พระอาจารย์ขยายความโอวาทหลวงปู่เรื่องระดับของมนุษย์และมารยาทที่ต้องฝึกฝนควบคู่ไปกับความบริสุทธิ์กายวาจาใจ แล้วอธิบายว่าทุกอย่างล้วนเป็นผลของกฎแห่งกรรมที่ถูกกำหนดไว้ตั้งแต่ปฏิสนธิ ทางออกคือร่วมมือกับกุศลสร้างบารมี 10 ทัศในชีวิตประจำวันจนกว่าจะเต็มเปี่ยมและนำไปสู่มรรคผลนิพพานHe expands a teaching on the levels of human beings and the manners that must be cultivated alongside purity of body, speech, and mind, then explains that everything is the result of the law of kamma set from the moment of conception — the way forward is cooperating with the wholesome to build the ten perfections daily until they become full and lead toward the path, fruit, and Nibbana.
A student brought up a teaching: "We are born human — but even at birth, are we already a lower-class human, a middle-class human, or an upper-class human? We can know this... We need to cultivate manners further. When giving alms, keeping precepts, or meditating, our conduct must be graceful... Having such graceful manners becomes the cause for being born into a good family lineage... As for speech, we must speak in gentle words that invite listening." He was asked to expand on this.
A person's level is determined by the law of kamma from the moment of conception
He explained that everything we're born with is the result of . Within of every human being, spheres of merit and demerit overlap at the same center. Whenever the sphere of merit is larger, it releases a stream that draws in conditions producing and ease — but that stream gradually depletes, like a phone battery. When demerit's turn comes to give its result, it wraps around the sphere of merit, preventing it from showing its qualities, and releases a stream that automatically draws in harmful conditions — people, animals, objects, weapons, drugs, or bad company. The net result of both merit and demerit giving their results comes down simply to joy and sorrow.
From the very instant of conception, the program is already set — DNA forms, and dark elements are embedded at various points in the body for future illness or disability. Even the choice of family before conception is governed by matching sense-faculties between the incoming being and parents of a comparable level of merit and demerit — one cannot leap into a family mismatched to one's own store of merit. Appearance, wealth, entourage, fame — all are drawn from the accumulated sphere of merit and demerit. Even how we're raised, whether we receive a good education or none at all, or how sharp or dull our intelligence is, are all results of causes created in the past.
Whether the wholesome or unwholesome invited our cooperation determines the different results we get
In the past, each of us cooperated with or to different degrees. Those who cooperated more with the wholesome allowed it to guide them toward more goodness. Even in this present life, we know that giving is good, yet we only act on it when the wholesome within us, or someone else's wholesomeness, invites us to; without that invitation, we don't act. The opposite is true for wrongdoing — it requires someone else's unwholesomeness, or our own, inviting us to cooperate with greed, aversion, or delusion. Once carried out, the result gets sealed within a completed sphere of demerit and placed on our life's timeline for the future.
Cooperating with the wholesome: building the ten perfections in everyday life
What we must do is cooperate with the wholesome to build perfections every single day — reviewing which of the ten perfections to build today: generosity, , renunciation, wisdom, effort, , truthfulness, resolution, , and equanimity. Practice each until it becomes habit. For whatever can't be done yet, make a resolution for it to become possible in the future; for whatever can be done now, set the intention and act immediately. Each perfection carries both a moral virtue and an accompanying energy. The perfection of generosity clears away , encompassing material giving, giving of the , and giving freedom from fear — relieving those in want and offering good fortune to everyone. The perfection of virtue offers safety. The perfection of renunciation is celibate practice that frees us from delight and aversion toward sensual pleasures, from craving for existence and craving for non-existence, releasing us gradually from coarser states into ever more refined dimensions. As the wholesome proportion grows and the power of the unwholesome and the neutral diminishes, we come to connect with ever more refined, capable, knowing presences that teach us what is right and good.
The essence of virtue is seeing the danger in the unwholesome; the essence of practice is seeing the benefit of the wholesome
Wisdom teaches us to see the danger in the unwholesome and the benefit of the wholesome — this is the true essence of life. Seeing the danger in the unwholesome is the essence of virtue — not merely the five or eight precepts as rules, but refraining from anything connected to the unwholesome; once we refrain, beauty arises. Seeing the benefit of the wholesome is the essence of practice — striving to fulfill wholesome deeds, from which goodness arises. Truly understanding these two gives rise to a vision of a beautiful future life, free from the unwholesome and reaching the wholesome. The sphere of liberation works through seeing the danger in the unwholesome; the sphere of the and vision of liberation works through seeing the benefit of the wholesome, leading us toward an ever more excellent life.
Effort and patience are needed to push through to truth and to Nibbana
Effort arises from inspiration; once our vision is strong enough, inspiration to change our life follows. But patience is needed to push through when facing hardship, because the unwholesome uses accumulated karmic consequences to block us from reaching the truth — for two purposes: to obstruct our pursuit of it, or, if strong enough, to threaten our very life. Once we push through with patience and reach the truth, we become one with the Triple Gem and Nibbana, giving rise to overflowing faith, a clear and worthy life goal, and a mind that becomes an accomplishing element, moving along the path toward the Buddha's wisdom, , and great compassion.
The necessary foundation is knowledge together with happiness and purity — not knowledge aimed at happiness alone, as most people in the world pursue, but knowledge aimed at purity, which brings happiness along with it. With this foundation, life moves toward benefiting both oneself and others; loving-kindness gradually takes shape, becoming a center of light for all beings. But since some beings understand and some don't, and some can be helped while others cannot, we must keep the mind equanimous, unmoved by whatever stimuli come with people and beings. The more balanced the mind remains, the greater the power of truth grows within us, the more the mind becomes an accomplishing element, and the more benefit we can offer — while gradually learning to free ourselves from domination by the three natures. This liberation unfolds gradually until the ten perfections become full, developing further toward twenty-fold and thirty-fold perfections, eventually leading to the attainment of the path, fruit, and Nibbana. This is the very purpose of being born a human being.