Why We Must Practice — The Law of Kamma and the Three Characteristics

Phra Ajarn opens by explaining that practice is essential for every life, because we live under the law of kamma and the law of the three characteristics, governed by three natural forces. Only the wholesome force gives us benefit, correctness, goodness, happiness, and fulfilled wishes; the other forces give nothing beneficial and instead bring suffering and danger. We must therefore learn, understand, and train ourselves to abide continuously with the wholesome system.

The Key Teaching to Memorize

The Buddha taught: "Monks, you should clearly determine and know body, feeling, mind, and Dhamma, in order to eliminate craving and grief in the world." Phra Ajarn points out that this single sentence can transform an ordinary person into a noble one, and its content divides into three parts.

Part One: Determine — Know — Clearly

The first part is "monks, you should clearly determine and know." Knowing is mindfulness; clarity is full comprehension; determining means fixing and specifying a point — wherever we specify, the mind is placed there. For example, when we determine the breath, the mind settles at the breath — knowing the in-breath, knowing the out-breath. Once the mind is fixed there without wandering elsewhere, the sphere of knowing — mindfulness — arises, because all dhammas, whether wholesome, unwholesome, or neutral, can only arise in the mind, nowhere else. Mindfulness, a wholesome quality, takes the form of a round, bright sphere; once established, it continuously draws in pure energy, merit, which drives the wholesome system, refining the elements within us until clear and pure, dissolving the defilements that cause problems, and freeing us progressively from coarser dimensions into subtler ones — until the proportion of wholesomeness reaches one hundred percent, which is the attainment of the path and its fruit.

The Three Natural Forces Governing the Three Characteristics

The second part concerns body, feeling, mind, and Dhamma, tied to the law of the three characteristics — three qualities with entirely different aims: the wholesome dhamma, the unwholesome dhamma, and the neutral dhamma. The wholesome force cares for and supports happiness, prosperity, and goodness. The unwholesome force aims to destroy the lives of beings, concealed by ignorance, and even after death continues to drag beings down to lower realms. The neutral force takes neither side — giving neither suffering nor happiness — steering beings toward a wasted, purposeless life. The impermanence, suffering, and non-self we commonly hear about are only a subset of how these three forces compete for control of the mind. Whichever force seizes the mind displays its own behavior, and the forces trade places continuously and unpredictably — so we should never cling to any of them as a true self, but instead recognize the root cause: the three forces overlapping within body-in-body, feeling-in-feeling, mind-in-mind, and Dhamma-in-Dhamma.

Part Three: Eliminating Craving and Grief — The Law of Kamma

The third part is eliminating craving (abhijjhā) and grief (domanassa), the results of the law of kamma. Craving is the delight that gives rise to greed; grief is sorrow. Both are results of what we have done in the past, and both are the working of the spheres of merit and demerit within us.

Merit, Demerit, and the "Wrapping" Mechanism

Phra Ajarn explains that whenever the sphere of merit is larger than the sphere of demerit, or whenever the fruit of merit is ripening, the merit sphere releases a current that draws in the conditions for happiness, success, and fulfilled wishes — while the demerit sphere is wrapped and suppressed, unable to display its quality or produce suffering at all. But if the good we have done was limited, the law of kamma can only yield a limited result; even if we wish for more, the unwholesome force steps in to provoke greed, urging us toward new deeds the law of kamma cannot actually reward — a trap. This is why the Buddha taught us to eliminate craving through contentment, being satisfied with what we have and are. Grief, arising from mistakes the unwholesome force led us into, often turns into blaming others or blaming ourselves, breeding anger, resentment, and vindictiveness. Both craving and grief draw in demerit, so we must instead abide in equanimity — a mind held level, neither delighted nor repelled.

The 19–20 Mental Factors That Arise with a Wholesome Mind

Once craving and grief are eliminated, the mental factors of non-greed, non-hatred, and neutrality of mind become established, drawing in pure energy continuously. Practicing this teaching in full allows at least nineteen to twenty wholesome mental factors, including the factor of wisdom, to draw in merit continuously: mindfulness, faith, moral shame, moral dread, non-greed, non-hatred, neutrality of mind, tranquility (which calms body and mind), buoyancy (which keeps body and mind agile rather than sluggish), and the factors that keep body and mind honest and within the track of Dhamma. When practiced fully, the level of mind and Dhamma becomes established in the first jhāna, and can develop toward the second, third, and fourth jhānas.

Stop, Still, Neutral — Luang Pu's Three Dots

Phra Ajarn teaches that Luang Pu instructed placing the mind still at the seventh base, the center of the body, using three words: Stop, Still, Neutral. Each word is its own distinct sphere of Dhamma with its own quality, serving a different function. The Stop sphere halts every system except the wholesome one — since the Stop sphere is itself wholesome — stopping even the breath. The Still sphere, once determined, arises and stills the mind, growing progressively stiller and more refined. The Neutral sphere, once determined, arises at the mind and releases a current that allows the mind to remain neutral no matter what provokes it. These three tools not only give the mind good qualities but also continuously draw in pure energy, merit, to drive the wholesome system.

Settling at the Seventh Base, the Center of the Body

Phra Ajarn teaches that the seventh base, the center of the body, is the gateway leading straight to the middle path toward Nirvana. As we abide with the wholesome nature, the Triple Gem appears radiant at our center, we appear radiant within it, and both we and it appear radiant within Nirvana. He explains that Nirvana already holds all beings within it; whoever abides in universal goodness — even without knowing Buddhism, even without any religion at all — still has the Triple Gem appearing radiant within them, with the stream of merit from Nirvana flowing continuously in, refining the elements all along our chain of bodies, from the subtlest arahant body of Dhamma down to the coarse human body.

Loving-Kindness for Our Companions in Suffering

Having done good for ourselves, Phra Ajarn leads loving-kindness practice for all beings, our companions in birth, aging, sickness, and death, since we come from the same place and return to the same place. The unwholesome force often steers us toward selfish love, so we must cultivate good love — full of sincere, pure goodwill, like a mother's love for her child. As we determine this, a bright round sphere of loving-kindness arises, continuously drawing in the stream of merit; loving-kindness has the special power to dissolve resentment and friction.

Radiating Loving-Kindness Across the World and the Universe

He leads the radiance of loving-kindness to spread over our homes, the village, district, province, country, and other nations, until it covers the whole world like a crystal globe of light — wishing all beings, earth spirits, sky spirits, heavenly beings, brahmas, formless brahmas, and beings in hell, asuras, and animals to be free from suffering and full of happiness. The radiance then continues outward to cover countless stars and the boundless world-systems.

Dedicating Merit to Karmic Counterparties and Stilling the Mind in the Triple Gem

Phra Ajarn dedicates this merit to our fellow companions in suffering, our ancestors, parents, siblings, grandparents, teachers of great kindness, the devas who help us, and the karmic counterparties we may have wronged, asking that we forgive one another. He then leads the mind to still within the Triple Gem — the Buddha Jewel, the Dhamma Jewel, the Sangha Jewel — and within the finest body of Dhamma of the Grand Master, the Great Teacher, and Khun Yai, on the principle that the mind is a servant that succeeds however it is determined.

Making the Aspiration

He leads the aspiration, asking that the merit, power, and radiance of Nirvana and the teachers combine with all the merit accumulated since our first life, refining body, speech, and mind until they shine clear and pure, freeing us from downfall, sin, karmic obstruction, and every hardship down to the last trace; granting attainment of the threefold and eightfold knowledge, the six higher powers, the four analytical insights, the eight liberations, and the fifteen conducts; granting good health and long life, heading straight toward the path of Nirvana; and upon passing from this world, to be reborn in the Tusita heaven and in a family of right view. The sit closes with a chant invoking the well-being that comes through the power of the Buddha, the Dhamma, and the Sangha.