เมื่อดำรงอยู่ในระบบกุศลธรรม ทุกอนูเซลล์ในร่างกายจะถูกจัดการให้ทำงานไปในทางที่เกื้อกูลและเยียวยา ทำให้สุขภาพแข็งแรงและฟื้นตัวได้เร็ว ตรงข้ามกับเมื่ออกุศลเข้าสิง ซึ่งจะบั่นทอนทุกส่วนของร่างกายให้เป็นไปในทางทำลาย การกำหนดรู้อยู่เสมอไม่เผลอจึงเป็นกุญแจสำคัญของการมีสุขภาพดีและอายุยืนWhen we stand within the system of wholesomeness, every cell in the body is directed to work toward healing and benefit, keeping health strong and recovery swift. When unwholesomeness takes hold instead, it undermines every part of the body toward self-destruction. Staying continuously, unwaveringly aware is the key to good health and long life.
Someone shared that a group of scholars studying the Buddha's daily routine concluded he likely slept only two to four hours a night, yet lived to eighty. Their scientific explanation was that continuous in every posture keeps the parasympathetic nervous system working well, so the body stays in something close to a resting state almost all the time, even without much sleep. They asked how Buddhist teaching would explain this.
The teacher explained that when we stand within the system of wholesomeness, the mind needs a clear anchor, built through constant awareness — knowing we're picking something up as we pick it up, knowing we're walking as we walk. Sustained, unbroken awareness like this is governed by a called tatramajjhattatā, which arises together with wholesome states, holding the mind in balance, unmoved by delight or aversion, steady and composed. When wholesomeness arises, a cluster of good mental factors — mindfulness, faith, moral shame and moral fear, non-greed, non-aversion, non-delusion — arise together with it and draw in pure energy that refines our inner elements. Every cell, down to the smallest particle, is directed toward healing and correction, keeping both body and mind strong.
The opposite happens when unwholesomeness takes hold: every part of the body — thoughts, emotions, cells, blood, lymph, enzymes, hormones — is directed toward self-destruction instead. The neutral state neither helps nor harms; health simply drifts according to whatever karma happens to unfold. The teacher warned against letting life run purely on that drift, especially during illness, because medical treatment only addresses the coarse, symptomatic level — deep cellular healing still depends on the system of wholesomeness working alongside it. Someone who stands firmly within that system heals faster than someone who stands within it less.
The teacher added that the phrase "living in merit," common among the community, means exactly the same thing as "standing within the system of wholesomeness" — because whenever wholesomeness arises, merit flows in, and whenever merit flows in, wholesomeness arises with it. He also noted that Buddhist teaching uses two approaches: the personified approach, which explains karma through individual stories and is easy to grasp, and the Abhi approach, which explains the actual mechanics of mind, mental factors, matter, and Nibbana — harder to follow, but far deeper. He chose to supplement his teaching with the latter, so listeners could understand the real mechanism at work rather than only a surface-level picture.
He closed with a caution: most people only think of merit when a crisis strikes — reacting rather than preventing. But someone who regularly trains to stand within the system of wholesomeness, through that clearly knows body, feelings, mind, and mental objects at all times, can rely on that system continuously — in ordinary moments and in emergencies alike.