พระอาจารย์อธิบายว่าบุญบาปคือพลังงานที่มาจากใจ ใช้ทรงสภาพชีวิตในวัฏสงสาร ส่วนความรู้สึกกดดันขณะนั่งสมาธิเกิดจากอกุศลแอบเข้ามาสร้างแรงกดดันโดยที่เราเข้าใจผิดว่าเป็นตัวเราเอง ทางแก้คือทำด้วยใจที่ผ่อนคลาย ปลอดโปร่ง และตั้งเป้าหมายอย่างสันโดษ ไม่ยึดติดกับผลThe teacher explains that merit and demerit are energies born from the mind that sustain or destroy life across lifetimes, and that the pressure felt during meditation is not truly ours but an unwholesome force intruding under the guise of our own thought. The remedy is to meditate with a relaxed, open mind and to set goals with contentment, without clinging to results.
A lay follower asked the teacher three related questions about making merit and about meditation practice.
What Are Merit and Demerit, and How Should We Understand Them Correctly?
Life needs energy to be sustained, just as an appliance needs electricity. The energy that sustains human life is called "merit" (boon); the energy that destroys life — bringing problems, illness, and hardship — is called "demerit" (baap). When merit runs out, life ends. But if demerit is great enough, it can end life even before merit is exhausted.
Both merit and demerit originate in the mind. A mind that thinks wholesomely draws merit-energy into the sphere of at ; a mind weighed down by negativity, boredom, stress, irritation, or despair draws demerit-energy instead. Both are stored in the same location but on different planes. After death, if demerit outweighs merit, one experiences suffering in a lower realm; if merit outweighs demerit, one is reborn in a heavenly realm according to the strength of one's merit — much like a cost of living. When either is exhausted, one returns to the human realm to begin creating causes again.
Earning money alone is not enough to sustain us through the long cycle of rebirth. Studying the is therefore essential, because it concerns our safety and not only in this life but across future lives. Those who live within system find life proceeds with remarkable ease; those who don't understand the Dhamma are constantly beset by system's obstacles.
Meditating Feels Pressured — How Can I Meditate Without Pressure or Distraction?
The feeling of pressure during meditation is not actually us pressuring ourselves — it is an unwholesome force quietly intruding, disguised as our own thought. Every human life is guided, moment to moment, by either wholesome or unwholesome forces. When the unwholesome side takes hold, its first act is to create a feeling of tightness and pressure — even while we are simply trying to recall the Buddha image or the crystal sphere. If that pressure appears, it is a sign we have slipped into the wrong system.
What we need instead is to abide in the wholesome system: a feeling of relaxation, openness, spaciousness, lightness, ease, brightness, coolness, and . Establish this ground of mind first — like preparing good, fertile soil before planting. Then recall the Buddha image or crystal with that same relaxed feeling, or simply think of it pleasantly and leisurely, as though enjoying a book. Do just one of these at a time if two feels like too much. If it still feels unfamiliar, use the recitation "samma-arahang," staying focused on it continuously, day and night, until the mind can recite it on its own.
How Should I Apply the Teaching to Set Very High Giving Goals Without Falling Into Greed?
Setting a very high goal — such as resolving to give a great deal in this lifetime — is something we can do. The moment we set a goal, the wholesome system, backed by the Triple Gem, automatically begins setting up the process toward it, much like gears in a clock working together to reach each stage, with merit as the essential fuel driving the whole system.
But after setting the goal, we must hold the mind in balance — neither elated nor upset — and abide in (), being at ease with what we currently have and are. Wanting wealth in a way that isn't grounded in cause and effect is greed, and it's what the unwholesome side exploits, showing us shortcuts that don't actually add up. This differs from setting a goal out of genuine understanding of proper causes. When all the conditions are complete, at the right time, success arrives on its own — to the point that "you don't even want to become wealthy, yet you're compelled to become wealthy." It isn't that wanting wealth makes it happen at will. Abiding in contentment while waiting for that time is therefore the most important thing.