A lay follower asked the teacher to kindly expand on a teaching from a late revered elder, who said that whoever holds four virtues within is a person who is never poor: first, faith in the Tathagata; second, precepts of goodness that the noble ones cherish; third, confidence in the Sangha; and fourth, one's own view abiding in — or seeing — the Dhamma.

Faith in the Tathagata

The teacher explained that the reason for placing faith in the Buddha is that life within the cycle of rebirth is overshadowed by ignorance. Many present themselves as knowers, yet none can explain what actually happens in a way that is reasoned and consistent — what causes and conditions bring about both good and bad outcomes — because everyone is covered by ignorance and conditioned by mental formations into seeing things wrongly as a matter of course. Only the Fully Enlightened Buddha can explain the causes behind causes, the mechanisms, the workings, and the purposes of things with astonishing depth. And he did not merely ask us to believe — he also taught us to verify the truth for ourselves.

Precepts of Goodness That the Noble Ones Cherish

Other religions also have prohibitions that function like precepts, but the precepts the Buddha taught differ, because they operate through a mechanism and set of conditions aligned with the wholesome nature working behind the scenes — aligned with the very mechanism that governs all beings. They are tools embedded within the sphere of Dhamma itself, able to correct, purify, and elevate the mind toward liberation, protecting us from being misled by the unwholesome into wrongdoing in body and speech. When we reflect on the purity of our precepts, that purity appears — at first as small as the tip of a needle — and merit is drawn in at that tiny point, gradually expanding larger and larger into a clear, bright sphere, a mass of purity. This is the result of recollecting one's own virtue (silanussati). Precepts thus become the very foundation from which concentration can arise, which is why they are called the precepts of goodness that the noble ones cherish — unlike the precepts of other traditions, which cannot serve as a foundation for developing right concentration.

Confidence in the Sangha

Confidence (pasada) is a sphere of Dhamma that, once established, makes the mind of that person shine bright. An ordinary mind is like the moon stripped of its light, but upon encountering the virtue and moral conduct of the Sangha, that mind can be made to shine again. This confidence develops in stages — from acceptance, to esteem, to respect, and finally to genuine confidence. Not every monk can inspire this confidence in the mind; it depends on encountering particular monks who genuinely embody virtue, who have developed their monastic state through the moral teachings of the Buddha into true members of the Sangha. This is why it is called confidence in the Sangha — not simply respect for an individual monk, but confidence in the Sangha as a body: those who have verified the Dhamma, understood the Buddha's teaching, and embody the Dhamma itself.

One's Own View Abiding in the Dhamma — Seeing the Dhamma

"View" here refers to one's outlook (ditthi). When one's own view comes to abide in the wholesome nature, one becomes able to see the Dhamma. Seeing the Dhamma can only happen by abiding in the present moment, because true reality cannot arise in the past or future — only in the present. Even though the Dhamma is the Buddha's own teaching, merely learning it without practicing and training in it cannot purify the mind. Seeing the Dhamma begins with holding steady awareness, never lapsing. Once the sphere of awareness — the sphere of mindfulness — is established, it draws in pure energy; merit flows in, purifying the impurity of ignorance that obscures, layer upon layer, opening the way into the inner dimensions one level at a time. Mindfulness transforms into clear comprehension, perceiving the inner state of Dhamma directly, developing from darkness into light, from light into a bright sphere, and from a bright sphere into a clear sphere that can be controlled — made smaller or larger, moved forward or back — before finally moving inward to the seventh base at the center of the body, reaching the sphere of Dhamma within. This is what it means to see the Dhamma.

Whoever Holds These Four Virtues Is Never Poor

The teacher concluded that whoever attains these four virtues is a person who is never poor, because they must, by necessity, abide solely within the wholesome nature — the only side that continuously brings genuine benefit and goodness. Such a person is able to avoid both the unwholesome and the karmically neutral, which is not something anyone can do easily; it requires wisdom that sees the danger of the unwholesome and the worth of the wholesome. Once one sees the danger of the unwholesome clearly, the sphere of liberation frees one from it, giving rise to inspiration, right vision, and a genuine determination to change one's life toward something better, more excellent, and truly wondrous. The sphere of knowledge-and-vision of liberation then carries one into that excellent life — and this excellent life is precisely what it means to be never poor. If these four virtues waver, the mind loses its clarity, because both the unwholesome and the neutral force can cloud it — and the unwholesome, worse still, can darken it entirely, leading one to chase after illusory possessions that the unwholesome dangles as bait, wealth fit only for the deluded, who understand nothing beyond the coarse and superficial. All of this happens simply because these four virtues are not firmly established within — leaving an opening for the unwholesome and the neutral force to take control.