ไฟในใจคือราคะ โทสะ โมหะ และโลภะที่อกุศลนำมาซ้อนในใจเมื่อเข้าสิงได้ ทางดับไฟคือการกำหนดรู้ในกาย เวทนา จิต และธรรมให้ดวงสติตั้งขึ้น เพื่อเหนี่ยวนำบุญมาชำระมลทิน และเมื่อเผลอไปแล้วให้กลับมาตั้งใจที่กรรมฐานซึ่งคุ้นเคย ความคุ้นเคยที่สั่งสมไว้จะช่วยให้กุศลชิงความเป็นเจ้าเรือนของใจกลับคืนมาได้The fire in the heart is lust, aversion, delusion, and greed, laid over the mind whenever an unwholesome state takes hold. The way to douse it is to establish clear awareness of body, feelings, mind, and mental objects so mindfulness can arise and draw in merit to cleanse the impurity — and when awareness slips, returning to a familiar meditation anchor lets wholesomeness reclaim the seat of the heart.
Someone asked how to douse the fire in the heart before it explodes outward.
What the fire in the heart is, and how it starts
The teacher drew on a teaching from the founding teacher: fire that erupts through the mouth, through a gun barrel, or through a pen always begins as fire already burning inside a person's heart — which is why that inner fire must be doused first, or dousing the outward fire will never end. The Buddha taught in the discourse on fire that fire is lust, fire is aversion, fire is delusion; these fires are all tools of unwholesomeness, appearing as a dark sphere. Whenever unwholesomeness wins the contest for the mind, it overlays its own body-feeling-mind-mental-object onto ours. However dark that fire is, that's how much trouble it can cause — from mere boredom and gloom all the way to violence severe enough to lead toward a bad destination.
Once unwholesomeness has taken hold, it first works to win our acceptance, then steers us through an inner voice — telling us exactly what to say, prompting coarse or aggressive behavior. All of this follows the process of dependent origination: beginning with distorting understanding, giving rise to craving and clinging. Once "becoming" has arisen, the compulsion to act on it becomes automatic and unstoppable — and once carried out, it's stored as a completed sphere of demerit, already mapped onto the timeline of future life.
How to douse the fire with right mindfulness
The teacher explained that dousing the fire requires establishing awareness. If itself cannot arise, there is no way to fix it, because once mindfulness is established, it draws in pure energy that clears away the im. This is why the Buddha taught: "Monks, you should clearly know body, feelings, mind, and mental objects, in order to remove covetousness and grief regarding the world." Only by standing within the system of wholesomeness can we truly be helped — this teaching matters enormously, because once we stand within that system, it works automatically to help and correct us.
What to do once awareness has already slipped
Someone then asked: sometimes we notice we've already slipped and try to regain mindfulness — but how do we keep from slipping in the first place?
The teacher explained that the moment we notice we've slipped, we should bring the mind back to whatever meditation object we're familiar with — the breath, for those who practice , or the recitation "Samma-araham," for those who practice recollection of the Buddha. A familiar object helps mindfulness re-establish itself and keeps drawing in merit to steadily clear the impurity. During the moments when wholesome and unwholesome states are contesting for the seat of the heart, if the meditation practice we've built is stronger than the old unwholesome habit, the unwholesome state gradually withers; but if that unwholesome pattern is an old, familiar, repeatedly reinforced one, it will have the greater strength instead. This is exactly why daily practice matters — so that, over time, our proportion of wholesomeness outweighs the unwholesome. And on the occasions when unwholesomeness is simply too strong to overcome in the moment, all we can do is endure — because merit flows in through exactly two situations: when we resolve to do good, and when we resolve to resist evil.