consumed this way. The unwholesome side, meanwhile, aims directly at causing suffering — compelling us to speak and act wrongly, in order to feed unwholesome energy into its own operations. If a thought were truly our own, we could simply stop thinking it; the fact that we can't is precisely because it was never ours to begin with — we are being driven by a force with greater power than our own.
Precepts as First-Line Protection
practice exists precisely to reveal who is really behind the control of our minds. Once we understand this, we see why precepts matter: they restrain us from speaking or acting wrongly. Taking precepts causes the sphere of within us to brighten, refining the mind and carrying it into a subtler dimension the power of the unwholesome side cannot reach. Whoever takes precepts needs to understand and internalize their real purpose: to protect our life, property, family, and personal credibility.
The More Refined the Precepts, the Greater the Protection
The mind exists across 89 states in brief summary — from hell-beings, hungry ghosts, and animals, all the way up to the brahma and formless-brahma realms. The five precepts elevate the mind to a certain level; the eight precepts refine it further still. Each time we take precepts, the sphere of virtue brightens, and a stream of merit flows in to refine the mind, lifting it into a subtler dimension. This is why the five and eight precepts don't yield equal merit — the brightness of the merit and the refinement of what it draws in differ. The eight precepts protect against both the unwholesome and indeterminate forces, while the five precepts protect only against the unwholesome side.
From Precepts to Concentration to Wisdom: Layering Brings Greater Power
To go further — drawing in more refined and sacred pure energy, and more valuable refined qualities — requires developing meditation beyond precepts alone. Combining the sphere of virtue with the sphere of concentration draws in merit that purifies the mind even more powerfully. Add wisdom, cultivating both calm and together, and all three spheres — virtue, concentration, wisdom — layer together to draw in even greater energy still. Effort, , truthfulness, resolve, loving-kindness, equanimity, and the full ten perfections layered on top bring even greater benefit. With virtue, concentration, and wisdom as a foundation, reaching liberation and the insight-into-liberation that follows becomes far easier.
Why Frequent Meditators Sometimes Fail to See Themselves, and Blame Others Instead
Someone asked: why do some people who practice regularly still refuse to accept responsibility when problems arise, always insisting the other party is at fault — which seems to contradict the whole point of practice, which should reveal more of ourselves, not less. Pra Ajarn explained that this happens because the unwholesome side is directing them from behind the scenes — the unwholesome side always deflects blame onto others, never turning inward to examine itself. The wholesome side, by contrast, always turns us back to self-examination, purifying our own faults, careful not to cause distress to ourselves or others. So whenever we see someone who practices regularly yet consistently blames others and never sees their own shortcomings, that's a sign the unwholesome side is guiding them from behind.
Serving as a to such a person requires real care — pointing out directly that they are the source of the problem will only provoke the unwholesome side occupying them to strike back. It's better to gently point toward the bigger picture: that every being carries all three natural forces within, taking turns occupying the seat of control — rather than directly accusing them of being at fault.
Why Even Long-Time Practitioners Sometimes Resist New Understanding
Someone observed what seems like another contradiction: some long-time practitioners, whose defilements should presumably have lessened, seem less open to new learning than newer practitioners who eagerly absorb and apply what they learn. Pra Ajarn explained that such people are captive within the dimension of the indeterminate and unwholesome forces. When they set out to practice sincerely, the unwholesome side moves in first, pushing us to accept it as the ruling force — and once accepted, we lose our connection to the inner knower, so no genuinely new understanding can come through. The indeterminate side, meanwhile, simply recycles old we've already learned, repeating it without ever making things worse, but never letting us improve either — because its aim is simply to prevent any real progress. When the wholesome side tries to break in, the unwholesome and indeterminate sides work together to deepen the wrong view instead. Someone under this kind of control has no interest in seeking out those who truly know, or in learning anything genuinely new.
Even Under the Influence of the Unwholesome and Indeterminate Sides, Old Merit Still Nudges Them Toward Practice
And yet such people still keep returning to practice, because they still feel some happiness each time they do — this is old merit from the wholesome side still exerting some pull, even without the strength to resolve their deeper wrong views. That store of merit once supported and pushed them toward practice, and it still does, within its limits — but merit paired with wisdom is what they lack, and without it, there's nothing yet strong enough to unlock them from their wrong views entirely.