Merit Flows the Moment Wholesome Mind Arises, While Unwholesome Mind Tries to Seize the Chance

The teacher explains that during a period of practice, the moment a wholesome state of mind arises, all 19 spheres arise together, drawing energy in continuously — merit keeps flowing in. At the same time, the unwholesome mind tries to seize the opening, layering drowsiness and distraction into the mind, pulling in impurity. But because we're in a stretch of wholesome mind with no intention of letting drowsiness or distraction arise, the unwholesome side can only use the impurity we already carry to disturb us. If we ourselves intend to create distraction or start thinking this and that, that is performing a new cause.

Sloth and Torpor: The Impurity Behind Drowsiness

Sloth and torpor (thina-middha), the impurity that produces drowsiness, arises from indulging in pleasing forms, tastes, smells, and sounds. We'll notice that heavy media consumption makes this heavier every time we sit — especially sensual desire; the heavier that is, the heavier the drowsiness becomes. It is a result born from accumulated impurity.

We train the sphere of mindfulness to stay aware of itself, so mindfulness can recognize these things and draw in more energy. Each sphere carries out its own function; whichever one we can perceive most clearly is the one drawing in energy most strongly. Some people perceive faith, some perceive mindfulness, some perceive conscience and shame of wrongdoing, some perceive non-greed and non-aversion — freedom from liking and disliking — some perceive balance. Each person perceives differently, but every act of perceiving draws in merit to refine these six spheres into greater purity. If we stay aware of the results that appear, the sphere of wisdom will arise and point us to what each thing produces. In the beginning, though, if the mind still carries much impurity, the hindrances will interfere and wisdom will struggle to be of use — that's fine, just keep training gradually.

Q&A: The 89 States of Consciousness and the Realms of Existence

Someone asked about the diagram on the left, which shows our self at each level. The teacher explains: consciousness altogether has 89 states. One is the human state; the rest are lower and higher states. The higher ones are the subtle body, the divine body, the refined divine body, the Brahma body, the refined Brahma body, the formless-Brahma body, the refined formless-Brahma body, and the Dhamma body, and so on. Below the human body are the mental states of hell beings, asuras, and animals. Altogether, briefly, there are 89 states; expanded, 121.

Someone who is often angry sits at the level of the subtle body of a wandering spirit (sambhavesī) or a yaksha, which itself has many sub-levels; animals, asuras, and hell beings likewise have many levels. These bodies look just like us — the subtle body, the divine body, the refined divine body, the Brahma body, the refined Brahma body — because they are the components of whichever realm we will be born into, depending on what cause we perform. If our mind is virtuous, a coarse divine body arises and forms, guiding us toward good thoughts, good moods, gentleness and refinement, and drawing in merit abundantly. When it's time to be reborn, we ride that body into the deva realms at various levels — a coarse divine body leads to the lower heavens, a refined divine body to the middle and higher heavens. To be reborn there at all requires drawing in enough merit to serve as the "cost of living" for that realm.

Without Performing the Cause, We Cannot Arrive

The teacher points out: if someone performs no cause of virtue yet hopes to be born in the deva realms, it simply cannot happen — they have no means to sustain themselves there, having never drawn in energy of that level. Someone who performs unwholesome causes accumulates impurity that presses them downward, and must be born as a wandering spirit, hell being, asura, or animal. We can perceive these bodies only once we reach the inner sphere of Dhamma, at the seventh base — passing through the process of the inner Dhamma sphere from the sixth base, into the spheres of virtue, concentration, wisdom, and liberation, and from there into the various levels of body, seeing our true self at each level — bodies that look just like us in the realms we are bound to be born into.

Right Mindfulness in Body, Feeling, Mind, and Mental Objects: Three Layers of the Teaching

The teacher explains the Buddha's teaching on cultivating right mindfulness: "Monks, you should be clearly aware — awareness being mindfulness, clear comprehension being sampajañña — in body as body, feeling as feeling, mind as mind, mental object as mental object, in order to remove covetousness and grief regarding the world." This single passage can be unpacked into three parts: (1) calm meditation (samatha) to be freed from impurity through the power of wholesome mind, by the mechanism of right mindfulness, right concentration, and the wholesome mental factors; (2) the instruction to be clearly aware in feeling as feeling, mind as mind, mental object as mental object — this is insight meditation (vipassanā), leading to liberation through wisdom; and (3) "to remove covetousness and grief regarding the world" — the purpose of facing the law of kamma and the three characteristics while abiding in contentment and equanimity through calm and insight, for the fruit of liberation of mind and liberation through wisdom. The teacher notes this will be developed further in the afternoon session.

Training the Mind to Be at Ease Through the Factor of Neutrality

Our task is to stay continually aware, never lapsing, with a neutral mind. That neutrality is the mental factor of tatramajjhattatā, which gradually brings the mind into balance on its own. We must train ourselves to feel at ease everywhere, in every activity — mindful and resting in that ease. Eat and drink at ease, sit and lie down at ease, live with mindfulness at ease — and then bring that ease of mind to rest with the Triple Gem. A mind that is good and at ease can produce good work happily, achieving what it aims for. If the mind is not good or not at ease, whatever we try to do will be hard to do well. So we must train the mind to be at ease first. If we've never trained this, we start by learning to sit at ease, lie at ease, and gradually come to recognize how that ease of mind arises — learning its mechanism.

The Role of Mindfulness and Clear Comprehension

Mindfulness is a clear, bright sphere whose function is to recall — to remember and know all elements and phenomena. Clear comprehension (sampajañña) knows thoroughly in detail. Together, these two spheres draw pure energy into the brightness at their center. Merit's function is to attract meritorious energy — pure energy that drives the wholesome system to refine the mind, correcting and removing impurity, purifying the mind so it can be freed from coarser dimensions into subtler ones, increasing the proportion of wholesomeness, and bringing happiness and fulfillment into life.

Merit Flows in Two Cases, and the Anchor Point of the Mind

Merit, the pure energy of the wholesome, arises in two cases: (1) when we do good and resist the evil of the unwholesome, merit flows through; and (2) when body and mind become the base of the wholesome — bringing body and mind together as one to serve as that base. So we must fix a point where our mind rests right now — for example, noting "hot" when hot, "cold" when cold, "cool" when cool; or if walking, noting "right foot lifting, stepping, placing; left foot lifting, stepping, placing"; or resting with the breath, or with the chant "Samma-araham," or with the Buddha image. Any of these will do — what matters is having a base for the mind so that merit can flow through.

Perform the Cause, Observe the Result — "Attend to It, How Excellent"

Once we perform a cause, we must observe the result — "Attend to it, how excellent; perform the cause, observe the result, attend to it, how excellent; perform within the cause, observe within the result, attend to it deeply, how truly excellent." This is a saying the elder monk repeated three times over, that whenever we perform a cause we must observe the result. Without observing the result, we won't see our progress; and without seeing that small, gradual progress appear, we won't have enough faith to keep doing it.

Whatever we give our time to, the mind will feed on and consume. That thing will nourish and shape our body and mind into its likeness. If we dwell with lust, lust shapes us; if we dwell with anger, anger shapes us; if we dwell with delusion, delusion shapes us; if we dwell with news of politics and society, that shapes us too. Whatever we dwell with will shape us. If it brings benefit, that's fine; if it brings no benefit, bring the mind to rest with the Triple Gem instead — with what is wholesome and good — and merit will flow through, nourishing and refining the mind, keeping it pure.

Impurity and the Law of Elements: The Chain That Links Every Level of Our Being

We must understand that when impurity is present, unpleasant phenomena naturally appear — impurity carries out its function, the law of elements that presses us downward. What is this "element-Dhamma"? It is ourselves — the coarse human body and the subtle human body, which is the dream body. In dreams, the face looks just like ours; it is entirely subconscious. Whenever it surfaces as our thinking, that thinking, too, comes entirely from the subconscious — and it looks just like us. All of this is our self at various levels, in the various realms we are bound to be reborn into. We must leave the human body behind and carry the subtle human body onward toward the realm of the divine body; then leave the subtle human body behind and carry the divine body onward to that next realm — body and mind dissolving away, layer by layer, each time.

When demerit flows through, all elements of Dhamma are pressed downward, their quality diminished — not only the coarse human body, but every body is pressed down in quality together. But when the wholesome performs a good cause, merit flows through and lifts the whole chain of elements and Dhamma to a better quality. So the human body alone affects the entire chain of elements and Dhamma that runs through us. This is why, when we speak of being "governed," we mean governed in sequence along that whole chain — we never truly live alone; our own chain of elements and Dhamma governs us step by step, continually guiding us to perform causes of virtue and goodness.