The Three Natures and the Triple Gem That Oversees the Wholesome System

Practicing Dhamma is necessary and vitally important for every life, because we live under the control of three natures. Only the wholesome nature can give us knowledge, understanding, what is right, what is good, and success in fulfilling every good wish. The other natures give no benefit at all — worse, an unwholesome nature brings us a great deal of suffering and harm. We therefore need to learn and understand how to live with the wholesome nature — to study, understand, and train ourselves to abide with it. The Triple Gem oversees the wholesome system, with nibbāna standing behind it all.

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 essential sentence, because this single sentence alone can transform an ordinary person into a noble one. Its essential content divides into three parts: the first teaches determined knowing; the second teaches determining the body, feelings, mind, and mental objects; the third teaches removing abhijjhā and domanassa — delight and aversion, joy and sorrow — entirely.

To Determine Is to Mark — Like the Body's Automatic Systems

In determined knowing, to determine means to mark, to specify precisely. Wherever we mark, wherever we specify, the mind gets placed there. Mark the feet, and the mind goes to the feet. Once the mind is there, we can perceive the sensory nerve system at work. In truth, the sensory nerves are working all the time, but unless we place the mind there to perceive them, we simply don't know. Before, we didn't know whether our feet touching the ground felt cold or hot — but once we place the mind at that exact spot, we come to know. The same applies to the abdominal wall: placing the mind there, we perceive the rising and falling with each breath, in and out — this perception only appears once we place the mind there. And placing the mind at the breath at the nostrils, in-breath and out-breath touching the nostril wall, we perceive it through the nerves.

Determined knowing looks simple, but there's a mechanism working behind the scenes — just as the body has internal automatic systems: liver, kidneys, intestines, stomach. The mind, too, has an automatic system like this, with its own hidden mechanism, which our teachers explain to us.

Mindfulness Draws In Pure Energy and Refined Treasures

Sati is recollection, awareness, arising in the mind. Wherever we place our attention, sati arises there. The mind, in its aspect of consciousness, leads the wholesome citta to arise at that spot, and sati arises with it. While we're perceiving, the sphere of knowing — the sphere of mindfulness — draws in pure energy. But if a state of not-knowing appears instead, it shows that ignorance (avijjā) has replaced sati, and we can no longer perceive; the unwholesome then steers our attention toward whatever draws in sinful energy instead.

Once the sphere of mindfulness arises, it continuously draws pure merit-energy in. Merit takes the form of a bright, round, clear orb, brimming with pure energy and happiness. At its center lies a store of refined treasures — form, wealth, virtue, retinue, honor, praise, happiness, and the fruits of the path to nibbāna — all complete within the orb of merit. When merit flows through us, refined treasure flows through us too, and this refined treasure draws worldly, coarse treasure toward us, in proportion to the strength of the "sense-base" attraction of that refined treasure. The bigger one's orb of merit, the bigger the refined treasure, and the stronger the pull.

The purity within merit has the function of clearing away the defilement that creates problems and obstacles, the source of hardship. As defilement lightens, problems and hardship lighten too; once defilement is gone, we become free, moving from one dimension into a subtler one, perceiving ever more freedom and lightness. The more we become free, the more vitality increases. We must therefore free ourselves from coarser dimensions and enter subtler ones — and doing so, we can also reach the knowing ones who reside in those subtler dimensions, guiding and teaching us what is right and good.

The Three Natures Overlay Body, Feeling, Mind, and Mental Objects

In Part Two, the Buddha teaches us to determine and know the body, feelings, mind, and mental objects, because when one of the three natures — wholesome, unwholesome, or neutral — competes and wins the position of master of the mind's house, it overlays its own body-feeling-mind-mental-object onto the human's. This can only happen in one place: the mind. The part of mind that perceives is the aspect of feeling. If the wholesome possesses it, its quality appears as comfort and mental happiness. If the unwholesome seizes possession as master of the house, its quality appears as suffering — a hard-to-bear state. If the neutral nature is master, its quality is neither happiness nor suffering — strange, neither quite good nor quite bad.

As for mind itself, there are, briefly, 89 kinds of consciousness. Whichever nature possesses the mind brings its own body-feeling-mind-mental-object to overlay it. The wholesome, for example, brings a subtle divine body of higher quality than the human body, to instruct and elevate the human mind toward what is noble and good. But if the unwholesome wins possession, it brings natures lower than the human body — such as a wandering spirit, an asura, or a hell-being — to overlay the mind, because the unwholesome's goal is always to draw in sinful energy. An unwholesome mind must be accompanied by unwholesome mental factors — greed, hatred, delusion — in order to drag the human's elements downward.

When "Their" Thoughts Appear as "Our Own"

When any nature possesses and overlays its body-feeling-mind-mental-object onto us, its thoughts and feelings appear in our own mind. The mind is our instrument of knowing — whatever it knows, we know. Whatever they think, whatever they feel, we feel the same the moment they possess our mind. But no one ever tells us these thoughts aren't ours, so our behavior changes accordingly — much like being possessed by a spirit, only more complex. Even the tone of our voice changes — gentle or harsh, depending on that nature's own quality. We can only know this by learning to determine and know the body, feelings, mind, and mental objects — this reveals to us, in the present moment, whether a wholesome or unwholesome nature has taken possession, and at what level of consciousness, from which nature.

Once we understand this, all we can do is keep determining and knowing, understanding things as they truly are, and thereby release our grip on the five aggregates. Each nature clings firmly to its own view, in order to force us to act according to its own agenda. Every nature's agenda is ultimately the same: to draw in its own kind of energy to drive its own system, because no system can drive itself — it needs energy. The unwholesome needs sinful energy to drive the unwholesome system; the wholesome system needs pure energy, merit.

A Cautionary Tale: The Pyramid Investment Trap

In the course of daily life, even in matters of money and property, the unwholesome leads us astray, tempting us with the promise of gains greater than what is real. Once we accept that idea, we become trapped within that dimension, and it begins to shape us. The pattern typically looks like this: someone sets up an investment scheme, then uses one person after another to approach us, urging us to put money into ventures that make no real sense. Those doing the persuading often have no genuine understanding to explain things properly to us; they simply coax us through craving — bhava-taṇhā, the desire to obtain good results. Once we fall for it and accept, sinful energy is drawn in continuously as we're being shaped into believing, until the accumulated sin reaches a point sufficient to compel us into wrong speech and wrong action across various activities.

Once we act, the completed sin gets processed and gives its result — arising from that initial delight, which is exactly the opening the unwholesome uses to give rise to bhava-taṇhā (craving to gain). And when the result disappoints, the resulting grief gives rise to vibhava-taṇhā (craving to reject, not to have). This is precisely why the Buddha taught us to eliminate delight and aversion toward the world entirely — because these become the very handle the unwholesome uses to steer us wrongly, leading us to live wrongly, act on wrong causes, and reap the resulting harm. A great deal of suffering in life arises this way — even in the practice of Dhamma itself.

Samatha Resolves Emotion, Vipassanā Resolves Reason

In living our lives, we are governed by two big things: emotion and reason. Emotion is remedied by samatha (calm) — through samatha we can refine coarse emotion into subtler emotion. Reason, on the other hand, requires vipassanā (insight) — understanding things as they truly are, so that the light of wisdom appears; the wise within teaches us to understand, and our wisdom becomes ever clearer and brighter. This is exactly why unreasonable investment schemes so easily deceive people who let emotion — craving — run ahead of reason, the wisdom that carefully weighs and considers. Dhamma practice therefore requires developing both samatha and vipassanā together.

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

Dhamma practice requires setting the mind in a neutral state, not swaying with whatever stimulates delight or grief. We must place the mind in balance, relying on tatramajjhattatā, the mental factor of equanimity. Once established, it balances the mind, no longer swayed by stimuli; the mind gradually settles, like a pendulum that no longer swings to either extreme, until it comes to rest in balance. Once tatramajjhattatā is firmly and evenly established, it draws the stream of merit flowing in, producing the tranquility factors of body and mind (kāya-passaddhi and citta-passaddhi), calming and steadying them, making body and mind light, gentle, and fit for work. Once fit for work, the first jhāna arises.

If we've practiced meditation for a long time yet body and mind still won't settle, it's because we haven't relied on this factor of equanimity. This mental factor arises together with the wholesome mind — everyone already has it, but because we don't give it importance, it lacks quality. We must determine and give it the same importance we give to mindfulness. Once mindfulness is sustained continuously, the proportion of wholesomeness increases step by step, progressing toward the second, third, and fourth jhānas in turn.

Cultivating Loving-Kindness for Those With Less Merit

Once we understand this mechanism, we cultivate loving-kindness (mettā), a tool of the wholesome nature that those with abundant merit use to benefit those with less. Simply by setting a wish of goodwill, determining loving-kindness, the sphere of mettā appears. Our revered teacher taught us to draw on the mind of a mother, overflowing with love and goodwill for her young child, and set it within our own heart. Loving-kindness filled with sincerity and purity draws in pure energy, developing the sphere of mettā to become clearer and brighter. Then extend this heart of loving-kindness to cover our home, neighborhood, district, province, country, and the whole world, turning it into a crystal world, radiant, cool, clean, and pure — reaching earthbound devas, sky devas, heavenly beings of every realm, brahmas, formless brahmas, and even hell-beings, asuras, and animals. May all beings be free from suffering and find happiness everywhere; may those who suffer greatly suffer less; may those with little happiness have more — extending further 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 stream of merit, at the center of the happiness and purity of the merit-element. 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. Dedicate this merit to our parents, grandparents, teachers and benefactors, the devas who help and support us, and to every karmic counterparty we may have wronged, that we may forgive one another and all equally receive a share of this merit. Ask for the blessing and merit of nibbāna and of our teachers, that it 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.