พระอาจารย์อธิบายว่าสวดมนต์เป็น 'ยาทา' นั่งสมาธิเป็น 'ยากิน' ทั้งสองอย่างช่วยกลั่นและหลุดพ้นทีละชั้น ขึ้นอยู่กับว่าใจอยู่กับสิ่งที่กำหนดหรือไม่ และย้ำว่าให้เวลากับกุศลมากเท่าไร กุศลก็หล่อหลอมเรามากเท่านั้นPra Ajarn explains that chanting is like an ointment while sitting meditation is like a medicine taken internally — both refine and liberate us layer by layer, depending on whether the mind truly stays with what we've set it on — and reminds us that however much time we give the wholesome, that is how much it shapes us.
Someone asked: does practicing to enter the inner dimensions and merge the mind with the Triple Gem mean chanting and sitting in meditation?
Yes. Chanting and sitting meditation are both paths into the inner dimensions. When the Triple Gem's mind holds us and our mind holds them, we move into ever deeper, subtler dimensions, and the sense of reverence deepens further still. Khun Yai once said chanting is like an ointment applied externally, while meditation is like medicine taken internally — capable of going deeper still into the inner dimensions. Both refine us by drawing merit in and liberating us layer by layer into subtler and deeper inner dimensions, starting from the human body — and this affects the whole line of our elements and , not just ourselves, because merit keeps flowing in continuously. If we occupy ourselves with other things instead, can only take hold for a brief moment; chanting, by contrast, sustains continuously for a stretch of time — 15 or 20 minutes — keeping the mind with the wholesome system continuously. With that continuity, the merit flowing in refines continuously too, liberating us layer by layer — which is why we feel at ease after chanting, having been liberated through several layers already. Sitting meditation likewise draws merit in to refine us, liberating us into deeper, subtler inner dimensions even more continuously.
But both must be done the right way — the mind must actually stay with what we've set it on. In chanting, the mind must stay with the words: seeing, remembering, thinking, and knowing must all converge on the content of that dhamma, so merit flows in continuously. But if the mind wanders elsewhere while the mouth chants on, nothing converges into a single point. The same applies to sitting meditation — there's no need to force it; develop gradually from short spans, five or ten seconds, getting seeing, remembering, and knowing to converge and settle in one point first, then gradually extend and deepen the quality. If drowsiness, restlessness, or sleep arises because defilement is present, that's simply how it is — no problem. Defilement must perform its function; it cannot be forbidden. We must understand this and be fair, because the other natures, too, are simply trying to survive.
If we choose to side with the wholesome, we must become more refined, more attentive, more careful, and give more time to the wholesome, so it can help us — because whatever we give time to is what shapes us. Give time to music, and music shapes us; give time to sport, and sport shapes us; give time to academics, and academics shape us; give time to business, and business shapes us. So we must return and reconsider why we were born at all. Before descending to be born in the human world, while still in the celestial realms or the Tusita heaven, we once resolved on a purpose for coming down — this is the crucial point, one that must be continually reviewed so that purpose can be fulfilled, because time in the human world is limited to just twenty-four hours a day, and after sleep and other necessities, only a few hours remain for purifying ourselves, entering the inner dimensions, and merging with the Triple Gem. Give time to the wholesome, and the Triple Gem will help and correct us. Fail to give them time, and there's no basis to hope for results. Give time to , and it only destroys us; give time to the neutral, and nothing of benefit comes from it at all.