พระอาจารย์อธิบายว่าความสามัคคีเกิดจากใจที่ใสบริสุทธิ์หยุดนิ่งร่วมกันที่ศูนย์กลางกาย และชี้ว่าคนที่หันมาพึ่งธรรมะยามทุกข์แล้วละทิ้งไปยามสุขนั้น เป็นเพราะเอาสิ่งอื่นเป็นใหญ่แทนที่จะเอาธรรมเป็นใหญ่The teacher explains that unity arises when the group's minds are pure and stilled together at the center of the body, and that people who turn to the Dhamma during hardship but abandon it once things improve do so because they place something else, rather than the Dhamma itself, first.
How Does the Unity of a Group Bring About Happiness?
Someone asked the teacher to expand on the theme of unity within a group.
The teacher explained that human beings are like puppets driven by an underlying system. In nature there are three such systems with entirely different aims: system, aiming for and prosperity; system, aiming to destroy and bring suffering; and the neutral system, which takes neither side. People with similar outlooks, tastes, , and faith naturally form groups, according to the proportion of these three natures present within each person. A small proportion of wholesomeness makes someone an ordinary person; a moderate proportion, a good person; a larger proportion, a virtuous person; and a still greater proportion, a noble one. Those with a large proportion of unwholesomeness, by contrast, move toward ruin and distress.
A group with a strong proportion of wholesomeness, whose minds are pure and stilled together at — the wellspring of accomplishment — receives the protection and guidance of knowing and capable beings, and achieves success in remarkable ways. Members of such a group need not share identical qualities; differences are not a problem so long as there is a shared, unified heart, which alone is enough to build shared prosperity. For the mind to become clear, it needs wholesome qualities as its tool; once wholesome states arise, they draw in pure energy that cleanses away im, making it easier to still the mind at the body's center.
Why Do Some People Turn to the Dhamma During Hardship But Abandon It Once Things Improve?
Someone then asked why some people turn to the when they face suffering, only to abandon it once their circumstances improve.
The teacher explained that this happens because such a person's underlying goal is something other than the Dhamma itself — for example, making merit purely in hope of becoming wealthy. Once that objective is achieved, they lose interest in the Dhamma altogether. This differs from someone who places the Dhamma first in everything they do; for such a person, the wholesome system, backed by the Triple Gem, continues to refine and support them, so that whatever wealth arises serves their continued growth in the Dhamma.
Those who don't understand how these natural mechanisms work often believe things without reason — for instance, believing that doing a particular ritual will bring wealth, without examining the actual cause and effect — which is the mark of blind superstition, driven purely by craving rather than by properly cultivating the right causes. This differs from wholesome aspiration (chanda), which is delight in doing what is right because one understands where the result comes from. Merit or demerit made in this present life yields only about 10% of its result now; the rest ripens in future lives. This is why wealth differs so much from person to person, according to each one's underlying store of merit. Those who understand this mechanism place the Dhamma first and patiently keep cultivating the right causes, rather than abandoning the Dhamma the moment they get what they wanted.