พระอาจารย์อธิบายว่าการนั่งสมาธิแล้วรู้สึกไม่ดีบ้างเป็นเรื่องปกติ เพราะมลทินกำลังถูกปลดปล่อยออกเหมือนแบตเตอรี่จ่ายพลังงานจนหมด เราเพียงแค่ให้เวลาแก่ระบบกุศลธรรมให้มากพอ และกำหนดรู้อย่างสม่ำเสมอ ที่เหลือปล่อยให้เป็นหน้าที่ของระบบกุศลธรรมThe teacher explains that feeling restless or uncomfortable during meditation is normal — impurities are simply being discharged, like a battery draining before it can be refilled. All we need to do is give the wholesome system enough time and keep steady awareness; the rest is its work, not ours.
A lay follower asked whether "giving the system of wholesome enough time" simply means sitting longer each session, and why meditation sometimes feels restless, scattered, or uncomfortable.
A Bad Sitting Isn't Wasted
When a sitting feels bad, it doesn't mean nothing is happening — a difficult sitting happens because impurities are being discharged. It's like a phone battery: the charge has to be spent before it can be replaced. As long as unwholesome energy remains, it has to produce unpleasant experiences until that energy runs out. Once charge is fully spent, it can no longer produce anything more, and only then does wholesomeness step in to give good results — like a freshly charged battery.
While unwholesomeness is discharging its irritation, an inner voice will urge us to quit: "this sitting is torture, it's too scattered, just stop." This is a trick to make us give up — because if we stop, the old im never gets discharged, and only piles up further. But if we keep sitting and let it fully discharge, wholesomeness takes over immediately, since it is already working the whole time in the background, helping to clear the impurity faster even while unwholesomeness is releasing its charge.
The Sequence of Brightness That Follows
Once and coarse impurities are spent, the mind settles into stable concentration — a feeling of ease and openness, as if a crisis has passed. From there, wholesomeness moves on to refine subtler impurities, which can be puzzling: why isn't there brightness yet, if the hindrances are gone? Because finer impurities still remain to be cleared. Once those clear too, brightness and arise. Brightness develops into a sphere of light, and that sphere develops into a clear, radiant sphere. Once the impurity locking that sphere in place is cleared, we gain the ability to guide it toward and let it drop into . When impurity is gone, the elements — earth, water, wind, fire, space, and consciousness — merge into one and rise from the sixth base to the seventh, drawing the mind into the sphere of . From there, everything proceeds automatically.
Our Role Is Simply to Maintain Awareness
Everything depends on the system of wholesome dhamma — it isn't something we accomplish ourselves. The only thing required of us is to give it time, and to maintain steady, unwavering awareness. This is the simplest role we could possibly be asked to play. This design was set from the very creation of the human body: all a human being needs to do is this much. Wherever we place our attention, the mind settles there — whether at the breath or at the center of the body. Once it is settled, the pull of pure energy — merit — begins, driving the system of wholesome dhamma to refine us on its own, with the Triple Gem overseeing the system and Nibbana behind it all, watching over every being.