พระอาจารย์อธิบายว่าเราสังเกตได้ 4 ทางตามหลักสติปัฏฐาน คือ กาย เวทนา จิต และธรรม ว่าธรรมชาติใดเข้าสิงเป็นเจ้าเรือน กุศลจะแสดงออกด้วยความละเอียดอ่อน สุขสบาย ดีงาม ส่วนอกุศลจะหยาบกระด้าง เป็นทุกข์ เลวร้าย และอัพยากตะจะอยู่ตรงกลางไม่ดีไม่เลว พร้อมอธิบายว่าทุกอย่างเป็นวงจรของคลื่น พลังงาน และระบบที่ควบคุมด้วยกฎแห่งกรรมและกฎไตรลักษณ์Pra Ajarn explains that we can observe it four ways, following the foundations of mindfulness — body, feeling, mind, and mental objects — to see which nature is ruling. The wholesome shows itself as refined, at ease, and good; the unwholesome as coarse, painful, and wicked; and the neutral as neither good nor bad. He describes how all of this is a cycle of wave, energy, and system governed by the laws of karma and the three characteristics.
Someone asked: how can we observe whether the energy flowing through our mind right now is wholesome?
Four Ways to Observe, Following the Foundations of Mindfulness
We can observe it in four ways, as the Buddha taught in : clearly know the body, feelings, mind, and mental objects, to remove covetousness and grief toward the world. These four reveal which nature is currently ruling, and whether it is merit, demerit, or neutral — because the ruling nature draws in its own energy, overlaying its whole set of body, feeling, mind, and mental objects onto our mind.
Look at the Body: The Wholesome Is Refined, the Unwholesome Coarse
When a nature possesses us, our bodily and verbal behavior follows suit. The unwholesome is coarse and rough; is refined, gentle, polite, humble, and helpful. The neutral isn't coarse in body, but neither is it gentle and refined like the wholesome — it helps no one, taking only its own benefit, yet causes no one harm either.
Look at Feeling: The Outer Sensor of the Mind
Feeling is the outer layer of the mind, like a sensor detecting who has come to possess it. When a nature possesses us, its state appears. The Tipitaka lists three feelings of the mind: pleasant, painful, and neither. Ease and comfort is the wholesome; pain — a state hard to bear — is ; and the strange neither-pleasant-nor-painful is the neutral.
Look at Mind and Mental Objects: Thought and Mood Reveal the Ruler
The mind of the unwholesome is habitually wicked; the neutral is not wicked but not good either; the wholesome is good and beautiful. Mental objects are the s, the mood of the mind. If unwholesome, they consist of greed, aversion, delusion, lust, , and wrong view. If wholesome, they consist of , faith, moral shame and dread, non-greed, non-aversion, equanimity of mind, balanced equanimity, wisdom, and the path factors — right view, right intention, right action, right livelihood, right mindfulness, — all wholesome. To know it, the mind must have a clear resting place.
The Cycle of Wave, Energy, and System
Each nature's aim is to increase its own proportion; when its proportion is large, it can control the body and beings, building networks within and without, affecting earth, water, air, sky, and environment. The unwholesome makes the environment wicked — wars, disordered seasons, plants that bear no fruit; the wholesome does the opposite, making plants flourish. These things appear in every particle of the atmosphere and cannot be hidden — like walking into a room where people have been quarreling: even if they stop, we sense it from the atmosphere. The wave in the atmosphere converts into energy; energy drives the system; the system produces more waves — a cycle turning endlessly, giving rise to the law of karma controlling from past to present, and controlling from present into future, relying on three components: system, wave, and energy.