พระอาจารย์อธิบายว่าทุกคนที่เกิดมาล้วนมีบทบาทหน้าที่ตามสถานะของตน ไม่ว่าจะเป็นลูก พี่ น้อง นักเรียน หรือผู้ปกครองบ้านเมือง และทุกบทบาทต้องตั้งอยู่บนคุณธรรม โดยหน้าที่สำคัญที่สุดของมนุษย์คือการเรียนรู้ธรรมะเพื่อแสวงหาธรรมกายและขจัดกิเลสThe teacher explains that everyone born into the world carries a role and duty — as child, sibling, student, or head of household — and that every role must be grounded in virtue. The single most important human duty is to seek the inner dhammakaya and eliminate defilements.
Someone asked the teacher to expand on the verse: "A good king who delights in the , a wise and good person, a who does not betray a friend — lies in not committing wrong."
Everyone who is born carries some role and duty; only the extent differs. From birth we must be a good child to our parents; if we have siblings, a good brother or sister; at school, a good student to our teachers; with a family, a good head of household. The greater one's responsibilities, the more is required — especially for those who serve as representatives of the people in governing the country, who must be upright, unwavering, and never put self-interest above the wellbeing of others. Without standing on the Dhamma, in the end even one's own footing gives way.
Everything in nature has its own role, not only human beings. The teacher recalled a question he once posed: if we want to make water sweet, who actually does the sweetening? It seems obvious to say "we" do it by adding sugar — but really it is the sugar that makes it sweet. Sugar's role is to give food its sweetness; our role is to learn and understand all things, so that we know what to use, what to avoid, what benefits and what doesn't. Without learning, we act wrongly, and wrongdoing leads life into crisis.
Learning our role requires . The more we understand, the more correctly we act, and the greater our happiness and ease of mind. The less we understand, the more mistakes accumulate until they become a crisis. Each of the three natures in the world — , , and the neutral (abyakata, which takes neither merit nor demerit) — pursues its own goal. The unwholesome aims to destroy human beings utterly; the neutral aims to consume our valuable time and resources on activities that produce neither good nor harm, simply so we have no time left to build either.
The most important duty of every human being is to seek the inner kaya in order to eliminate defilements. This inner truth is obscured by — not knowing reality as it is. When we still the mind so that the "sphere of knowing" can draw in pure energy to cleanse away what obscures it, inner realization and understanding gradually emerge. To fulfill this duty, we must merge the mind with our true self through the continuous, unbroken recitation "samma-arahang," while cultivating a wholesome ground of mind — relaxed, open, spacious, and at ease. A good ground of mind is like good soil that lets goodness take root and flourish; a mind full of tightness, boredom, and discouragement makes it very hard for goodness to grow.