พระอาจารย์อธิบายวิธีนึกถึงบุญเก่าที่เคยสั่งสมมาเพื่อขอให้ช่วยพลิกผันสถานการณ์ร้ายให้กลายเป็นดี พร้อมชี้ว่าเหตุที่คนส่วนใหญ่นึกถึงบุญได้ยากและไม่ต่อเนื่อง เป็นเพราะฝ่ายอกุศลคอยขัดขวางไม่ให้เชื่อมั่นในบุญ ทางแก้คือต้องฝึกนึกถึงบุญให้บ่อยและต่อเนื่องThe teacher explains how to recall the merit accumulated over countless lifetimes and ask it to turn a bad situation around. He also explains why most people can only recall merit sporadically rather than continuously — an unwholesome influence works to undermine that confidence — and how to train yourself to recall merit reliably.
Someone asked the teacher to explain Luang Phor's advice on drawing on merit to help in a crisis, and followed up: why can we usually only recall merit occasionally rather than continuously, and why do we sometimes dwell more on worry than on merit — and how can we recall merit more often?
The teacher explained that in dire circumstances — an economic downturn, for instance — current runs strong, and to overcome it we must call to mind the current of merit we've built up over countless lifetimes. To do this, still the mind at the center and gently recall: whatever power of merit and perfection I have built up over however many lifetimes, whether I can remember it or not, may that merit now turn this crisis around — from darkness to light, from suffering to . Do this every day, keeping the mind soft and settled at the center, breathing as steadily as the Buddha did. The results will come before long.
Most people can only recall merit occasionally because an unwholesome influence works behind the scenes, sowing doubt about whether merit is even real — telling us we've never seen results, that we're better off relying on our own two arms and two legs. This influence resists our recalling merit, because the moment we do, system gets its opening — drawing in the merit we've stored up, like withdrawing from a bank, to help fix the situation. So instead, the unwholesome side overlays the mind with dark, heavy states carrying fear, worry, and doubt.
The remedy is to train yourself to recall merit often and continuously. Every time you recall it, merit surfaces and flows in steadily, automatically driving the wholesome system. At first it may feel like an effort and require , but it gets easier over time. If you never recall merit at all, the timer on your karmic debts simply runs its course unchecked, with nothing to soften a heavy outcome into a lighter one. Merit is pure energy, shaped like a bright clear sphere, holding refined attainments within it, capable of dispelling suffering, grief, and misfortune.
Recalling merit often and continuously depends on three things: (1) a good environment and community — having students to teach, since discussing, teaching, and listening to all draw in pure energy and call forth the inner guide; (2) developing wisdom, since unlike and faith, wisdom does not automatically arise together with the wholesome system — it must be cultivated through learning and understanding; and (3) recalling first whatever merit brings you the greatest joy, since a great merit draws in other merits continuously, whereas recalling a weak merit fades quickly because there isn't enough force to sustain the thought.
When someone asked further whether recalling merit and feeling a sense of joy or a cooling senon in body and mind differs from an ordinary recollection of merit, the teacher answered that the difference is in how quickly results appear. If it has a clear physical effect, that merit carries no small power. The more often you recall it — until it becomes a constant recollection — the more continuously it drives the wholesome system. And there's no need to fear running out of merit: the more you recall it, the more it grows, as the wholesome system draws in both old and new merit without limit to help you.