Someone asked the teacher to expand on the great teacher's teaching about the most important duty of every human being.

The Most Important Duty: To Realize Nibbana The teacher explained that the most important duty of anyone born a human being is to build the perfections in order to realize Nibbana. Without breaking free of the deep-rooted defilements into Nibbana, remaining within the cycle of rebirth carries danger on every side — danger from wicked people, wild animals, natural disasters, illness, the compulsion of one's own defilements, and the lower realms. There is only one way to escape: to eliminate every deep-rooted defilement completely, so as to be freed into Nibbana. He noted that this teaching had been given by Khun Khru Mai Yai as far back as 2003, over twenty years ago.

This most important duty is entirely contained within cultivating right mindfulness, because cultivating right mindfulness is precisely how Nibbana is realized. Accumulating merit and perfections is only possible when the wholesome-dhamma system is able to seize hold of the mind. Once it does, it inspires us to do good in many different forms, appropriate to each occasion — giving at one moment, keeping precepts at another, meditating at another — but this always depends on the wholesome side successfully taking hold first. If the unwholesome possesses the mind instead, we tend to make excuses and miss the opportunities the wholesome side offers.

When the Wholesome Side Guides Us, We Must Act at Once Every time the wholesome side directs an opportunity our way, failing to act means losing that opportunity. But when we follow through with a wholesome deed as guided, a stream of merit flows in continuously until the activity is complete, and right concentration becomes established in that moment. Once complete, the merit generated is sealed as a completed sphere of merit, containing a blueprint for its fruition and refined treasures, stored within the sphere of dhamma, awaiting placement on the timeline of life, whether in the near or distant future.

Merit takes countless forms. Beyond giving, keeping precepts, and meditating, it includes helping others, humility, listening to and teaching dhamma, spreading loving-kindness, dedicating merit, and cultivating right view in accordance with reality. Every time we perform a wholesome deed, the Triple Gem and Nibbana shine brightly at our center, and the stream of merit flows through every one of our bodies — the refined body, the celestial body, the brahma body, the formless-brahma body, and the countless Dhamma-bodies. Every one of these bodies depends on the human body to draw in this stream of merit on its behalf.

Cooperate With the Wholesome Side — Don't Let Others Take Over the Mind The teacher warned that if we leave everything to unfold on its own, without cooperating at all, the unwholesome and neutral natures will seize the mind instead. We must therefore learn to align ourselves with the wholesome-dhamma system, making it easier for it to dwell as the "landlord" of our mind throughout the day. Every time the wholesome-dhamma system becomes established, the stream of merit appears — but it continues well only when supported by ongoing wholesome activity. This is exactly why we set aside Sunday to go to the temple, or set aside evenings for meditation: all of it opens the way for the wholesome-dhamma system to take hold.

Merging Body and Mind Into One With the Buddha Image Gathering the mind to stop and be still is how the mind is directed straight toward the path of Nibbana — stopping within stopping, stillness within stillness, moving to the center of the center — putting the realization of Nibbana into actual practice. As we merge our body with the Buddha-body into a single unity, whether we perceive it clearly or not is no cause for concern; simply hold the thought that we are the Buddha image, and the Buddha image is us, gathering the mind to stop and be still at the center of the center, repeating this until it becomes familiar and automatic. In time, brightness will appear on its own, the stream of merit will flow through us continuously, and the Triple Gem will shine brightly at our center. We will receive guidance from the inner knowers, whose wisdom refines and corrects us, raising us to ever greater subtlety, clarity, and purity, reaching ever finer inner dimensions.

Impurity Remains in Every Dimension Until Nibbana As long as we have not attained the path and fruit of Nibbana, every dimension we pass through still contains impurity, though it grows progressively lighter. Impurity's role is to drag our underlying elements down through greed, hatred, delusion, lust, and craving, using delight and aversion, liking and disliking, as bait to win our consent and confine us within its own dimension. We can only be freed when the wholesome-dhamma system is able to seize hold and unlock us — this is never something we can free ourselves from alone; we depend entirely on the wholesome-dhamma system.

We can measure our progress toward unity with the Buddha image by the wholesome activity we sustain day by day, week by week, month by month, year by year — whether we are drifting apart or growing closer, especially in merging ourselves, body and mind, with our true nature. This is the single most important point. Once we hold to this consistently, until it develops into an automatic process, the stream of merit grows purer and more sacred still, the refined treasures grow ever finer, and we come to reach ever wiser and more powerful inner knowers, day after day. Naturally, then, life comes to hold ever greater wonder — from one wonder to two, three, ten, a hundred, a thousand, a hundred thousand wonders.

The Human Role Is Only This Much The teacher concluded that a human being's role is simply to gather the mind, stop, and be still — merging our body with the Buddha-body into one unity. Whether we see it clearly or not does not matter; all that's needed is constant awareness, never lapsing. Everything beyond that belongs to the inner knowers of boundless power, whose task is to bring about purity and sanctity within us, and to eliminate every deep-rooted defilement. All we need do is refuse to cooperate with the unwholesome and neutral natures, and instead cooperate continuously with the wholesome-dhamma system — the stream of merit will then pour continuously through our center, driving the wholesome-dhamma system, raising the goodness within us higher and higher. This is exactly why we must build merit and perfections: to drive the wholesome-dhamma system and merge ourselves with it as one.