A lay follower shared that the teacher had taught Dhamma and meditation during a period when the economy was struggling and people around her were stressed and short-tempered. She noticed that the more she meditated, the calmer she became — whereas before, she used to be hot-tempered and irritable, to the point that people around her would keep their distance.

Only the Wholesome Nature Ever Truly Benefits Us

The teacher explained that we live under the control of three natural forces day and night. Only the wholesome nature ever actually benefits us — the other forces bring no benefit at all, and the unwholesome, in particular, actively causes suffering. If we don't abide with the wholesome nature, who else is there to hope for help from, when the wholesome nature's very purpose is to help beings, yet we ourselves fail to place ourselves under its care? Human beings often contradict themselves this way — knowing full well that the wholesome nature is the one that truly benefits them, yet handing their time over to the unwholesome or the neutral force instead, forces that offer no help whatsoever, with the unwholesome even piling on more trouble and hardship. We hope for good results while refusing to rely on the very system capable of delivering them — it simply doesn't add up. Learning to abide with the wholesome nature alone is enough to bring about the kind of change the questioner described.

How Does Meditating Well While Also Studying the Dhamma Differ From Meditating Well Alone?

A follow-up question was asked: how does someone who meditates well and studies the Dhamma benefit differently from someone who meditates well but doesn't study the Dhamma?

The teacher explained that within us lie the spheres of virtue, concentration, wisdom, liberation, and knowledge-and-vision of liberation. Virtue governs speech and action, protecting us from being misled by the unwholesome into wrongdoing. Concentration clears away the hindrances — laziness, restlessness, drowsiness, agitation, and anger — all forms of emotional impurity. Calm meditation refines the emotions down to a single wholesome state, drawing in energy to purify impurity and elevating the mind from a lower-quality refined human body toward an ever-higher quality, much like grades earned through study, ranging anywhere from the lowest to the highest. A higher-quality refined body is more intelligent and more powerful, and can look after our coarse human body far better.

Wisdom, meanwhile, cultivates the right outlook — genuine understanding of reality, seeing clearly the danger inherent in the unwholesome. This is the essential condition for the sphere of liberation to function and free us from it. Someone addicted to gambling, smoking, partying, or gaming can never be freed as long as they don't truly see the danger in those things — the sphere of liberation only activates once someone genuinely sees that danger and sincerely wishes to be free. The sphere of knowledge-and-vision of liberation, in turn, is what carries a person into a better, more excellent life — but it can only function once wisdom has first recognized the value and benefit of the wholesome, that only the wholesome can truly help us. Concentration alone, therefore, does not generate real wisdom — it only refines the quality of the mind. Genuine wisdom requires studying the Dhamma alongside meditation practice. This is why someone who meditates well and studies the Dhamma gains far more benefit than someone who only meditates well — they gain both the refinement that comes from concentration and the wisdom, from studying the Dhamma, that sees the danger of the unwholesome and the value of the wholesome — enabling them to truly break free and reach a better life.