Why Doing Good and Avoiding Evil Alone Doesn't Bring Permanent Freedom

"Do good, avoid evil, purify the mind" is a teaching that existed even before Buddhism arose. It bears fruit to a degree, but it cannot free us from the cycle of rebirth. This is why the Bodhisatta had to perfect the pāramī for a full 20 incalculable eons and a hundred thousand great eons, to awaken to why doing good, avoiding evil, and purifying the mind alone cannot free beings from suffering permanently — cannot bring them from suffering to eternal happiness. When the Bodhisatta awakened to supreme perfect enlightenment and became the Fully Enlightened Buddha, he came to know that a set of natures governs all beings: kusalā dhammā, akusalā dhammā, abyākatā dhammā — wholesome, unwholesome, and indeterminate natures. These three natures exist within every person, though each person carries a different proportion of each.

Wholesomeness Leads to Happiness, Unwholesomeness to Suffering, and the Neutral Simply Wastes Time

The three natures direct human beings through inner voices and inner feelings, causing all beings to think, speak, and act according to their own purposes, in order to draw in energy that drives their own systems. Wholesomeness directs people to cultivate goodness and avoid wrongdoing, aiming to bring beings happiness, prosperity, rightness, and goodness, and to reach the truth of life. The unwholesome, by contrast, aims to bring suffering and danger, causing hardship and torment — and if suffering in this life alone isn't enough, it drags beings down further into the lower realms, into the state of hell-beings and demons. As for the indeterminate nature, it doesn't direct beings toward evil, but neither toward good — it keeps life adrift, eating, playing, wandering aimlessly day after day, squandering the time we have until death arrives, having accumulated nothing of substance. None of this could ever have been known to humanity had the Fully Enlightened Buddha not arisen.

The Four Noble Truths and Discerning Body, Feeling, Mind, and Dhamma

Once the Buddha awakened to supreme perfect enlightenment, he pointed the way out: to abide in the Four Noble Truths, to abide on the Noble Path. In particular, the teaching: "Monks, you should discern clearly body, feeling, mind, and Dhamma, in order to eliminate covetousness and grief regarding the world" is the essential benefit that frees human beings from hardship and suffering and brings them to a better life — a wondrous, marvelous life — transforming an ordinary person into a virtuous person, and a virtuous person into a noble one. This benefit alone accomplishes that much. Monks, you must discern — if you do not, some other nature will step in to direct you instead, bringing no benefit whatsoever, and worse, bringing suffering if that nature happens to be unwholesome. To discern is mindfulness; to know is clear comprehension. Discerning the body means being fully self-aware. Discerning feeling means recognizing, in this very present moment, whether we feel at ease right now. If we feel at ease, that means a wholesome nature has taken the role of ruling master. If, on the other hand, we feel suffering — a state that must be endured, and endured with difficulty — that shows the unwholesome is ruling. But if we feel neutral, neither pleasure nor suffering, that shows the indeterminate nature is ruling. Yet this neutral feeling of the indeterminate differs from the neutrality of equanimity. The indeterminate's neutrality is a strange, restless kind of neutrality that pushes us to go for a walk, go out, play games, watch a movie, listen to music — anything to fill the time. Equanimity's neutrality, by contrast, is a balanced neutrality, steady and unshaken by emotion or surrounding conditions.

Mind in Mind: The Overlaid Mind Reveals Which Nature Is Ruling

Beyond discerning body and feeling with clear mindfulness, we must also discern the mind in this very moment. Whatever nature possesses us brings in the mind of a hell-being, demon, or animal, driven by greed, hatred, delusion, or lust — or it may bring the mind of a refined, wise, gentle, and graceful human being, or an even subtler celestial mind, or the mind of a body firmly established in the first jhāna. We can perceive which mind has been superimposed on us. Once that mind overlays our own, its mental factor — the emotion of that mind — carries whatever quality of Dhamma is arising to draw in energy at that moment. If unwholesome, the unwholesome mind draws in demerit. If a wholesome mind is superimposed, its mental factor is wholesome, and it draws in the energy of merit. This is how Dhamma in Dhamma arises. The Buddha taught monks to discern body, feeling, mind, and Dhamma — not to discern the five aggregates of body, feeling, perception, mental formations, and consciousness.

The Time Bomb of Kamma Buried in Our DNA

The pure energy flowing through us never stops, day or night, but it constantly shifts — sometimes it's the energy of demerit, carrying misfortune with it; sometimes the energy of merit; sometimes the energy of the indeterminate. As it flows through, it drives the natural system that controls our lives under its own authority, compelling us to think, speak, and act. When the unwholesome controls and directs a person to think, speak, and act in order to draw in the energy of demerit along with its consequences, it drives activities through to completion, and the reward — the full accomplishment — becomes sealed within the completed sphere of demerit, stored within the sphere of Dhamma, set on a timeline for our life, whether in the near future of this very life or the distant future of lives to come. Once this time bomb is set, that means a countdown has begun toward an encounter with tremendous suffering — yet we have no idea we are counting down toward it. This connects directly to our DNA: when we come to be conceived in our parents' womb, the transfer of all our accumulated kamma gets set into our DNA, shaping our body's structure — determining when and where illness will strike. The unwholesome nature is buried in each part of the body; when the sphere of demerit's timer goes off and produces its result, the low elements buried in each body part, upon receiving the wave and energy, affect that organ. When the nervous system is disturbed, pain and suffering arise, and we seek treatment. But if it damages an organ without disturbing the nervous system, we remain unaware, and no treatment occurs.

Defusing the Time Bomb by Cultivating the Truth of Suffering

We can defuse these time bombs by cultivating the truth of suffering (dukkha-sacca), or by meditating to reach the inner Dhammakāya and using that dharma body to apply techniques that resolve these kammic results. Even before we reach the Dhammakāya, we can begin simply by discerning suffering. When we discern suffering, the wholesome nature focuses us on the very point that is the fuse, and we trace along that fuse back to its origin. The Buddha taught that suffering is a state that must be endured, and endured with difficulty — it need only be discerned, nothing more; don't thrash about in distress over it. Suffering is merely something to be known: suffering is its own affair, we are our own affair. As we begin defusing the fuse for the first time, we may need to endure a little. Normally, humans fear suffering — the moment we see it, we turn away, refuse it, and run only toward pleasure. But the noble ones face suffering directly, discerning and acknowledging that state fully. Facing it directly, patience (khanti) comes to our aid, accompanied by austerity (tapa) — like armor protecting us from torment: suffering, yes, but not torment. We endure only just enough, only as much as needed while defusing the fuse. Suffering has one advantage: it's a state easily discerned, easily anchored by the sphere of knowing, because while suffering is present, we cannot set our mind on any other meditation object — suffering destroys every other meditation object. So we use the sphere of knowing to turn suffering itself into our meditation object. Once discerned this way, the sphere of knowing draws in the pure energy called merit to cleanse the stain that is the source of that suffering, gradually lightening it — some bundles clearing within an hour, some within a day, some within a week, depending on the quantity and intensity of that energy. But if we never defuse it, when the bomb eventually goes off and produces its effect, we lose all control — resulting in loss of wealth, health, time, composure, everything.

Once We Taste Suffering, We No Longer Wish to Create the Causes for More

Once we go in and resolve the fuse, we come to know the taste of suffering. Once we know that taste, we no longer wish to create the causes that bring suffering and danger upon ourselves. We become mindful of living heedfully, knowing that each time bomb we defuse requires time and patience. This is especially true for those of us with faith in Buddhism, faith in the system of wholesome states, faith in the Triple Gem — quite different from those with a large proportion of demerit, in whom the unwholesome operates at full strength. It's no surprise, then, that such people cycle in and out of prison, circling among bad company, forced by the unwholesome nature to revolve endlessly around vice — alcohol, drugs, petty theft, infidelity.

When We Teach Someone, We're Really Speaking to the System Within Them, Not the Person

Someone asked whether teaching others creates an effect that comes back to us — how can we ensure the person we teach benefits, and that it benefits us as well? The teacher answered: we must first understand that when we teach, the first benefit is that we teach ourselves — reinforcing the knowledge we already have. How much the listener receives, we cannot know. What we teach is a tool we give to the wholesome system within the listener. Since we cannot be with them at all times, but the wholesome nature is always with them, it will take the information we've given and teach them with it — while they bathe, while they eat, while they walk. If we teach someone who holds no prejudice against us, we are interacting with the wholesome nature within them. But if we teach someone who is prejudiced against us, the unwholesome in their heart will argue back immediately — whether arguing silently within or arguing aloud through their human body. That shows we are actually interacting with the nature possessing them, not with the person themselves. If the possessing nature is unwholesome, they'll argue back right away, or simply get up and walk away. But if the wholesome mind is ruling at that moment, we'll be able to converse meaningfully. If the indeterminate is ruling, we talk about one thing and they talk about another, and no real communication happens at all. Only wholesomeness truly listens — we are really conversing with the wholesome system inside a person, giving information to that system, which is glad to receive it and put it to use.

Reading People by the System That Governs Them, Not by the Person

Seeing things this way, we begin to perceive the systems that govern people, rather than the individuals themselves. Anyone who shows us respect or reverence indicates that their wholesome system has been established, since respect and reverence are themselves wholesome states. We can teach such people. But if someone carries a large proportion of the unwholesome or indeterminate, even if they listen, it's like talking to a wall. We must therefore learn to teach gradually — starting, for instance, with something simple, like the nature of baby sea turtles, who know instinctively to head for the ocean with no parent to teach them. Then we might ask: why does this same instinct still lead some hatchlings to die young, some in midlife, and some to live long lives? The Buddha taught that natures like this instinct truly exist, composed of the three natures — kusalā dhammā, akusalā dhammā, abyākatā dhammā. This is the very heart of Buddhism, because these natures produce effects throughout the entire world. Wholesomeness gives rightness, goodness, and happiness; unwholesomeness gives suffering and hardship; the indeterminate gives neither good nor harm, but squanders our life's time and resources without producing any benefit. Think of a classmate who never studies but has also never bullied anyone — that's someone under the sway of the indeterminate. A classmate who bullies others, though, is under the sway of the unwholesome. And a classmate who studies diligently with good manners is looked after by the wholesome — someone worth befriending, since they serve as a good example.

Even the Buddha Was Slandered — There's No Need to Waste Time on Those Ruled by the Unwholesome

There's no benefit in spending time with people governed by the unwholesome — only harm. Nothing we say reaches their ears well; they may even go and slander us behind our backs. Even the Fully Enlightened Buddha, possessed of the most excellent qualities, was still criticized and slandered by people possessed by the unwholesome. However excellent we might be, we cannot escape this. For certain kinds of people, we simply let each go their own way — no need to stir up conflict or hold a grudge.

Four Lines of Homework: Mind, Merit, the Stilled Mind, and Stillness Itself as the Accomplishing Factor

Our homework is to keep reciting "Samma-araham" in meditation, and to remember these four points for the rest of our lives. First: "The mind is the element of accomplishment." Whatever we set our mind on will appear within it — from the highest Buddha down to the lowest level, whatever we set our mind on will manifest there. If we recollect the Buddha, he appears together with his power, purifying the elements of earth, water, wind, fire, and space within us, resolving sacred kammic results, and connecting us with the stream of merit and treasure. But if we recollect something harmful, that thing will show its cruel qualities too, drawing the energy of suffering and torment into our heart. We must therefore learn what to cultivate and what to avoid. Second: "Merit is what lies behind all happiness and success." Third: "The stilled mind is the culmination of merit." Fourth: "Stillness itself is the accomplishing factor." Remember whatever you can — even just one line is fine. These are tools of real benefit to take home and apply in our livelihoods, so our lives can develop with visible results. This is homework to recite for the rest of our lives, because it is essential, something we must put to practical use — especially when the wholesome system within us brings it back to remind us, exactly when we need it.