พระอาจารย์แนะนำให้ใช้กรรมฐานที่คุ้นเคยและได้ผล พร้อมรู้เนื้อรู้ตัวตลอดเวลาเพื่อชำระมลทินให้เร็วที่สุด ส่วนคนที่หาทรัพย์ได้เร็วแต่ทรัพย์หมดไวมักมีบุญหาทรัพย์แต่ขาดบุญรักษาทรัพย์ อันเกิดจากความไม่ซื่อสัตย์และไม่รู้จักรักษาสมบัติผู้อื่นในอดีตThe teacher advises using whichever meditation method has already proven effective, combined with constant self-awareness, to clear impurity fastest. As for those who acquire wealth quickly only to lose it just as fast, they typically have the merit to find wealth but lack the merit to protect it — a result of past dishonesty and failing to safeguard others' property.
Someone asked the teacher two questions. First: is there a fastest way to clear im, connect with the Knower, and succeed quickly — for instance, would meditating in front of a sacred site speed this up?
The Fastest Way to Clear Impurity
The teacher explained that location does have some effect, but what matters most is doing it continuously, all the time. Use whichever method has already proven effective, since it's the one already familiar — like dirt that has only recently accumulated on the surface and hasn't yet eaten deep into the material, making it easy to wash away. He noted that listening to recorded talks helps lift a troubled mind to a certain degree, but can't go deeper than that — which is why one needs one's own personal meditation practice, whether a familiar point within the body or whatever method has proven effective before, much like how familiarity between two people who already know each other lets things move faster.
He added that impurity can also be cleared during the day without closing the eyes to meditate, simply by maintaining constant self-awareness in every activity — driving, walking, working — setting an intention of awareness before each activity begins, since each activity occupies a different dimension. Sustained self-awareness lets merit flow in continuously; but when the mind gets pulled outward, say by watching a film, listening to music, or encountering someone who stirs up trouble, wholesomeness cannot establish itself and that flow of merit is cut off.
How to Know Impurity Is Decreasing
Asked further how to know impurity is diminishing, the teacher explained it shows in meditation becoming easier. Without practice, holding the image of the Buddha or a recitation during meditation is difficult, easily forgotten, because impurity clouds and erases it from memory. It also shows in daily life — a difficult, troubled life indicates much impurity; an easy life with few problems indicates little. The less the impurity, the greater the purity, the less the suffering, and the more and ease follow.
Why Some People Acquire Wealth Quickly, Yet Lose It Just as Fast
The second question: why do some people amass wealth quickly, only to have circumstances arise that drain it away from within their own family, even though the wealth itself was gained honestly — suggesting they have the merit to find wealth but lack the merit to protect it? The teacher confirmed this is exactly right: the merit for finding wealth is present, but the merit for protecting it is absent, so the wealth is easily destroyed. He explained two reasons for lacking this protective merit. First, past minor dishonesty — taking small things belonging to others, skimming a little benefit here and there — creates a kammic debt that causes others to act dishonestly toward us in turn, so wealth disappears quickly. Second, never having helped protect others' or the community's property — for example, caring for public spaces. Cultivating that mindset lets wholesomeness guide one to protect others' wealth as one's own, and wealth then stays secure.
A Case in Point: A Child Draining Their Parents' Wealth — Is It Connected to an Old Debt?
Asked whether cases where parents earn money that their child spends away, or one spouse earns while the other spends it all, are connected in this way, the teacher recalled an example from when he was a young monk: a married couple once came to an elder teacher in distress, saying that no matter how much money they gave their child, it was never enough, and the child showed no consideration for their hardship, always demanding to get whatever they wanted. The elder teacher explained that in a past life, the parents had wronged or cheated someone who held a grudge against them; in this life, that being was drawn by that old bond to be born as their child, in order to collect the debt without any concern for the parents' hardship — because, holding the role of creditor, they simply took what was owed. The parents, cast as debtors, had no choice but to yield. He explained that this dynamic isn't limited to parent and child — it can appear between spouses or other relatives as well, wherever an old, unsettled debt remains.