แต่ละคนที่ลงมาเกิดมีบทบาทหน้าที่ต่างกันตามสัดส่วนกุศลในตัว การมีเครือข่ายกัลยาณมิตรและสิ่งแวดล้อมที่ดีจะช่วยเสริมให้ดำรงอยู่กับระบบกุศลธรรมได้ง่ายขึ้น ผู้ที่ทำหน้าที่ไม่สำเร็จมักเป็นเพราะสัดส่วนอกุศลในตัวยังมากกว่ากุศลEveryone born into this world carries a different role, shaped by the proportion of wholesomeness within them. Good spiritual companions and a supportive environment make it easier to abide within the wholesome system — those who fail at their role usually still carry more unwholesomeness than wholesomeness inside.
Someone asked: many people try to serve — for instance, doing merit as a group, as our elder teacher advised — yet fail, or give up when their efforts go unanswered. What causes this?
Everyone born into the human world carries a different role. These differing roles are what allow the world to function — farmers grow rice, merchants sell it, students study, police and civil servants each play their part. Everyone supports everyone else. The side of merit has its own network, just as the side of demerit has a network that keeps causing trouble for one another. Whoever has a good network receives more and prosperity.
Building a good network requires cultivating the cause — drawing in pure energy by abiding within system. Only by abiding within that system can merit, along with its subtle resources and completed patterns, flow in to refine our inner nature, raising the proportion of wholesomeness, making life easier, and reducing the stains that cause trouble.
What is merit, and how does it connect to building perfection?
Merit is the result that arises when the wholesome system takes hold. Wholesome mind and s guide and upgrade the mental factors of the human body toward growth. The greater the proportion of wholesomeness, the more the wise, capable inner guide directs us toward merit — toward the orious action: giving, observing precepts, meditation, humility, being of service to others, rejoicing in others' merit, dedicating merit, listening to the , teaching the Dhamma, and straightening one's views. The orb of perfection within guides us to develop all ten perfections, strengthening our faculties and powers until we can break free from a life devoid of substance into one with nibbāna as its true substance.
Why can't some people build a good network, and how is this fixed?
People who don't know their life's purpose are those with a smaller proportion of wholesomeness and a larger proportion of the neutral or unwholesome — their life gets swept along wasting time without their realizing it. Building a better network depends on two things: first, good spiritual companions — having s and a suitable environment that draws us toward abiding within the wholesome system; second, right self-establishment — adjusting our companions and environment, both inner and outer, including our tools and instruments, to support doing good.
Beyond having good companions who support us, we also need to be a good companion to others. When this is so, a good network capable of drawing in that energy will certainly arise, gradually expanding wider and wider, benefiting us both now and across every future life.