Someone shared that a fellow member had put the great teacher's teaching on "not reacting with joy or displeasure" into practice: when money came in, they felt nothing — no elation; when work didn't come, they felt no distress either. Strangely enough, money kept flowing in steadily. They asked the teacher to explain this principle.

The Middle Way: Keeping the Mind Neutral The teacher confirmed this was exactly right — it is a genuine principle of the practice. On the middle path, the mind must remain neutral: not delighting in what arises, not being distressed by what arises, simply staying still and even, acting as though not acting at all. Practiced this way, one truly progresses. This principle was given as far back as 1996.

The Mental Factor of Equanimity, and Its Effect on the Other Twelve When the mind is held neutral like this, free of delight and aversion, the mental factor of equanimity (tatramajjhattatā) — a factor that arises together with wholesome states — becomes established. This is a crucial factor: once established, it draws in merit and causes another twelve wholesome mental factors to brighten. These are the factors that bring tranquility of body and tranquility of mind — a settled body, a settled heart. A heavy body and mind grow light; a rigid, hardened body and mind grow soft, gentle, and pliant; a body and mind unfit for work become fit for it; sluggishness gives way to nimbleness; and a dishonest body and mind become honest and upright.

Practiced this way, the merit drawn into every wholesome mental factor arises continuously. Non-greed and non-aversion become easy to establish, along with moral shame and moral dread — the sense of shame and fear of wrongdoing — two more factors that arise together with wholesome states, all working together to draw merit inward. The merit that flows through drives the wholesome-dhamma system, cleansing and refining our underlying elements wherever impurity is causing problems and obstacles that make life difficult. Merit flowing through each mental factor distills the mind toward purity, freeing it from one dimension into a subtler one — from the refined human body into an ever more refined body, layer upon layer. When this happens, there is nothing to worry about, whether in livelihood or in practice — progress follows naturally. This — not reacting with joy or displeasure — is the crucial factor. Luang Pu said that delight and aversion are truly dangerous.

Like a Pendulum They cause the mind to swing, unable to find balance, in constant agitation. When the mind is coarsely agitated, unwholesome and neutral states can slip in. It is like a pendulum swinging to one extreme with delight, then swinging back just as far to the other extreme with aversion — the louder the laughter, the louder the weeping that follows, like a churning sea whose high waves trouble every sailor upon it.

But if we hold the mind neutral, free of delight and aversion, like a pendulum gradually settling, coming to rest without swinging to either extreme, the mind becomes firmly established — nothing that touches it can shake it, nothing disturbs it. Because it no longer stirs, the unwholesome cannot slip in, and the mind sinks into ever subtler dimensions, moving continuously from one dimension into the next. Merit flows in together with a stream of refined treasures. The more continuously and easily merit flows in, the more easily and abundantly problems and obstacles get resolved; and the more continuously we move from dimension to dimension, the more we come to reach knowers of ever greater wisdom and power, who can guide us all the more easily. When a problem arises as the fruit of past karma, they reassure us not to panic — those of higher attainment help so that no new karma compounds the old; we need only rest the mind still and let it pass. When there is no work, that too becomes an opportunity to be still and accumulate merit. As the old karmic debt lightens and runs its course, the wholesome side guides us toward accumulating fresh merit, drawing the old merit in continuously, turning crises from bad to good, and good to even better — and we come to reach the first jhāna, and the path, with far greater ease.

Connecting to the Four Foundations of Mindfulness The teacher connected this to the Buddha's teaching that monks should clearly discern the body, feelings, mind, and dhamma, in order to remove covetousness and displeasure — that is, to eliminate delight and grief toward the world. This is exactly the elimination of "reacting with joy or displeasure." Accomplishing this, we abide within the wholesome-dhamma system, moving along the middle path, and the stream of merit from Nibbana pours forth continuously at the center of our body and mind, together with a steady stream of refined treasures.

Why Joy and Aversion Matter So Much to the Unwholesome Side As long as the world remains governed by the three underlying natures, the unwholesome side relies on delight and aversion — joy and grief — as its opening to create fresh demerit. Whenever we feel delight, it seizes that as an opening for greed; whenever we feel aversion, it seizes that as an opening for anger — because a coarsely agitated mind is exactly the gap through which it can slip in and take control. If we yield to its direction, we become, in effect, confined within that dimension, gradually shaped to keep drawing in more demerit until there is enough to compel us to speak and act wrongly. Once we act, that becomes sealed as a completed sphere of demerit, placed onto the timeline of our life, near or far, waiting for its moment to bear fruit — like a countdown timer, bringing us far more suffering and harm than the small wrongdoing that caused it ever seemed to warrant. All of this stems from delight and aversion being seized upon as the crucial opening.