Someone asked: the book Walking Toward Happiness says, "As for seeing the Dhamma, it makes no distinction about whether or when one will see it — everyone has the chance to see it, sooner or later; at the very least, before death, everyone who truly practices will see it." What does "seeing the Dhamma" actually mean, and how would we know if we ourselves have seen it?

Elements and Dhamma-Qualities: The Two Components of the Entire Cosmos

Across the hundred thousand koti of infinite universes, everything is made of two things: elements (that) and Dhamma-qualities (tham). An element is something tangible — like a container or a package. A Dhamma-quality is the property held within that element. Sugar, for instance, is a solid crystal that holds sweetness, a property of sugar; salt looks the same white color, but holds saltiness within.

The Outer World Runs on Elements; the Inner World Runs on Dhamma-Qualities

Tangible things outside us — houses, everyday belongings — are elements. The inner world is Dhamma. The three natures — wholesome, unwholesome, and neutral-unwholesome — use Dhamma-qualities as their tool to govern living beings. If we learn to understand Dhamma, we too can use this same tool; if we never learn it, we simply can't use it. Dhamma can only arise in one place: the mind. Nowhere else. The mind is the instrument that receives Dhamma. When the three natures compete to take hold of our mind, they use Dhamma to force us to think, speak, and act as they wish. The wholesome side gives us states of mind that build good qualities; the unwholesome side presses and forces us into lust, aversion, delusion, and greed.

Seeing With the Dhamma-Eye, Knowing Through Intuitive Insight

Seeing the Dhamma requires both brightness and the Dhamma-eye. But sensing and knowing Dhamma is something everyone has the innate capacity for — even animals have instinct. Pra Ajarn gave the example of baby sea turtles: the moment they hatch from their eggs, they crawl toward the sea entirely on their own, with no parent to teach them, because the three natures layer themselves into body-within-body, mind-within-mind, Dhamma-within-Dhamma, feeling-within-feeling, guiding them from behind the scenes. We call this instinct — perceived rather like a voice that feels as if it were our own thought.

The Buddha Taught Us to Establish Mindful Awareness

The Buddha taught the monks to establish clear awareness of body, feeling, mind, and Dhamma-objects, in order to remove covetousness and grief from the world. He taught this because if we do not establish our own awareness, some other nature will step in to direct us instead — and whatever that other nature directs brings no benefit at all, and often outright harm.

The Three Natures Are Like a "Theory of Everything"

Pra Ajarn compared this to how modern scientists, probing down to the subatomic level, have found that something governs all things — what they call a "theory of everything." In Buddhism, this is kusala-dhamma, akusala-dhamma, and abyakata-dhamma — waves with their own specific patterns, governing everything layer by layer, from viruses and bacteria and cells up to human beings.

The Mind Is Like a Generator; Dhamma Is the Software

If an unwholesome state arises in the mind, the mind draws in unwholesome energy. If a wholesome state arises, the mind draws in the energy of merit, along with refined assets or misfortune, depending on the case.

True Practice Means Continuously Clearing Away Hindrances and Defilement

Genuine practitioners must clear away the hindrances, purifying defilement at the coarse, intermediate, and refined levels. As defilement lightens, a mass of purity — merit — begins to form. Some people feel this first as happiness; others see it first as brightness. As that mass of merit grows denser, it coalesces into a sphere of light, which then gradually clarifies as defilement continues to lighten.

Continuous Reliance on Dhamma — Mindfulness — to Keep Drawing In That Energy

The sphere of mindfulness is the "software sphere" established to continuously draw in the energy of merit, purifying ever-subtler defilement, until one can control that sphere of light — expanding, contracting, and moving it toward the seventh base of the body.

The Sphere of Dhamma Is Hidden — Only Certain People Can Reach It

The sphere of Dhamma has been hidden since the era when the way of entering nibbana shifted from the "great being" body to the Dhamma body. Ordinarily, only three types of people can reach the sphere of Dhamma: a fully enlightened Buddha, a solitary Buddha, and an arahant. But there is also a Great Bodhisatta who accumulated merit and perfections over an immense span of time — our grandmaster, Luang Pu Sodh of Wat Paknam Bhasicharoen — who rediscovered the way to reach the sphere of Dhamma once again.

The Process of Reaching the Sphere of Dhamma

When the sphere of light is drawn from the sixth base up to the seventh, it meets the sphere of morality, which refines the mind to purity and passes it on to the sphere of concentration, which passes it to the sphere of wisdom, which passes it to the sphere of liberation, which passes it to the sphere of knowledge-and-vision of liberation — an automatic system that unfolds on its own. Without first reaching the sphere of Dhamma, one cannot enter this true automatic system at all.

Dhamma Is the Foundation of Everything

When the Buddha first attained enlightenment, he reflected that there was no one in the world with virtue sufficient for him to revere, and so he chose to revere the Dhamma itself instead. Dhamma continually raises our inner standing higher and higher — and our inner standing matters more than our outer standing, because it is our inner standing that determines what happens outwardly.

In Conclusion: Everyone Has the Chance to See the Dhamma, If They Truly Practice

Everyone possesses the Dhamma-eye and the intuitive capacity to see and know the Dhamma — it only requires genuine practice, continuously purifying defilement through Dhamma, namely mindfulness, until the right moment arrives. Sooner or later, everyone has the chance to see the Dhamma — at the very least, before death.