What Is Dhamma? A Truth That Appears Only in Each Present Moment

Since we're studying Dhamma, not knowing what Dhamma actually is would be a problem. Even people who've studied Dhamma for many days, when asked what it is, can't quite answer. Dhamma is the three natures. It is a truth that appears only in each present moment — it isn't found in the past or future. The truth of things exists in each present moment. What belongs to the past is knowledge — true knowledge that resulted from something that once occurred in a present moment, now stored as memory. Dhamma is a state that arises in each present moment, a tool the natures use to govern all beings. Each dhamma has its own function — the state of relaxation has the function of producing relaxation, the state of openness has the function of producing openness. We name each state according to its quality. The universe consists of elements (dhātu) and dhamma. Elements are everything external, all around us — solids, liquids, gases, as we learned in school. Dhamma, by contrast, arises in the inner world, known through the heart, and is the tool of the three natures. Each nature has its own dhamma — the unwholesome nature's is called adhamma (wrong dhamma), the wholesome nature's is simply dhamma. As for the indeterminate nature, there isn't yet a clear name for its own dhamma.

A Simple Example: Abide in the Wholesome System, and Merit Will Flow

When asked for something simpler, an example was given: if we have a child and tell them, "be a good person," the child might ask back, "good how, Mom?" — and we wouldn't know how to answer clearly. The simplest, most direct answer is: abide in the system of wholesome states, and merit will flow through. That's the only thing — nothing else. If merit doesn't flow through, what good is it? That would mean it's a matter of the indeterminate or unwholesome nature instead. Abide in the wholesome system, and merit will flow through — subtle treasures, the completed blueprint on the side of merit, both happiness and purity. That's it. Nothing more, nothing less.

Mastery Within Ourselves: The Story of Sakka Waiting to Hear the Dhamma

An important matter not yet taught is mastery within oneself (issariya) — why we cannot do as we please, cannot make decisions, whether to continue studying or not, whether to run this business or not, because we lack this mastery. Once, in the time of the Buddha, Sakka, king of the devas, wished to come down and hear the Dhamma from the Fully Enlightened Buddha. The Buddha was in the attainment of cessation (nirodha-samāpatti). He knew of Sakka's wish but did not emerge, because he saw that even if he taught, Sakka would still be unable to attain realization — it would bring no benefit, because his faculties were not yet ripe enough. So Sakka returned to his celestial mansion. After some time passed, Sakka came down again to hear the Dhamma. This time, the Buddha emerged from the attainment of cessation and taught him, and Sakka attained the state of a noble being. This mastery within oneself relates to the five spiritual faculties: mindfulness, conviction, wisdom, concentration, and effort.

The Saving Division Must Cultivate; the Sage Division Has an Automatic Mechanism Behind It

What mechanism lies behind this? For those in the "saving division" (phak-prot), they must cultivate mindfulness, wisdom, conviction, concentration, and effort themselves until these mature. But for those in the "sage division" (phak-prat), there's already a mechanism working behind the scenes — they simply need time for the process to run its course toward completion, through the workings of a subtle internal system of wholesome states. Once the process runs through its allotted time, the faculties ripen on their own. So there are two kinds of workings — one requiring human effort, the other an automatic mechanism. It's comparable to illness: sometimes we're cured by taking medicine; sometimes the body heals itself through its own automatic system. Take an example from the Second World War: someone in hiding from persecution, sheltering in the crawlspace beneath a house in a bitterly cold country, fell gravely ill with no medicine available — by all accounts, death seemed near either way. Yet as time passed, remarkably, despite the cold and the sickness, the body's own automatic internal system managed to cure the fever without treatment. If we reflect on this, we might say the body, given time, can resolve its own problems. There are thus two aspects — one is taking medicine, deliberate treatment; the other is the body's automatic self-repair system. It's the same here — the part where we rely on Dhamma as a tool for resolution is like relying on wholesome states; the other part depends on an automatic mechanism connected to the entire lineage of elements and Dhamma, which continuously helps resolve things along that whole lineage.

The 19 Wholesome Mental Factors: Mindfulness Is the Tool That Draws In Energy, and Must Be Trained to Higher Quality

There's a deeper mechanism not recorded in the Tipiṭaka — for instance, once the sphere of mindfulness is established, it draws energy in, consistent with the scientific principle that waves induce energy. Mindfulness is one mental factor (cetasika), a tool that draws in all the other eighteen wholesome mental factors, nineteen in total. If mindfulness is untrained, it draws in merit to a certain degree; once trained, it draws in progressively more merit, because its quality keeps improving. We must therefore train this sphere of mindfulness to ever-higher quality. There are nineteen wholesome mental factors in total that we study — and if mindfulness alone already has this much effect, imagine if every one of the nineteen reached full quality — the effect would be even greater. Studying the structure of the suttas gives us only the principles, not the underlying mechanism. The Abhidhamma, which does address mechanism, gives too little detail, making it hard to understand. Learning Dhamma is therefore very difficult — we must assemble scattered pieces into a coherent whole, like assembling eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body, arms, and legs into a complete form.

The Three Natures Overlay Body, Feeling, Mind, and Dhamma to Take Control

What we study is meant to assemble a complete body of understanding. Once complete, we come to understand who lies behind it all, and what tool each uses. Wholesomeness uses dhamma to work; unwholesomeness uses adhamma. They control beings using inner voices and inner feelings, superimposing body, feeling, mind, and Dhamma as their manager, their ruling master. If wholesome, it elevates the quality of the human body toward nobility and goodness, using the thoughts and feelings of a subtler or celestial body of higher quality. If unwholesome, it presses us down, bringing in a corrupt manager that misguides us, in order to draw in the energy of demerit to drive its system — because no system can run on its own without energy; it must be driven by energy, drawn in through dhamma. Adhamma is superimposed on the mind like software that draws in energy, which then drives the system, refining both body and mind — from the subtle human body to the celestial body, from the celestial body to the subtler celestial body that becomes the manager, elevating quality, then refining the elements of earth, water, wind, fire, space, and consciousness to be pure and clean, eliminating suffering, grief, and disease.

The Element of Consciousness and the Center of the Five Elements

Consciousness (viññāṇa) is the part of the mind that goes out through the eyes, ears, nose, tongue, and body, attaching to forms, tastes, smells, and sounds. When the unwholesome possesses us, it draws in stains through this channel. This element of consciousness sits at the very center of the sphere of elements — earth, water, wind, fire, space, and consciousness — with space at the center, and consciousness at the center of that space. When consciousness goes out and mixes with the unwholesome, it becomes contaminated with stains, causing the elements of earth, water, wind, and fire to become disturbed, which then affects our physical health. The mind has two working parts: the law of kamma centers at the sphere of Dhamma, releasing its current depending on which sphere is greater — the sphere of merit or demerit. The heart, meanwhile, is where the law of the three characteristics operates. The three natures compete continuously to seize the role of ruling master; whoever wins that role has the authority to superimpose their own body, feeling, mind, and Dhamma to control us. This is the cycle that drives our lives.

What Distinguishes the Saving Division From the Sage Division

Someone asked what distinguishes the "saving division" from the "sage division." The saving division is like most of us, cycling through birth and death in saṃsāra, without much special privilege. The sage division, by contrast, carries a special privilege — no one can send them to hell. They abide within a special sphere of merit. Their human body serves merely as a vessel supporting the workings of their inner dharmakāya, which conducts its own practices independently — they don't need to train step by step the way ordinary humans do, because everything has already been worked out from within. This is because the saving division operates through the dharmakāya, using the human body as its vessel, since the human body is sturdy and durable — hard to destroy — unlike a celestial body, which is fragile: even a moment's anger can shatter it, or seven days and nights of sensual indulgence can shatter it. When such a body is still young, it's like a puppet simply being raised and grown; once the time comes for it to work, it can access the Dhamma immediately, because the resolution work has already been done from within — unlike the saving division, which must gradually learn and season over time.

The Mission of Our Elder Teachers: Bringing the World to the Triple Gem Within

The primary duty of all of us is to help people of the world access the Triple Gem within — this is our teacher's mission, to bring people to access the inner Dhamma. The duty of the elders and the Dhammakāya teaching is to establish a future blueprint that will come to fruition. When the perfections of our special sphere of merit — belonging also to the sage division — are complete, will we come down with no accomplishment to show for it? That's simply because the time has not yet arrived. In the past, the demerit side made repeated attempts to obstruct this work — for instance, during the construction of the great stupa, an essential component enabling the "dharmakāya effect" to occur, since it supports the sage division's connection to Nibbāna, opposition was intense. But we poured ourselves into the work day and night until it was finished. Afterward, when hundreds of thousands gathered to ordain as lay devotees and monks, obstruction arose again — the temple was surrounded under authoritarian pressure for over ten years. Now, having passed through that crisis of a "new world order," we are entering an age of prosperity — meaning the dharmakāya effect can now occur, bringing the world to access the Triple Gem within.

The Special Sphere of Merit, Like Two Horseshoes Joined Together

We belong to a special sphere of merit, in the same circle as the Bodhisattas who will awaken as Fully Enlightened Buddhas — like two horseshoes joined together. One side is the side of the Bodhisattas who will be born as the next Fully Enlightened Buddha. Every Buddha who has come before has manifested their work without fail, attaining full enlightenment and spreading the teaching so the world could access the Triple Gem within, sustaining the Dispensation for a long span of time.

Q&A: Meditation Technique When There's No Signal From Within

Someone asked for a clear technique: how do we know we're truly centered at the seventh base of the body, versus accidentally shifting attention elsewhere? The teacher answered: some people have signals — a cool sensation in the center, or a sense of mass forming, or some other feeling. But those without any internal signal will find it a bit harder. Without a signal, we simply set a "program": determine that the center is located at the middle of the abdomen, then use a mantra of recitation or a meditation image as an aid. The mantra or image then serves as the signal we anchor to at the position we've set. Whenever a result appears, it will appear at the position we designated — even though we're relying on the Dhamma-anchor of reciting "Samma-araham," this becomes the object we anchor to instead, and when any signal appears, it appears at the position we've marked. This is part of the mechanism of the body's automatic internal process; whether it aligns correctly is a matter of timing, so we simply keep doing it, keep discerning. One thing to note: once a state of Dhamma appears, we'll feel we have something to anchor to. At first it's manual, relying on the signal of the meditation object, the mantra, or the image. As we continue reciting, a principle emerges: whatever we set our awareness on — mantra, image, or otherwise, whether pleasure, pain, neutral feeling, or the breath — what matters is that whatever we focus our awareness on will give rise to a state of Dhamma connected to a mental factor (cetasika). For instance, lightness of body and mind, or gentleness of heart — these mental factors create that state for us, which we can then anchor to and rely on. We therefore need to study the mechanism of these mental factors — which ones help bring about lightness of body and mind, refinement of body and mind, gentleness of body and mind. These rely on mental factors such as mindfulness, conviction, moral shame and fear of wrongdoing (hiri-ottappa), non-greed, non-hatred, and especially tatramajjhattatā cetasika, which brings balance, allowing the mind to remain neutral. Our elder teacher placed great importance on maintaining a neutral mind, free of delight and displeasure. The Fully Enlightened Buddha specified this clearly: "Monks, you should discern clearly body, feeling, mind, and Dhamma, in order to eliminate covetousness and grief" — that is, delight and displeasure, entirely. Great importance is placed on tatramajjhattatā cetasika — once this mental factor is established as equanimity, with enough power to draw in merit, it helps the other twelve wholesome mental factors related to body and mind to function, enabling access to the first jhāna, that is, the first path.

Perform the Cause, Observe the Result — the Brighter It Grows

This is where we need to purify our precepts and build conviction. To have genuine conviction, we must verify it — by performing the cause and observing the result: has this minute shown improvement compared to the minute before? When we see improvement, our morale rises, and conviction grows brighter and brighter. Our elder teacher would say, "perform the cause, observe the result, and endure — how excellent," repeating this three times. Why three times, if it weren't important? It's said three times because it matters immensely. Liberation of the heart (ceto-vimutti) is not something to wait for at the final destination — it arises moment by moment. The instant we perform the cause, ceto-vimutti bears fruit immediately, freeing us bit by bit, bit by bit. Along this path of liberation, we come to recognize, "ah, yes, this is it." But if we think of ceto-vimutti only as some distant final destination, we may practice for a long time without ever arriving, lose heart, and give up the practice altogether — better to understand it as something happening now, moment by moment.