พระอาจารย์อธิบายว่าคนที่ปฏิบัติธรรมเพื่อแก้วิกฤตก็ถูกเพียงครึ่งเดียว เพราะแท้จริงการปฏิบัติคือการเอากายใจให้พระรัตนตรัยกลั่นแก้ เปรียบเหมือนการสร้างภูมิต้านทานก่อนป่วย เพราะชีวิตไม่แน่นอน อกุศลคอยกดให้ตกต่ำเสมอ จึงประมาทไม่ได้ และเป้าหมายที่แท้คือการเข้าถึงพระรัตนตรัยภายในPra Ajarn explains that practicing only to fix a crisis is half-right, since practice is really bringing body and mind for the Triple Gem to refine — like building immunity before falling ill — because life is uncertain and the unwholesome side is always pressing us down, so we cannot be heedless, and the true goal is reaching the inner Triple Gem.
Someone observed that most people without problems think they don't need to practice, since it seems only those in crisis turn to it — making practice look like mere problem-solving.
Practicing to Fix a Crisis Is Only Half-Right
Practicing to solve a problem is right, but only half-right. When a crisis has already arisen, one must find a remedy — like a serious illness requiring hospital care. The heart, too, falls ill from the im of past karma; when it can bear no more, one must practice, so as to abide in system for the Triple Gem and nibbana to refine and correct. But people tend to think they're doing it themselves, which is only one small part. We merely note awareness so as to draw merit in through the sphere of knowing; the rest is the work of the wholesome system and the 'backstage' process that refines and corrects — like going to a doctor: we only bring ourselves and some money, and the doctor and their instruments handle everything.
Practicing While Still Well Is Building Immunity in Advance
Practicing while still free of problems is like building immunity, strengthening the body in advance — or like charging a spare battery so it's ready when needed, to dissolve impurities. The unwholesome side keeps trying to slip in, letting impurity build up bit by bit until it can dominate more and more, and when it does, problems arise. Seen in the big picture: people who climb from the coarse celestial body to ever subtler bodies, up to the formless-brahma body, can still fall back down into the hells and the states of hungry ghosts, asuras, and animals — because side never rests, always performing its task of pressing one down.
Life Is Uncertain, So We Cannot Be Heedless
Since life is uncertain, the unwholesome side will find ways to bring us down, so we cannot be heedless. We must reach what Luang Phor pointed to: our goal is to reach the inner Triple Gem, then seek merit and build the perfections — just these three. We aren't born merely for wealth, ending there. Once we reach the inner Triple Gem, we come to truly know and see life's reality, and it guides us toward what is right and good, understanding life both by knowing and by seeing. Without knowing, we only doubt and waver. Viewing time spent with the wholesome as wasted, and instead giving it to the neutral and the unwholesome, is a wrong view that must be corrected into understanding — otherwise there is trouble.