พระอาจารย์ขยายความโอวาทเรื่องดวงบุญว่าเป็นดวงกลมใสสว่างเปี่ยมสุขและบริสุทธิ์ ทำงานขจัดมลทินอัตโนมัติตลอดเวลา แต่หากบาปมีปริมาณมากเกินกว่าบุญเก่าจะรับมือไหว จำเป็นต้องสร้างบุญใหม่และดำรงอยู่ในกุศลด้วยการกำหนดรู้ให้ดวงสติตั้งขึ้นอยู่เสมอHe explains that merit is a bright, clear sphere full of happiness and purity that automatically clears impurity around the clock, but when demerit outweighs the merit built up so far, new merit and abiding in wholesomeness — through steady mindful awareness — are needed to draw help in faster.
A student asked the teacher to expand on a teaching the late master once gave about the sphere of merit.
What the sphere of merit is, and its two qualities
He explained that the master gave this teaching on April 23, 2000 (B.E. 2543), over twenty years ago. The sphere of merit is round, clear, and bright, sitting at the center of . Within it is filled with and — its two defining qualities. It is a sacred nature capable of removing impurity that nothing else can remove; dirt and impurity are the enemies of cleanliness and purity. So whenever merit is present, it automatically releases a stream that clears impurity — because impurity is what creates problems and obstacles that make life difficult.
Merit works automatically around the clock, but stillness helps it work faster
Our life has a part we can control and a part we cannot. The part we cannot control is nature's automatic system — like the liver, kidneys, and intestines, which we cannot control; everything there runs automatically. The mind is the same: part of it can be controlled, part cannot. What we can do is keep practicing awareness, staying continuously mindful — that much we can train. But the actual mechanics of clearing away impurity are beyond our ability to perform ourselves, because we don't know what impurity looks like or where it sits. That's why we rely on merit, the automatic mechanism of side, to run the correcting system continuously, day and night, whether we're asleep, awake, standing, walking, sitting, or lying down — whether we're aware of it or not.
The master taught that if we want merit to help quickly, we need to stop and settle: give generously, keep , meditate, and be free of , greed, anger, and delusion — because all of these belong to the wholesome nature. Whenever we abide in the wholesome nature, it guides us through an inner voice toward doing good, cultivating stillness, giving, keeping precepts, and being free of greed, anger, and delusion — because these are s that, once established, draw pure energy — merit — flowing in continuously. New merit draws in the old merit already stored, helping resolve crises. Even giving only occasionally, every act of giving lets merit flow in and purify the mind, bringing a deep sense of fulfillment. That flowing merit adjusts our elements, increasing the proportion of the wholesome and reducing the power of — stinginess.
Why doesn't merit always help right away?
A follow-up question came up: some people wonder why, after making merit, it doesn't seem to help — or why others seem to receive help faster. He explained that merit does help — it's never that it doesn't. But the volume of demerit can be large enough that it never fully clears, being generated continuously. If we don't create new merit to assist, the old merit we already have has a limited rate and isn't enough to purify all of it. And if, instead of creating new merit, we complain and blame our circumstances, an unwholesome state of mind arises and draws in even more demerit — making things worse. Because when demerit gives its result, it disturbs the mind, giving rise to resentment and irritation, which in turn draws in both old and new demerit together, while the available merit is only a little — so it can't keep up in time. This is the problem that comes from not understanding the principle, instead of using the present moment to draw in more merit.
Every problem and obstacle that arises is the result of impurity attracting the conditions that will produce suffering and harm in our life. Even though merit helps, its rate can be smaller than the rate at which demerit is releasing its stream, so we must endure until the demerit has fully released according to what was already set to occur. This is because human beings live under two laws at once: and . Since we cannot control the law of kamma, we must rely on the law of the three characteristics instead. The law of kamma runs its own course — when demerit gives its result, it means the sphere of demerit was larger than the sphere of merit at that moment; the rate at which merit can help and the rate at which demerit releases its stream simply aren't equal.
The solution: abide in the three characteristics by keeping the sphere of mindfulness alive
When the rate of merit isn't enough, we need to abide within the law of the three characteristics — wholesome, unwholesome, and neutral — by staying in the nature that can support us: the wholesome nature. The simple method is generosity, , and meditation — non-greed, non-aversion, non-delusion. In practice, this means keeping awareness alive: letting the sphere of knowing, the sphere of , arise, and knowing in a relaxed, light way — knowing stillness, knowing stopping, continuously. The sphere of knowing, the sphere of mindfulness, will draw pure energy flowing in continuously; the brightness of stopping and stillness lets the new merit draw in the old merit already present, helping resolve things faster.