Choose the Side of the Wholesome Nature

Practice is deeply necessary for every life, because we live under the control of three natures, active in every moment, every present instant — the law of karma and the law of the three characteristics deliver their results continuously, since these are the outcomes of three natures competing to become the master of a being's mind. Only the wholesome nature brings benefit, understanding, happiness, success, and fulfilled wishes. Every other nature offers no benefit — and if unwholesome, brings much suffering. We therefore must choose a side — there is no option not to choose — and learn to abide only within the wholesome nature.

The Key Verse and Its Three Parts

The Buddha taught: "Monks, you should clearly know body, feeling, mind, and dhamma, in order to remove craving-attachment and grief from the world" — a sentence capable of turning an ordinary person into a noble one. It divides into three parts. The first part, "should clearly know," concerns the meditation practice leading to mind-liberation. The second part, "clearly know body, feeling, mind, dhamma," leads to wisdom-liberation — the workings of the three natures that produce the law of the three characteristics governing all beings. The third part, "remove craving-attachment and grief from the world," concerns how the law of karma delivers its results.

Craving-Attachment and Grief: The Net Result of Karma

When the law of karma delivers its result, the unwholesome nature seizes on the resulting joy or sorrow, delight or displeasure, and uses it to force us into creating new karma. The Buddha therefore taught us to eliminate this joy and sorrow by living with contentment — satisfaction with what we have and are — and abiding in equanimity. Joy and sorrow are the net result of karma, arising from causes we created in the near or distant past. If the unwholesome directed those causes, the result will be harmful, since the unwholesome has no genuine goodwill — its aim is to harm and destroy utterly. Craving-attachment (abhijjhā) is the particular kind of joy that leads to greed — not every joy produces greed, only certain kinds. Grief (domanassa) brings sorrow or dissatisfaction, which the unwholesome uses to provoke anger and resentment, blaming this person or that as the cause, or blaming oneself — harming both self and others.

The Remedy: Contentment and Equanimity Build Wholesome Mental Factors

If we abide in contentment and equanimity, the mental factors of non-greed and non-aversion can arise continuously, together with the factor of even-mindedness (tatramajjhattatā), which keeps the mind balanced and unmoved by provocation. These three mental factors arise together with wholesomeness; once wholesomeness arises, it continuously draws in the energy of merit. But the moment non-greed and non-aversion turn into greed and aversion, the unwholesome instantly takes charge within us, drawing in demerit through greed and aversion — and the factor of even-mindedness cannot arise at all unless we abide in equanimity.

How Craving-Attachment and Grief Dismantle the Eightfold Path, Factor by Factor

Joy, sorrow, delight, displeasure, and an unbalanced mind swayed by provocation are the essential root cause allowing the unwholesome to arise and draw in demerit — and this affects each of the eight path factors in turn. Right view cannot remain correct; right intention cannot remain wholesome, because joy and displeasure give rise to greed and to harming others, to anger and ill-will. Right speech is directed by the body-within-the-body to speak in ways that draw in trouble. Right action becomes aggressive, incorrect behavior meant to draw in demerit. Right livelihood and right effort become effort applied to what is unsuitable and incorrect. When this happens, right mindfulness cannot proceed correctly, and right concentration struggles even to reach the first absorption — and even if it reaches the first, it cannot progress to the second. The noble eightfold path cannot become firmly established; instead of the right path, it becomes the wrong path.

Why Years of Practice Sometimes Bring No Progress

Many wonder why, after years of dedicated meditation practice, there is no progress. It is because, without realizing it, we have unknowingly set up the mechanism of the unwholesome instead. The mechanism of the unwholesome is mind and mental factor — the "voice" of thought and the mood that follows that voice as it appears in our mind — distorting our behavior so the unwholesome can operate, turning the noble path into the wrong path. We must therefore return and carefully examine the substance of this verse, so we can see exactly where our practice has gone astray.

Where to Rest the Mind: The Seventh Base at the Body's Center

Our teachers advise resting the mind at the seventh base at the center of the body — an extremely important point. We aim toward nibbāna but do not know where to begin; even knowing the principles of the noble path, the factors of enlightenment, the blessings of life, or the 84,000 sections of dhamma, without knowing where the gate is, we cannot start correctly. Our teachers proved this themselves by going there and returning, resting the mind at this point. The teaching is simple: imagine two taut strings, one from the right side of the waist to the left, the other from the navel to the spine, crossing to form an X. Two finger-widths above that crossing point, rest the mind there — simply. There is no need to imagine darkness or light; just know, staying always aware, never forgetful. If you forget, that's fine — simply return to knowing until forgetting no longer happens.

The Sphere of Knowing Draws in Merit, Dispelling Impurity

Once the sphere of knowing — the sphere of mindfulness — arises, it continuously draws the pure energy of merit into the brightness at its center. This energy drives the wholesome system, correcting and refining our elements to purity, dispelling the impurities that cause problems and obstacles. The human body's role is only this: to determine awareness and stay always aware, never forgetful. The wholesome system is automatic but cannot run without energy. As the impurity proper to each dimension is cleared away, the mind is released from a coarser dimension into a finer one, continuing for as long as arahantship has not yet been attained.

The First Stopping: Breath and Mind Stopping Together

The same principle applies to stilling and stopping the mind. Luang Pu said this principle must be applied all the way to nibbāna — the mind must be made to stop, especially at the "first stopping," which involves both breath stopping and mind stopping together. If the breath stops but the mind has not yet stopped, the body is not yet ready, because some cells are still coarse, still requiring oxygen to function. Once refined, the body draws on subtle life-force (prāṇa) instead. So every cell must be brought to a refined stillness, relying on both bodily and mental tranquility (kāya-passaddhi, citta-passaddhi) together, along with the mental factors that make body and mind light, refined, workable, agile, and upright — all tools of the wholesome dhamma that bring breath and mind to stop together. This depends on twelve mental factors, six pairs for body and mind, rooted essentially in non-greed, non-aversion, and even-mindedness. When breath and mind stop together, the sphere of the first path rises from the sixth base to the seventh, bringing the mind into the working system of the wholesome dhamma within that sphere.

Reciting Sammā Arahaṃ and the Crystal Buddha Image

Resting at the seventh center and reciting Sammā Arahaṃ is equivalent to naming the qualities of one who has practiced well and rightly — pure in higher virtue, higher mind, and higher wisdom, complete with liberation and the knowledge of liberation. As we say his name, we should be mindful of his sublime qualities. He then appears as a clear crystal Buddha image, with a lotus-bud crown, radiant and full of life, seated on a meditation platform within the sphere of dhamma — for form and name are inseparable; wherever the name is invoked, the form appears. When he appears, he brings his boundless compassion to benefit us, refining our elements of seeing, remembering, thinking, knowing — earth, water, fire, wind, space, and consciousness elements — to purity, dispelling the impurities of karmic result.

He Is Our True Self at Every Level

He represents our truest, most refined self. Our selfhood exists at many levels — the coarse and refined human body, the coarse and refined celestial body, the coarse and refined form-realm brahma body, the coarse and refined formless-realm brahma body, the coarse and refined gotrabhū dhamma body, the path and fruit of stream-entry, once-returning, non-returning, and arahantship — all are our self at each respective level. While we remain in the human body, he watches over and supports us; we are never alone. Feel that you are the crystal image itself: envision your whole body, from head to toe, as the crystal Dhammakāya body, radiant and clear. Determine part by part, staying with him — no need to force clarity, simply stay always aware, never forgetful. Everything unfolds naturally as the wholesome system clears away impurity.

Like Seeing a Doctor, and the Integrity of Sitting Time

Practice is like seeing a doctor: the doctor has us relax comfortably, then examines and treats us in his own way — we cannot rush him. We bring body and mind for the wholesome to heal; if the process is not yet complete, we should not stop early. This commitment begins the moment we sit down and resolve how many minutes we will sit — the wholesome system then sets an automatic program according to that initial intention. All that's required is sincerity, carrying it through fully for the time we determined.

Cultivating Loving-Kindness for the World and All Beings

Once good causes are created for ourselves, giving rise to mind-liberation and wisdom-liberation, we cultivate loving-kindness for the world and all beings who share our fate of birth, aging, sickness, and death — beings who were once our parents and siblings, who once loved, cared for, and sacrificed for us. We cultivate a love filled with sincere, pure goodwill. As we determine loving-kindness, the sphere of loving-kindness — bright and clear — arises in the mind, together with a continuous stream of merit, dispelling resentment and irritation from the minds of people and beings. We extend this heart to cover our home, village, district, province, country, and the whole world, making it a crystal world, radiant and cool. May the beings of the world be free from suffering and find happiness — extending further across the universe, the ten thousand world-systems, the countless infinite universes.

Dedicating Merit and the Closing Aspiration

Having radiated loving-kindness, we dedicate this merit to all beings, including our ancestors, parents, siblings, grandparents, benefactor-teachers, the devas who help us, and all our karmic counterparts — may we forgive one another. We then settle the mind still within the center of the Triple Gem and the great teacher-preceptors, merging as one with them, sealing our aspiration within the bright sphere of merit. May all this merit gather into sacred, powerful merit, dispelling misfortune and karmic obstacles, granting the Eye of Dhamma, thorough penetration into Vijjā Dhammakāya, the three knowledges, the eight higher knowledges, six supernormal powers, four discriminations, eight liberations, and fifteen conducts in full, together with good health, long life, and the strength to build perfections until reaching the end of the Dhamma.