We already learned about clearing defilement yesterday. This time, don't forget prevention. Taking something in doesn't escape the law of kamma — when we take it in ourselves, we must correct and clear it ourselves. Clearing, then, is part of the process of correction. Once taken in, it must be cleared; once done, we must accept the outcome. Karmic consequence, once created, must be received. We let our heart take in defilement, and no matter what, it must be cleared, and no one can clear it for us except ourselves. Once we've acted, whether good kamma or bad, we must receive the result — good brings good, bad brings bad. But before it produces its result, there is a process; before it becomes suffering, harm, or a present-moment consequence, it can still be cleared.

Learn not to take it in, not just how to clear it

Beyond learning that clearing means sitting with mindfulness, aware within, to cleanse defilement each time, we must also learn not to take it in at all — because taking it in means having to sit and clear it later. We must learn how to avoid taking it in, or take in as little as possible. Taking in the least means not delighting or being averse — delight means being pleased, aversion means being displeased. Even pity counts as taking something in, because pity is an unsettled emotion, an emotional involvement; once emotionally involved, we take it in without realizing it. So we must simply stay still — listen calmly, help if we can, and if we can't, let it go. That's all there is to do. It's the same with others as with ourselves — fix what can be fixed, and make peace with what can't. When we're living our lives out in the world, don't place your heart with anyone else — keep it within yourself alone, and that is the safest thing to do. Simply staying mindful within is the safest thing there is.

Defilement forms without our noticing, then drags in trouble to stir us up

The moment we let our guard down, we take in emotion without realizing it. We don't know we've taken it in until later, when we suddenly feel we can't take it anymore, feel stressed — seemingly unrelated to whoever we talked with earlier. But when it produces a result — a problem, or displeasure — that means defilement has already formed. Once formed, it has power, and it can drag in any story with anyone at all, because all it needs is energy to throw our life into turmoil. Once it has gathered enough energy, the next time we run into someone who displeases us, it seizes on that instantly as an issue — even though it seems unrelated, because we had already taken in that defiled energy. Defilement then breeds suffering and discomfort, and drags us toward situations that bring harm, displeasure, and ongoing gloom. The best method is simply to remain still and calm. If we can't stay still, go sit and clear it. If there's no time to sit and clear, then just keep the heart to yourself and let it go.

Guard your heart and emotions, or train mindfulness on the breath

While living our lives, we can use the method of guarding the heart and emotions to keep them at ease — having only one emotion, ease, means keeping the heart firmly established in wholesomeness. Or, if we can't guard the heart that way, we need to train mindfulness harder. Try training: can we stay continuously aware, mindful within? Or stay with the breath — simply follow the breath, know the in-breath, know the out-breath. It depends on our training. If we truly can't manage, we must leave the place to adjust our mood — step away from wherever feels off, go adjust our mood until comfortable, then return. It depends on each person's method for not taking in defilement. We don't take in anyone else's emotions, their displeasure, their dissatisfaction — the less we take in, the smaller the impact. What's spoken, or the energy received, is already being taken in regardless, but if we pay it less attention, what we absorb lessens, and the emotional impact lessens too. It's like watching a sad movie and crying — we've absorbed it fully, so we cry along, or feel angry along with the characters. That's taking in emotion, a defilement mixed in from consuming media. This is why the teaching says: don't delight, don't be averse, and you'll be safe from taking in defilement. When we come to sit in meditation or clear defilement, there won't be much to clear, because there's nothing there to clear. But if we've taken in a lot, sitting will naturally take longer to clear.

Every action always has consequences: use yourself as the lesson

Every action we take produces consequences continuously, without exception — no action is without effect. It seems unrelated, but it is related. If we observe carefully, our own life constantly gives us things to notice — oh, I slipped up here, I lost my footing there, what I gained came from doing this. There's always a reason, always something to reflect on about ourselves. When we let our emotions run loose like that, it becomes hard to control our emotions during that period, because we let ourselves get caught up in delight or aversion toward that person, and so we end up with emotional entanglement with them. This is cause and effect — the cause is the slip, the result is having to bear the consequence. But another time, we can set ourselves not to delight or be averse, not to care, even if someone does something displeasing — because we didn't take it in from the start. In our daily lives, there is always cause and effect in what we take in and what we clear; failing to clear in time becomes a problem.

Dare to take it in, dare to clear it

If we can take it in, we must be able to clear it. If we take it in but can't clear it in time, it becomes a problem; if we take it in and clear it in time, it's not a problem. Ask yourself: do I have time to clear? If so, take it in fully, no harm done. But if there's no time to sit, don't let your guard down. Whenever there's time to sit, go all in, and then take responsibility for having gone all in. Life is meant to be used, and it must be cleared too — if we use it and don't clear, no one clears it for us. When we can't take it anymore, we come asking for the power of our teacher's merit — please help, child can't bear it anymore, someone please help — and once helped and the problem resolved, we ask for some time to relax, and then take more in again. That's simply human life; that's how it is for everyone. But once we know this, we must be truly mindful — whatever we take in requires time to sit, time to clear the heart, time to let go. Clearing the heart through wisdom means contemplating until we can let go; letting go resolves it too. But if defilement is heavy, we cannot let go — it grips the heart and feelings so tightly that letting go becomes impossible, even if we think we've let go, we truly haven't. When we can't let go, it must continue running its course according to the law of kamma.

The inner voice of wholesomeness: think before you speak, think before you act

This is the essential rule when learning about the three natures that are the truth of things. Once learned, we must understand it; once we understand the mechanism, we must be able to apply it in daily life. Once we can apply it, something will begin tugging at the heart, making us feel: this isn't right, don't do it. That is the inner voice of wholesomeness pulling at us, telling us this is wrong, not good, don't do it — don't even think that unwholesome thought. Mental kamma truly has consequences, not nothing. Even a single fleeting thought, like a small slip while chanting, can have consequences of its own — causing us to forget something important up to three times before we finally remember, and realize we should go ask forgiveness to resolve it. See how even the smallest thing has an effect — so we must guard our heart, keep it well controlled, now that we're learning this.

Train control of body, speech, and mind step by step, until mindfulness becomes automatic

Once we can train mindfulness, we begin gaining control — first over the body, meaning our speech. We become aware of our thoughts; the simple method is to think before speaking — think whether speaking will be beneficial, whether acting will be beneficial. Supposing we don't yet have an inner guide telling us, we simply think before speaking, think before acting, and keep training this way. If it's not beneficial, don't speak; if acting isn't beneficial, don't act — better to just stay still. We must start reminding ourselves, keep training this reminder, and gradually we begin to control our speech, our thoughts, our actions. Once we don't speak, we don't act. Keep controlling this way, and once it becomes second nature, our mindfulness will grow, because thinking before speaking or acting requires holding mindfulness within — without inward mindfulness, thought can't keep up. Train this way in ordinary daily life, eyes open, living normally. As for sitting to clear, every time body-and-heart awareness (satisampajañña) come together, automatic cleansing occurs — it happens on its own, anywhere, at home, at a retreat, or elsewhere, cleared automatically already. But being in a meditation hall gives us the added help of the group's background system. As we keep training, we'll see the changes, see the cause and effect happening within ourselves — use ourselves as the lesson, take past events and reflect on why they happened, whether they fit this principle. We can build our own lessons this way, to keep developing further.

Q&A: why sitting is sometimes comfortable, sometimes not — the heart has many layers, like many huts

Someone asked why sometimes sitting for just five minutes feels comfortable, but sometimes sitting for an hour still feels uncomfortable. The teacher explained it depends on how we place the heart, and whether the amount of defilement we've taken in is the same each time. There's also this: when we sit for a long time, it's because we shift dimension — like starting over, changing the depth level of the heart. The heart has different layers of substance; at one level it feels comfortable, but entering a new state feels like starting over — requiring fresh clearing. It's like cleaning a room — once clean, we feel at ease, but move to another hut still cluttered, and we can't feel at ease until it's cleaned too. Once it's cleaner, it starts to feel lighter, and then we move to yet another hut, and so on. Clearing defilement isn't limited to a single layer — the monks call it "dimension by dimension," like layers of the heart, one after another. Once we're comfortable at this layer, entering the next means clearing anew. Defilement doesn't block just one layer — it blocks many, we don't know how many. That's why sometimes, right after sitting well, we suddenly feel stressed or get a headache — that's starting fresh at the next level. This is why the teaching says: always be ready to start over, because moving to another level means starting over at that new level. But it may be even better, bigger — like those unboxing videos where people clean something up and then discover its true value. It's the same when we clear: there's a reward in each dimension — a reserve of merit-power given at each level. Once we clean that spot, there's a reward waiting there — happiness, success, a merit-power, an energy of merit that arises from clearing each layer, given to heal and restore us. The longer we sit, the more layers, more huts, we can clear. But we never know how many layers we have — no one really knows, unless we ask; if we ask, the teacher will tell us.

Q&A: the fortress-war analogy

Someone asked: if today we've cleaned three out of ten huts, will tomorrow require starting over from hut one? The teacher answered no — we can continue from where we left off, unless we take in more defilement. It's like playing a fort-capturing game: today we capture ten forts, but if we then take in more defilement, unwholesomeness strikes back and we lose ground, falling back to only five forts held. Tomorrow we sit and try to reclaim them, pushing back and forth. If we slip up, they retake ground; if we rise up, they must retreat — it's a constant clash, a contest for territory. Whenever we let our guard down and they strike, we lose as much ground as we let them take. We must therefore maintain mindfulness and avoid taking in more defilement, in order to keep advancing. If, as some of you mentioned, we go out and live our lives and get struck back for all ten forts we gained, we come back to sit and we're right back where we started — exhausted, sitting so long and getting nowhere, because we let our guard down that much. If they don't strike back too hard, that's already good, given how much we let our guard down. It's like this — long, with many layers, many dimensions. We ourselves are this small, but inside there's so much to clear before reaching the goal — for example, if the target is set at capturing 100 forts to gain lightness, we must reach 100; 200 forts brings happiness, we must reach 200; reaching 1,000 brings something else as a reward. Experience exists to let us know we're on the right path — like arriving somewhere and something confirms, yes, this is right. Experience is only a signpost, so why cling to it? It all depends on how much we've cleared within — once we understand this, no need to overthink it. Whether we gain something or not doesn't matter — press forward as much as possible. During the day, be careful; if we get hit, we get hit — know it, be aware of it, but stay still. While living daily life, stay still, and if we feel pressure on the heart, retreat quickly, let go quickly, release quickly — don't get too stressed or weighed down by it.

Q&A: when unsure if a thought is right or wrong, question it back

Someone asked: when a thought arises and we get drawn into thinking further, should we question it back? The teacher confirmed — yes, question it back, because we're not sure whether that thought is correct. If we're not sure, we must reflect: is this thought really right? What's the outcome? If we act on it, what will we ultimately gain? Is this emotion really good for us? If it's unwholesome, it will settle down, and the voice of wholesomeness will start showing the way, giving an answer — pulling up old memories, like recalling something the teacher once taught, something the elder teacher once said, like old knowledge from wholesomeness reaffirming us while we're in doubt. The act of questioning halts or stalls the working of unwholesomeness, giving wholesomeness the opening to insert its own thought. But if we let it flow unchecked, unwholesomeness flows freely, carrying our emotions and feelings along without resistance. If a thought starts to feel wrong, we must question it first. If it's right, it will feel confirmed, correct, and there will be principles and methods that verify it as true.

The residual portion of kamma versus the core portion: can be lightened, but not erased

Once done, we must accept it, accept and correct it. What's done must be received — this is the law of kamma. It can only be reduced through cleansing. Once we know, correct ourselves, and sit in meditation to clear it, the process of easing karmic consequence from heavy to light begins. But it can never be made to disappear entirely — it cannot be fully washed away; we must still receive some portion. However, we can adjust the residual portion of kamma (เศษแห่งกรรม) to become lighter, though the core portion (ส่วนแห่งกรรม) itself cannot be corrected or adjusted. This is why it's said we can turn heavy into light. But if it's already light, that means the core portion has largely dissolved, leaving only the residue — and that residue, already light, will eventually turn from light to gone entirely.