ทุกชีวิตถูกควบคุมด้วยธรรมชาติ 3 ฝ่าย (กุศล อกุศล อัพยากตะ) ที่ผลัดกันเอากายเวทนาจิตธรรมของตนมาซ้อนกับของเรา ความคิดและความรู้สึกนึกคิดที่ผุดขึ้นในใจเราตลอดวันจึงมักไม่ใช่ความคิดของเราเองล้วนๆ แต่มนุษย์มีบทบาทสำคัญคือการกำหนดรู้ เพื่อเลือกทำงานร่วมกับฝ่ายกุศลอย่างจงใจ แทนที่จะปล่อยชีวิตไปตามยถากรรมEvery life is governed by three natural forces -- wholesome, unwholesome, and neutral -- that take turns overlaying their own body, feeling, mind, and phenomena onto ours. The thoughts and feelings arising in our mind throughout the day are therefore often not purely our own. A human being's key role is to be mindfully aware, deliberately choosing to work alongside the wholesome side rather than drifting along according to fate.
A summary of key points from a teaching given to regular students, on how every life is governed by three natural forces, and where the "inner voice" that arises in our mind truly comes from.
The Three Natural Forces Overlay Their "Backdrop" Onto Us
Every life is governed by three natural forces that take turns overlaying their own manager onto us. Wholesomeness overlays a backdrop of refined bodies -- the celestial body, the Brahma body -- acting as a mentor to gradually elevate our own body, feeling, mind, and phenomena toward and liberation. Unwholesomeness, on the other hand, overlays the body, feeling, mind, and phenomena of realms lower than human -- hell beings, hungry ghosts, demons, animals -- to drag us down through greed, aversion, delusion, and lust.
Our mind is like an energy-drawing device. Whichever force becomes master of the house overlays its own body, feeling, mind, and phenomena, and that force's thoughts and feelings then appear as our own thoughts and feelings -- without our realizing it, we typically mistake them for our own. Scientists have found that a human being thinks roughly 40,000 to 60,000 thoughts a day -- a number this large isn't because we're generating it all ourselves, but because the various forces are constantly competing to insert thoughts and steer us, from the moment we wake until we fall asleep.
Why Some Thoughts Won't Stop No Matter How Hard We Reject Them
If a thought were truly our own, simply stopping the thinking should make it disappear. So why do some thoughts refuse to stop even when we don't want them and have already rejected them? Because they were never ours to begin with -- they're a cycle of energy and waves growing more intense from whatever backdrop has been overlaid. When it's side, our thoughts and feelings gradually become more virtuous automatically, to the point we wish we could stay that way forever. When it's side, our thoughts and feelings become coarser, our behavior changes, while negative energy is drawn in to lock in a completed pattern of demerit, placed on our life's timeline like a time bomb waiting to detonate.
The Human Role Is to "Choose a Side"
Our life proceeds automatically according to the law of karma at all times. But a human being has an essential role: choosing which side to help in this equation. If we side with wholesomeness, we must perform good deeds -- giving, keeping precepts, meditating -- which sets in motion a cooperation between us and the inner knower of great power. A human being's role is actually very simple: just being "mindfully aware," letting arise, without needing to do anything overly difficult. Everything else is handled automatically by the system that continues refining our inner elements.
The teacher drew an analogy to quantum physics, where observing versus not observing changes the behavior of particles. Without observation, a particle scatters in every direction, like a human mind that scatters with no place to rest. But once observed, or once an intention is set, the behavior changes into something that draws in energy -- science has already proven that setting an intention versus not setting one produces different results, which aligns with the Buddhist principle that wherever we focus, the mind settles there, and that is where the drawing-in of energy occurs.
How to Be Mindfully Aware
Practice being mindfully aware at , , using a meditation mantra and visualized object, or focus on the breath, or on the rise and fall of the abdomen -- wherever feels familiar -- to draw in pure energy, merit. Everything else unfolds automatically; our only task is to stay continuously aware without lapsing. This sets in motion a cooperation between us and the Triple Gem within, and Nibbana itself -- and this is no small matter, since Nibbana, in its countless expressions, is constantly caring for and helping all beings, not just us alone.
When Suffering Arises, Simply Being Aware of It Is Enough
The Buddha taught that suffering is a state that must be endured and is hard to endure; when it arises, simply being mindfully aware of it is enough -- there's no need to struggle against it or flee from it. If we reject or avoid it by seeking distractions to numb ourselves, the suffering doesn't actually go away. When we're mindfully aware, the sphere of knowing, mindfulness, draws in pure energy to cleanse the defilement that causes the suffering, gradually lightening it until the difficulty fades away. This is precisely why we need to cultivate , exactly as the Buddha taught.