พระอาจารย์อธิบายว่าเมื่อใจแทรกออกจากการฟังธรรม แสดงว่ามีธรรมชาติฝ่ายใดฝ่ายหนึ่งซ้อนเข้ามาในใจ ใช้จิตชี้นำและเจตสิกตรึงอารมณ์ไว้เพื่อจองจำเราไว้ในมิติของเขา การหลุดพ้นจึงเกิดจากกุศลชิงช่วงชิงเป็นเจ้าเรือน ไม่ใช่ตัวเราหลุดพ้นออกมาเองThe teacher explains that when the mind slips away from listening to the Dhamma, some nature has overlaid the mind, steering it with consciousness and anchoring an emotion through its mental factor to confine us within its own dimension. Liberation, he notes, happens when wholesomeness itself seizes that opening — not something we accomplish alone.
One student asked: when listening to the teacher lead a sitting meditation, the ears hear the teacher's voice but the mind doesn't follow along at all with what's being said — during that time, whose power holds the mind?
It Depends on Who Has Overlaid the Mind at That Moment
The teacher explained that it depends on which nature has overlaid our mind at that moment. Once it overlays us, its own feeling appears within our mind, steering us to think about this or that. If we accept it, it uses feeling and emotion — the component — to anchor itself, allowing it to steer us for a longer stretch of time through consciousness and its s. Our life is sustained by exactly these two things — or, more precisely, body, feeling, mind, and . Consciousness (citta) is the voice of thought; the mental factor (cetasika) is the feeling. When it becomes more subtle, an accompanying image appears alongside it, and finer still, it can become almost like video, complete with sound and motion.
When the Mind Slips Away During a Sit, It Uses Emotion to Anchor and Confine Us Within Its Dimension
It's the same as when we're sitting and listening to the teacher lead a meditation — our mind keeps trying to find an opening to slip away. Once it finds that opening, whichever nature has taken hold steers us with an inner voice appearing in the mind, then uses the mental factor to produce an emotion and anchors that emotion in the mind, confining us within its own dimension. This kind of pull relies on both consciousness and its mental factor together. Every moment of life is a continuous flow of energy without a single break; it simply depends on who manages to possess the mind at that moment. Once possession happens, the mental factor anchors in, together with the voice of consciousness steering us. If it's unwholesome, it leads toward suffering and gloom; if it's wholesome, it leads toward elevating the mind and heart, further from the causes of defilement.
Wholesomeness Must Seize Its Own Opening to Take Hold — Our Liberation Isn't Something We Do Alone
It seems as though we can sometimes control this and sometimes not. Wholesomeness, too, must search for its own opening; whenever it manages to seize that moment and take hold as the dominant force, we are set free. That liberation isn't something we achieve on our own — it happens because wholesomeness itself has seized the chance to take hold. The more we understand this, the more we realize how little we, as an individual self, can actually do on our own. The most important duty of being human is simply to learn, and to set our intention.