ต้องเริ่มจากการคบสัตบุรุษที่บริบูรณ์ ซึ่งจะทำให้การฟังธรรม การทำใจไว้ในใจโดยแยบคาย สติสัมปชัญญะ การสำรวมอินทรีย์ สุจริต 3 สติปัฏฐาน 4 และโพชฌงค์ 7 บริบูรณ์ตามลำดับกันไป จนวิชชาและวิมุตติบริบูรณ์ในที่สุด เป็นกระบวนการของระบบกุศลธรรมที่ขับเคลื่อนต่อเนื่องกันIt must begin with association with a truly wise, complete person — which in turn perfects listening to true Dhamma, careful reflection, mindfulness and clear comprehension, restraint of the senses, threefold good conduct, the four foundations of mindfulness, and the seven factors of enlightenment, each perfecting the next, until knowledge and liberation themselves become complete — a continuous process driven by the system of wholesome qualities.
Someone came across a sutta passage that laid out, with unusual clarity, the steps for bringing and liberation to completion, and asked the teacher to expand on it — especially the starting point: association with a truly wise person.
The process that completes knowledge and liberation
The sutta states it this way: complete association with a truly wise person perfects the hearing of true ; complete hearing of true Dhamma perfects careful, wise reflection; complete careful reflection perfects and ; complete mindfulness and clear comprehension perfects restraint of the senses; complete restraint of the senses perfects threefold good conduct (of body, speech, and mind); complete threefold good conduct perfects the four foundations of mindfulness; the complete four foundations of mindfulness perfect the seven factors of enlightenment; and the complete seven factors of enlightenment perfect knowledge and liberation themselves. This is a single unbroken process within the system of wholesome qualities, carrying us stage by stage until knowledge and liberation are reached.
Why it must begin with a truly wise person
A complete, truly wise person is someone who understands the Dhamma and can gather its scattered pieces into a coherent whole — like assembling separate limbs into a complete figure. Associating with such a person makes hearing the Dhamma genuinely clear, because they can explain it so the listener fully understands. Each word they speak plants a sphere of Dhamma in the listener's heart, drawing in pure energy; both the inner and the outer knower work together to make it ever clearer.
Once we've heard the teaching, careful reflection means holding what we've heard in mind — not necessarily grasping it fully at once, just holding it steadily, without forgetting. Merit then flows in and gradually clears away what obscures it, until knowledge that was already present — merely hidden — reveals itself, and the knower proper to that knowledge explains it clearly on its own. Once that understanding dawns, vision and inspiration arise to pursue further good.
Complete careful reflection perfects mindfulness and clear comprehension — staying continuously aware, never forgetting, alert to the body and to each word of the teaching. Dwelling in this inner state, restraint of all six senses — eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body, mind — arises automatically, held in place by the system of wholesome qualities rather than forced by effort. When sense-restraint is complete, neither unwholesome nor neutral, drifting states can slip in, and threefold good conduct of body, speech, and mind naturally follows.
Complete threefold good conduct perfects the four foundations of mindfulness — body, feeling, mind, and mind-objects — which arise as an inner mind that comes to abide within us, formed when the system of wholesome qualities overlays the mind of a subtler body onto our own, deepening our understanding of the Dhamma. The complete four foundations of mindfulness perfect the seven factors of enlightenment: mindfulness, investigation of states, energy, joy, , concentration, and equanimity. Investigation means testing which meditation method genuinely suits us; energy is the effort we must deliberately summon to drive ourselves toward the goal. As we persist in the practice with steady effort, merit flows in to purify the mind, giving rise to joy, then developing into tranquility and firm concentration, and finally into equanimity — the foundation for the of even-mindedness.
The complete seven factors of enlightenment finally perfect knowledge and liberation. Knowledge that was always present, merely obscured, is uncovered, and the knower proper to it explains things with full clarity. Once that clarity dawns, liberation — release — follows. A person cannot simply think their way to this knowledge, since it was never part of their memory to begin with; it depends on the inner knower opening it up. Liberation itself has two aspects: liberation through calm () and liberation through (vipassanā) — distinct from ordinary factors, since the seven factors of enlightenment lead specifically to the knowledge and liberation taught in Buddhism.
A question about seeing light in meditation
Someone asked: while meditating, they saw a small round shape — clear on the outside, white within — but when they felt an urge to shift position and did so, the image vanished. The teacher answered that this was correct practice, and to keep doing whatever method is working. In the early stages, when the image disappears, there's no need to worry — simply settle the mind again and stay still; it will return. Next time, before shifting, move slowly and gently while keeping the mind fixed exactly where it was — the body may move, but the mind stays still, held steady the whole time. In the beginning, this may be hard to sustain, but once it can be maintained, it becomes lasting.