Someone asked: could Pra Ajarn explain how old merit and new merit connect through sitting meditation, since several new practitioners would like to understand this further?

Three Natures Compete to Govern the Mind Our lives are governed at every moment by three natures: the wholesome (kusalā dhammā), the unwholesome (akusalā dhammā), and the neutral (abyākatā dhammā, neither good nor bad). All three want control of the human body, because each needs energy to drive its own automatic system. Whichever nature seizes control of the mind then governs the body and directs how our resources — including our time and money — get used, in proportion to its own strength.

When Wholesomeness Governs, New Merit Arises When the wholesome side wins control of the mind, it steers us toward wholesome activity. At minimum, mindfulness and faith must both be present, and the activity can only succeed if right concentration arises continuously throughout. As right mindfulness and right concentration stay established while we carry out that activity, pure energy — new merit — is drawn in without interruption.

Old Merit Gets a Chance to Flow In When the Activity Matches a Past Pattern Old merit of the same type as our current activity waits for the chance to flow in and reinforce it. If the activity is loving-kindness practice, the backdrop of past loving-kindness practice steers wise guidance our way to help smooth out problems; if it's generosity, the sphere of generous giving guides matters toward a favorable outcome. But if it's something we've genuinely never done before — not in the recent past nor the distant past — it's difficult. If it was instilled since childhood, though, our inner knower steers us back toward that familiar groove, letting old merit flow in easily.

Old and New Merit Together Solve Problems and Bring Happiness When old and new merit flow in together, they do three things: resolve problems and obstacles, arrange the conditions needed for our destined plan (ผังสำเร็จ) to unfold, and bring happiness or dissolve suffering. All of this happens automatically through the "emperor" at the center of our sphere of merit and our inner automatic system — the human body (two arms, two legs) is only called on when truly necessary.

Stilling the Mind Is the Most Powerful Way to Connect Old Merit and New Luang Phor once taught that "stilling the mind is itself the act of connecting old merit and new merit," because a still mind is the pinnacle of merit — no other great merit compares to it. When the mind reaches its ultimate stillness, the channel of merit becomes vast, drawing in the flow of old merit accumulated across countless past lives — merit large and small, every form found in the ten bases of merit-making or the ten perfections — uniting it all into one dense, luminous sphere of merit. That sphere cuts through the weight of karmic retribution, dissolving it, and redesigns our destined plan, giving us more complete form, wealth, and virtue to support our path in lives to come.

What Happens in the Body as the Mind Stills Ever Deeper As the mind stills further and further, the breath grows subtler until it's almost imperceptible — though it can only pause briefly, since sustained stillness of breath would starve the body of oxygen and force a gasp. With continued practice, the body's automatic system gradually adjusts the cells so they no longer depend on oxygen. Once that adjustment is complete, the mind reaches total stillness, the breath reaches total stillness, and one drops into the center, entering the inner middle path — sustained at that point by prana rather than oxygen — allowing continuous travel along that inner path.