คำสอน · พระอาจารย์สุรพงค์Teaching · Pra Ajarn Suraphong
ทำใจเป็นกลางๆ ไม่ยินดียินร้าย ทำอย่างไร และเหตุใดจึงช่วยให้วินิจฉัยไม่ผิดพลาดHow Do We Stay Neutral, Neither Pleased nor Displeased — and Why Does That Prevent Wrong Judgment?
ชีวิตถูกควบคุมด้วยธรรมชาติ 3 ฝ่าย ความยินดียินร้ายคือช่องทางที่อกุศลใช้ล่อลวงให้วินิจฉัยผิดพลาด แต่หากวางใจเป็นกลางๆ มัชฌัตตตาเจตสิกซึ่งเป็นเจตสิกฝ่ายกุศลจะปรากฏขึ้น นำบุญมาชำระมลทินและชี้นำให้วินิจฉัยถูกต้องOur life is governed by three natural forces. Liking and disliking are exactly the opening that unwholesomeness uses to lead our judgment astray. But when the mind stays neutral, the wholesome mental factor of equanimity (majjhattatā) arises, bringing merit to cleanse the stain and guiding us to judge correctly.
Someone asked: when taught to let go of liking and disliking and keep the mind neutral so as not to misjudge, how is this actually done? In practice, when we gain something we tend to feel pleased, and once pleased the mind is no longer neutral — so judgment can go wrong.
Our life is governed by three natural forces. Whichever one takes possession of the mind brings its own s in to control it, so its thoughts and feelings appear in our own mind — the mind is simply our instrument of knowing; whatever it thinks, we perceive as our own thought. We live in the world, perceiving it through eyes, ears, nose, tongue, and body, meeting forms, tastes, smells, sounds, and touch, which then resolve in the mind as liking and disliking, gladness and sadness. This is exactly the material unwholesomeness seizes on: gladness breeds greed, displeasure breeds aversion, both resting on a foundation of delusion — wrong view lodged within, forcing our judgment. Once we are caught in liking and disliking, unwholesomeness can steer our judgment astray through that delusion.
Why liking and disliking distort judgment
Every mistake arises from past information and future hopes that unwholesomeness weaves together to seduce us into accepting them; once we accept, we are held captive within its dimension. Liking and disliking are the illusion unwholesomeness uses to lure us. But if we hold the mind neutral, mental factor of equanimity (majjhattatā), which arises together with wholesome mind, appears — bringing merit in to cleanse the stain, letting the wholesome side guide us toward what is right and good, showing exactly where the seductive past data or future expectations go wrong.
Every mistake we make traces back to liking and disliking. But whenever the mind rests neutral, wholesomeness guides us correctly and appropriately — no greed arises, no anger or resentment arises, the mind stays balanced. This is the same mechanism the three natural forces use on every human being without exception: dangling liking and disliking as bait, luring us into acceptance, then holding us captive, molding us, and misguiding us — which is why people keep making the same mistakes, not realizing this is the very tool unwholesomeness uses to seduce them. Once a unit of demerit has captured us once, it draws in old demerit as well, and the losses keep compounding.
But when we abide within the wholesome system, wholesomeness guides the mind to stay neutral and balanced, no longer tilting toward liking or disliking — so unwholesomeness can neither capture nor mold us. Wholesomeness gradually teaches us to understand more, act more correctly, and it becomes easier and easier, because understanding makes things easy. This is why the Buddha taught the monks to clearly discern body, feeling, mind, and mental objects, in order to remove covetousness and grief regarding the world — covetousness being gladness, grief being sadness, in other words the world's liking and disliking. Our elder teacher once said that liking and disliking are truly dangerous — they can drive a person mad, even to suicide — precisely because of this same force.