Why Practicing the Dhamma Matters

Practicing the Dhamma is vitally necessary for every life, because we live under the control of three natures. Only the wholesome nature ever benefits us; the others give no benefit and, when unwholesome, bring suffering and harm. We therefore need to learn how to abide with wholesome qualities.

The Buddha's Key Teaching: Knowing Body, Feeling, Mind, and Dhamma

The Buddha taught: "Monks, you should clearly know body, feeling, mind, and dhamma, in order to remove craving and aversion toward the world." This single sentence can turn an ordinary person into a noble one. Its content divides into three parts.

Part One: Establishing Awareness and Clearing Stains

The Buddha taught us to "determine" — to designate or fix our attention somewhere; wherever we designate, the mind settles there, which we call "paying attention." Once attention settles, the sphere of awareness — mindfulness — arises, and this draws pure energy, merit, to flow in continuously. As long as we maintain awareness without lapsing, this energy drives the wholesome system to purify the stains that cause trouble and obstruction. As stains lighten, whatever binds us to coarse dimensions dissolves, and we're released into subtler ones. This liberation resembles a child growing taller every day, millimeter by millimeter — invisible in the moment, only becoming clear after some time has passed.

Checking Whether Practice Is Working

After sitting continuously for an hour or two, we should notice a clear difference in how we feel before and after. But if we feel worse afterward — more tense, for instance — that shows we are practicing the wrong way, being led by unwholesomeness hoping for quick results. Seeking shortcuts to fast, abundant results is simply the nature of unwholesomeness.

Part Two: Body, Feeling, Mind, and Dhamma of the Ruling Nature

When any of the three natures seizes control of the mind as its "host," it overlays its own body-feeling-mind-dhamma onto ours to govern us. Wholesome possession lifts the mind higher and finer; unwholesome possession drags it down. In the body, the possessing nature's behavior shows through ours: unwholesome possession makes the body restless, heavy, coarse, and unfit for work. In feeling: comfort and ease indicate wholesome possession; suffering — a state one must endure with difficulty — indicates unwholesome possession; neutral feeling, neither pleasant nor painful, indicates the neutral (abyākata) nature. We can check this simply by asking ourselves right now: am I happy, suffering, or neutral?

When Suffering Appears: Patience and Fortitude

When unwholesomeness is strong, it's hard to establish any meditation object at all. So the Buddha taught: when suffering that must be endured with difficulty arises, simply acknowledge it — just knowing it is enough. Acknowledging suffering requires some initial patience. As we endure and face suffering, patience (khanti) brings fortitude (tapa) to our aid. Our Great Master once said merit flows into our hearts in two cases: when we do good, merit comes to support our success; and when we resist evil, merit comes to help until we overcome it. As long as we don't give up, merit keeps flowing in continuously, like ocean waves endlessly crashing against the shore. When we push through a mass of suffering, patience rewards us with new, stronger armor than before. This is why the noble ones never turn away from suffering — they face it mass by mass until reaching the very end of suffering: nibbāna.

Neutrality and the 40 Meditation Objects

When the neutral nature dominates, the mind loses its anchor and cannot draw in energy. When we recognize this is happening, we should use one of the 40 traditional meditation objects — whichever we're familiar with — to give the mind a clear anchor. What matters most in developing a meditation object is a clear, continuous signal for mindfulness to hold onto.

Beware of Vipassanupakkilesa

Regarding the mind: when a nature possesses us, its thoughts appear as an inner voice that feels like our own thinking. But if light appears in the mind, those thoughts become clearer, with both image and sound. And if that light grows very strong, the images and sounds become like a movie — and can respond to our wishes in every way. This is precisely what practitioners must be wary of: it is called vipassanupakkilesa, a major obstacle to developing insight, and teachers must give it careful, precise guidance.

Don't Stop the Moment Drowsiness and Distraction Clear

Before light arises, only the hindrances disturb us with drowsiness and distraction. But this isn't actually a major problem, because the hindrances need energy to keep us drowsy or scattered — once that energy runs out, the drowsiness and distraction clear, and we can continue practicing. The critical point is this: the moment we feel refreshed after that clearing, we tend to think we've broken through and stop practicing — which is a real shame, because that is exactly the window when we can draw purified energy — merit — inward and store it within us. Everything up to that point was about clearing stains; but once stains clear at that level, instead of harvesting the pure energy available, we don't give it time — we quit right there, and the benefit we should have gained never arises.

Part Three: Removing Attachment and Aversion

The Buddha taught that practice should remove craving and aversion toward the world. Delight brings greed born of unwholesomeness taking control; aversion arises when an experience is unpleasant and we react with irritation and displeasure — likewise the result of unwholesomeness leading us. We should hold the mind neutral toward both good and bad. Our Great Master gave the formula: "stop, be still, be neutral." When we determine "stop," the sphere of stopping arises and clears away every system except the wholesome one. When we determine "still," the sphere of stillness arises, calming all vibration. When we determine "neutral," the sphere of neutrality arises, letting the mind stay unmoved even when stimulated.

Right Mindfulness Like a Drill Bit

Developing right mindfulness is like marking a spot and placing a power drill precisely and steadily on that point. For right concentration to bore deeply into each dimension of the mind, it needs a solid foundation of right mindfulness. Once the sphere of mindfulness is established, it continually draws in pure energy to clear away stains. Every dimension carries stains until we attain arahantship; entering a subtler dimension means encountering subtler stains, requiring subtler merit-energy to purify them — and in each dimension, wiser and more powerful knowers assist us further. The greater our proportion of wholesomeness, the easier life becomes, and the more easily happiness and success follow.

Radiating Loving-Kindness and Dedicating Merit

Having done good for ourselves, we then do good for the world and all beings by cultivating mettā, because life in saṃsāra depends on mutual support. We set our wish sincerely and purely: may all beings be free from suffering and share in happiness. Mettā appears as a round, bright sphere filled with love and goodwill; once it arises, the stream of merit pours continuously into its brightness. Mettā can dissolve resentment and irritation both in the atmosphere and within people's hearts, then expands to cover the village, district, province, country, other nations, the whole world, and continues out into the cosmos. We then dedicate this merit to our ancestors, parents, siblings, our benefactor teachers, the devas who help us, and our karmic counterparts (คู่กรรมคู่เวร), asking mutual forgiveness. We settle the mind in stillness at the center of the Triple Gem and the subtle Dhamma-body of our Great Master, our Teacher, and our Grandmother-teacher, resolving that our path of building perfections be transformed by knowledge, happiness, and purity — with the Dhamma-eye penetrating the Vijjā Dhammakāya, strong health, long life, and, when we pass from this world, rebirth in the Tusita heaven and future lives in families of right view.