The Three Natures and the Principle of Determined, Clear Knowing

We need to learn and understand how to abide with the wholesome nature, training ourselves until we can dwell there steadily. The Buddha taught, regarding abiding with the wholesome nature: "Monks, you should clearly determine and know the body, feelings, mind, and mental objects, in order to remove covetousness (abhijjhā) and grief (domanassa) toward the world." We need to memorize this sentence — it is deeply important in Buddhism, because it alone can transform an ordinary person into a noble one. Its meaning divides into three parts.

In the first part, the Buddha teaches us to determine and know. To determine means to aim, to specify, to point at — wherever we aim, wherever we specify, the mind gets placed there; this is called "paying attention." In order to know something, we must place our mind directly on it. For example, to know the feet, we place the mind there and we come to know cold, hot, soft, hard. But if we don't pay attention, we simply won't know how the feet feel, no matter how they actually are. The same is true of the breath: unless we place the mind at the nostrils, we can never know whether an in-breath or out-breath is short or long, gentle or forceful. Even though the nervous system is always there, we only become aware of it when we determine to notice — wherever we aim, that's what we come to know.

The Hidden Mechanism Behind It

Determined knowing sounds simple, but there is a mechanism working behind the scenes — much like our own liver, kidneys, and intestines. We eat food, but unless we study it, we have no idea how the body carries food from mouth to stomach, how the stomach digests it, how it's absorbed, how it's eliminated. In ancient times no one knew this; science hadn't reached that far. The same is true of inner knowledge of the mind — without study we simply cannot understand it; we only perceive as much as we're able to. This divides into two parts: one part we must come to understand ourselves, the other happens automatically and requires a teacher — someone who has studied and verified it — to explain.

Once we know how to determine and know, we place attention wherever we wish to know something — for example, the index finger touching the thumb: whatever we feel there, we bring the mind to know it. Wherever the mind is placed and comes to know, mindfulness (sati) arises. Sati is a tool of the wholesome nature that lets us perceive detail. As we keep determining and knowing, subtlety deepens because of merit. At the center of mindfulness a clear orb forms, drawing merit-power into the center of brightness, which then clears away the veiling elements of ignorance. Once cleared, we perceive detail at an even deeper level. When the veiling elements are fully cleared, we can enter the inner mind. Pure energy then drives the wholesome system, clearing defilement. If the hindrances are present, the mind becomes confused, delighted, doubtful — preventing us from reaching the inner mind; defilement blocks the way, and mindfulness becomes blurred, losing its recollection of position.

Hindrances and Defilement Are the Obstacles to Sitting Long

The hindrances create confusion. When we try to determine our way into finer detail, pressure builds — a hard-to-bear state. This is one reason most people cannot sustain long, continuous meditation. Those whose defilement is lighter can bear that discomfort better and can determine through the confusion caused by the hindrances, which are tools of ignorance that keep us clinging and unable to let go. Even so, as we push against the hindrances, the confusion gradually lessens, allowing us to sustain determined knowing for longer.

The Step-by-Step Technique for Lengthening Your Sit

To extend the length of a sit, we must want to extend it — we must be willing to keep adding time: from 5 minutes to 10, from 10 to 20, 30, 40, 50 minutes; from 1 hour to an hour and a half, to 2 hours; from 2 and a half hours to 3 hours; from 3 hours to 4, to 5; from 6 hours to 7, 8, 9 hours. We must have a target to reach — without a target, there is no way to extend the time. We need genuine determination to practice for progressively longer periods, until eventually we can sit continuously across days and nights.

When we do good, the wholesome system rewards us with tools — for instance, giving us brightness, an orb of light, that allows us to sit continuously for longer. But we must prove that we can actually use that light to extend our practice time further. Once we do, the wholesome system provides an even better tool — a clearer, brighter orb — so we can extend the period during which the wholesome nature can work even more. We are merely the ones who create favorable conditions for the wholesome to do its work. Our role is simply to keep determining and knowing, without lapsing. If we consistently give time to the wholesome, we receive increasingly refined tools in return.

Why Most People Never Extend Their Practice

Failing to clear defilement is the key issue that keeps people from being able to extend their practice continuously. Many people who once managed only an hour keep doing just an hour, indefinitely. Some manage only 10 minutes and stay at 10 minutes. Some manage 30 minutes and, even after 10 or 20 years of practice, remain stuck at 30 minutes. Doing only this much yields only this much result. In certain eras when Dhamma practice was an ordinary part of everyday life, practitioners routinely sat continuously across days and nights — some for a week, some for a month, some continuously for a year — because they held a clear goal of extending their time further and further. Because they held that goal, they were able to achieve it. The wholesome system developed accordingly, providing progressively better tools: from light, to an orb of light, to a clear luminous orb that can be controlled and used to connect with the inner Dhamma sphere.

From Manual Effort to a Fully Automatic System

Once we connect with the inner Dhamma sphere, we enter an automatic system — one that develops us to stay connected with a tool that keeps working continuously. Whether we're talking, walking, or bathing, the automatic system keeps running. This is why we need to develop ourselves toward this system; in the beginning it requires a suitable environment and a knowledgeable guide. Everything can eventually be developed into an automatic system — like a coffee machine that runs on its own once set up.

Ordinarily, pure energy only arises when we are actually abiding with the wholesome nature — this is the "manual" mode, requiring deliberate effort. Once we develop toward a "semi-automatic" mode, we still need to start the engine occasionally, but the automatic system gradually improves in quality. Once fully developed into a complete automatic system, we reach a state that runs 24 hours a day — even while asleep, the machine keeps running, continuously bringing power to us. This means the stream of merit and fortune flows continuously, and the feeling of liberation arises continuously. Even while we work, exercise, bathe, or talk, the system keeps running and encouraging us.

An Account of Extraordinarily Long, Continuous Sitting

In certain eras when Dhamma practice was common among ordinary people, some practitioners were able to sit in continuous meditation across days and nights; some sat for weeks or months at a stretch; and some sat continuously for as long as a year. All of this became possible because they held a clear goal of continually extending their time, rather than settling for whatever duration they had already managed. This shows that when we give unlimited, continuous time to the wholesome nature, the wholesome system develops our capacity far beyond what most people would ever imagine possible.

Part Two: Determining the Body, Feelings, Mind, and Mental Objects — to Know the Truth of Life

In the second part, the Buddha teaches determined knowing so that we may also know the truth of life. Every life is controlled by the three natures, each competing to become master of the house of our mind. Once one becomes master, it overlays its own body-feeling-mind-mental-object onto ours. The mind is the seat of consciousness, and it controls our behavior through the feeling of suffering or happiness. There are three kinds of nature — wholesome, unwholesome, and neutral (avyākata) — each with entirely different qualities. We can only know which one is present by determining our attention on the stage of the mind, which has a "sensor" that reveals which nature is currently master of the house. If the wholesome is master, we feel comfortable and happy. If the unwholesome is master, we feel suffering — a hard-to-bear state. If the neutral nature is master, we feel neither happy nor suffering — a strange, in-between feeling, neither quite good nor quite bad.

The Inner Voice That Directs Our Behavior

The thoughts and feelings that appear are not truly, originally ours — they belong to whichever nature has moved in to occupy the mind. This is why we feel good one moment, bad the next, or simply neutral — all this fluctuation is the result of the automatic system at work. It's like the body: sometimes the stomach hurts, sometimes it doesn't, always for a reason. The mind works the same way — it's not that the mind simply turns good or bad at random; there is a mechanism behind it. Likewise, every piece of behavior we display has an inner voice directing it: if told to sit, we sit; if told to walk, we walk; if told to pull the car over, we pull over. Watch closely — every time we act, we believe we simply wanted to. But sometimes we do things that make no sense, that are pointless; sometimes we do things we shouldn't; but often, too, we do things that are genuinely appropriate. We can only know the difference by determining and knowing the body, feelings, mind, and mental objects, because this reveals the mechanism directing every thought and every action we take. This is Part Two.

Part Three: Removing Covetousness and Grief Through Equanimity

Part Three is where the Buddha teaches us to remove delight and aversion toward the world entirely. He uses the word abhijjhā — delight that gives rise to wanting — and domanassa — grief. The unwholesome uses this as an opportunity to make us blame ourselves or others, pressure ourselves, criticize ourselves, even harm ourselves severely. To let go of abhijjhā and domanassa, we must rely on tatramajjhattatā — the mental factor of equanimity that keeps the mind neutral, not swaying toward delight or aversion. Pleasant and unpleasant things still exist, but the mind is set to remain balanced — not overjoyed when happy, not overwhelmed when sad.

The Mental Factor of Equanimity: The Key to the First Jhāna

Once the mind achieves this balance, bodily and mental tranquility (kāya-passaddhi and citta-passaddhi) arise, free from restlessness. Once tranquil, body and mind become more refined; once refined, they become lighter; once light, they become agile and fit for work. The body becomes fit for work, the mind becomes fit for work, capable of acting appropriately and directly. Once fit for work in this way, the first jhāna arises. All of this depends on tatramajjhattatā. If we've practiced meditation for a long time yet the body and mind still won't settle, it's because we haven't relied on this particular quality — comparable to mindfulness, a wholesome mental factor arising together with the wholesome mind. Everyone has it, but because we don't give it importance, it lacks quality. We need to determine and give it the same importance we give to mindfulness.

Cultivating Loving-Kindness and Dedicating Merit

Once the proportion of the wholesome has been established, we cultivate loving-kindness (mettā), a tool the wholesome nature uses so that those with abundant merit can return the benefit to those with less. Simply by determining thoughts of love and goodwill, a bright, round orb of loving-kindness forms. The quality of this loving-kindness depends on purity of heart and sincerity. Our revered teacher instructed us to draw upon the mind of a mother, overflowing with love and goodwill toward her child, and place that mind at the center of ours, then extend it outward to cover our home, our neighborhood, district, province, country, and the entire world. May all beings be free from suffering and find happiness everywhere; may those who suffer greatly suffer less; may those with little happiness find more — extending further still to cover the entire universe, ten thousand world-systems, a hundred thousand koṭi galaxies.

Closing Aspiration

Bring the mind to rest still at the center of the Triple Gem — the Buddha-jewel, the Dhamma-jewel, and the Sangha-jewel — and at the center of the subtle Dhamma-body of our revered teachers, merging as one with them. Pay respects and ask for the blessings and merit of nibbāna and of our teachers, that it all converge with the merit we have accumulated into sacred merit — freeing us from calamity, karmic obstacles, and hardship; granting us the eye of Dhamma, good health, long life, and unwavering resolve to build pāramī toward nibbāna. May our work flourish; may we be born into a family of right view; and when we pass from this life, may we be reborn in a fortunate realm, continuing to study the Dhammakāya knowledge correctly. The sit closes with a chanted aspiration that all past wrongs be forgiven and all accumulated merit bear fruit for everyone.