เมื่อมลทินสะสมในแต่ละวันมีมากกว่าเวลาที่ใช้ชำระ ความรู้สึกห่างไกลจากธรรมะจึงยังคงอยู่ ทางแก้คือต้องนั่งให้ยาวขึ้นจนผ่านจุดวิกฤต บุญที่เหนี่ยวนำเข้ามาอย่างต่อเนื่องจะเริ่มเห็นผลชัดเจนเป็นความปลอดโปร่งเบาสบายWhen the defilement accumulated each day exceeds the time spent clearing it, the feeling of being distant from the Dhamma persists. The remedy is to sit longer, past a critical threshold — the merit continuously drawn in then begins to show clear, tangible results as a sense of lightness and ease.
Someone asked: even sitting in meditation every day, though not for very long, why does it still feel like I'm so far from the path of ? Why does the mind think this way?
This happens because defilement still outweighs . Each day we engage in countless activities, and and the neutral are constantly contesting to become "owner of the house." Whenever we lapse into inattention, not anchoring the mind, the neutral and unwholesome natures can seize that moment. But when we do anchor the mind, it has a base to rest on, and the drawing-in of merit-energy occurs. When we lapse, the mind has no base, scatters into restlessness, and no merit is drawn in. When we sit in meditation, merit-energy is drawn in to clear away defilement — but because there's simply more defilement than can be cleared in that time, it never quite finishes.
What helps is sitting for longer stretches, because a longer sit shows results immediately. For example, Pra Ajarn once had fellow practitioners try sitting continuously for a whole morning — after breakfast, straight through until eleven o'clock, roughly three hours or more — and they were able to directly feel the purity that arose, the stillness of the mind, because the clearing happened continuously. If the clearing is happening but not yet enough, it hasn't yet crossed the critical threshold where results become clearly noticeable. Once that threshold is crossed, the defilement grows lighter, and we begin to feel a distinct lightness and ease — we know we've passed the critical point.
For those with strong physical and mental stamina, Pra Ajarn recommends sitting for as long as eight hours, since a day has twenty-four hours — needs at least eight hours of sustained strength to produce truly remarkable results. Try it and see for yourself. Once proven, you'll find the wholesome system can control and manage everything on its own, with almost nothing left for us to actively do. This is the result of giving enough time for the wholesome to take complete hold. Give it little time, and it can help only a little; give it much time, and it will help accordingly, much more.