พระอาจารย์อธิบายว่าตั้งตนชอบคือการมีความซื่อสัตย์สุจริตจริงใจเป็นพื้นฐานของการตั้งเป้าหมายชีวิตทุกระดับ ตั้งแต่ทางโลก สวรรค์ ไปจนถึงมรรคผลนิพพานThe teacher explains that "setting oneself rightly" means having honesty, integrity, and sincerity as the foundation for setting life goals at every level — worldly success, heavenly rebirth, and ultimately the path to nibbana.
A lay follower presented a topic: the sixth of the Blessings of Life is "setting oneself rightly" (patirupadesavaso), meaning setting correct life goals in both worldly and spiritual terms. These goals fall into three levels — an initial goal for benefit in this life, a middle goal for benefit in the next life, and the highest goal of subduing all defilements to reach nibbana — along with five practices for making these goals firm: cultivating reasoned faith, keeping the five precepts, seeking both worldly and spiritual , practicing generosity, and developing concentration. Could the teacher expand on this?
Honesty, Integrity, and Sincerity: The Foundation of Setting Oneself Rightly
The teacher explained that setting oneself rightly means first becoming a person of honesty, integrity, and sincerity — this is the foundation, whether the goal is the initial, middle, or highest goal aimed at nibbana; all of them depend on this same foundation. It's like good soil, in which a tree can grow and flourish. With this correct foundation, one's precepts become pure, one's meditation becomes clean and steady enough to reach stillness, and one's study of wisdom reaches the true essence of understanding. Virtue, concentration, and wisdom are all wholesome spheres that guide and instruct us. Honesty means not cheating, not desiring what belongs to others, being straightforward — this builds trust and confidence in us, whether in public or in private.
A Goal, Once Set, Gives Rise to an Automatic System
Setting a goal matters enormously, because a goal gives rise to an automatic system that works to fulfill it. Without a goal, no such system arises. When we set a worldly goal — success in this life — the refined human body shines brightly within us, guiding us to generate the right causes for worldly prosperity and success. If our goal is heavenly — aspiring toward a fortunate rebirth in the heavenly realms — the refined divine body shines brightly within us, guiding us toward the good causes that lead to the celestial world. The mind and s of that divine body overlay our own thoughts and feelings, making our hearts gentle and soft, attuned to the realm we aspire toward, giving rise to moral shame and moral dread — a sense of conscience and fear of wrongdoing — and keeping us grounded in goodness.
Merit Drawn In Elevates the Divine Body, and Ultimately Leads to the Dhamma Body
Once we set our goal toward a fortunate heavenly rebirth, this process overlays itself within our own heart. Every time we generate a right and good cause, a stream of merit flows in and is stored within , developing the divine body within, elevating it level by level from the lower heavens toward higher ones according to the strength of merit accumulated. But if our goal reaches higher still — the aspiration to attain the path and fruit of nibbana — itself appears to guide and instruct us every time we recall that goal, directing us to study and practice the in order to elevate the quality of our mind, until we can access the subtle s of morality, concentration, wisdom, liberation, and knowledge-and-vision of liberation, each stage growing cleaner, clearer, and purer in turn.
Without Honesty and Sincerity, This Subtle System Is Hard to Establish
The teacher stressed that all of this must rest on honesty, integrity, and sincerity. Without this foundation, this refined system is difficult to establish, because seizes the chance to possess the body within our body instead, dragging us down toward the states of hell-beings, hungry ghosts, or animals. What lies behind dishonest, insincere thinking is, once again, the unwholesome itself. A goal set without sincerity accomplishes nothing. We must first have the good foundation of setting ourselves rightly. Once that foundation is in place, side behind the scenes will guide us toward good goals — advising, directing, and instructing us in a way that feels like our own idea — leading us to act correctly, whether for worldly and prosperity, heavenly happiness after leaving this world, or the highest goal of reaching the most refined and perfect system of all, under the care of the Dhamma body. Whenever we hold genuine sincerity toward that highest goal, the Dhamma body guides us toward the right books to study or the right teachers to seek out, supporting us in generating correct causes until we can access the Dhamma within with real ease.
By contrast, if we let life pass by without any goal at all, chasing only wealth or fleeting amusement day after day, what lies behind that is the karmically neutral force — which causes no harm to anyone, but produces little benefit either. The time, resources, and vitality we have are simply spent away wastefully, without ever amounting to anything of real value.