อกุศลจะกดให้ตกต่ำได้ก็ต่อเมื่อสัดส่วนอกุศลในตัวมีมากกว่ากุศล เมื่อสิงจิตได้เป็นเจ้าเรือน จะชี้นำให้คิดพูดทำผิด กดธาตุธรรมให้ตกต่ำจากมิติหนึ่งไปสู่มิติที่หยาบกว่า วิธีป้องกันคือบำเพ็ญบารมี 10 ทัศเพิ่มสัดส่วนกุศลให้มากขึ้นเรื่อยๆUnwholesomeness can only pull us downward when the proportion of unwholesomeness within us outweighs the wholesome. Once it possesses the mind, it steers wrong thought, speech, and action, pushing our nature from one plane down into a coarser one. The safeguard is cultivating the ten perfections to steadily raise the proportion of wholesomeness.
Someone asked: unwholesomeness has the function of pushing us downward — what does "downward" actually mean, and how can we guard against it?
The wholesome side can only be pushed down when the proportion of unwholesomeness increases. We need proportion of our inner nature to keep rising, toward 100%, at which point arahantship is reached. Until then, if the wholesome proportion is greater, wholesomeness can help us when karmic results are triggered — even for someone who has never known Buddhism at all — guiding them toward goodness, lightening what is heavy, dissolving what is light. But if proportion dominates, right self-establishment becomes impossible.
How unwholesomeness pushes our nature downward
Karmic results manifest when unwholesomeness gets the chance to possess the mind, bringing in its own s to steer wrong thought, speech, and action — because its thoughts appear within our own mind, and we take them to be our own. The stronger its force — the greater its proportion — the more it can compel us to speak and act in ways that draw demerit in, driving the unwholesome system and pushing us down from one plane into a coarser one. Until we reach arahantship, every plane still carries some stain, though the finer the plane, the less stain remains.
As long as the wholesome side keeps working to prevent the mind from sinking, unwholesomeness will instead stir up and unwholesome roots, causing agitation and confusion — until we come to genuinely wish to be free of that miserable state, through giving, observing precepts, meditating, and cultivating wisdom. Where the wholesome proportion is greater, that freedom comes more easily. Our elder and senior teachers, for instance, carry a great proportion of wholesomeness, which is why they access subtler and take on the role of guiding the world.
How do we raise the proportion of wholesomeness?
Each person carries different shortfalls. Someone with little accumulated generosity struggles financially and must hasten to build that perfection. Someone with health problems has accumulated little in precepts and must establish themselves firmly in moral conduct. Someone still attached to sensual pleasure must work at renunciation. Someone with little wisdom, unable to solve their own problems, must build the perfection of wisdom. All ten perfections need to be cultivated in full. Our elder teacher said we are born precisely to repair whatever perfection is lacking — wherever the shortfall lies, that is where we go to work.
We must carry both material livelihood and inner cultivation together. Focusing on only one, while ignoring the wholesome side of the mind, means abiding within a different natural system altogether — one that offers no help. But abiding within the wholesome system means wholesomeness guides us to do what is right, and capable beings step in to help our aspirations succeed — whatever our occupation, success follows. Life therefore requires the and the ten perfections as our continual guide for driving the wholesome system forward.