A practitioner shared with the teacher: today was another day of sitting in meditation watching the breath, and I just discovered that watching the breath alone can also bring you to the center — before this, every time I'd reached the center, it had always been through reciting Samma-Araham. I wanted to share this with the teacher.

The teacher praised this warmly, and encouraged sitting as much as possible — all day and all night if possible, filled with nothing but happiness and ease of mind. Doing anything else brings no such happiness or ease, and yields no comparable benefit — sit like this from morning through noon, afternoon, evening, and night. Even while eating, keep the mind fixed at the center of the body, staying with the Triple Gem, staying within the wholesome system, and merit will flow through.

The teacher explained: our role is simply to bring body and mind to him; correcting and refining our elements into purity is not our job — we're simply not capable of doing that ourselves. The human role is only to maintain constant awareness, without lapsing, in order to draw merit inward. This is exactly the point — the wholesome system needs merit to drive it. If we, as the owner of this human body, fail to perform the role of drawing in merit, who else would draw merit in for us? Merit wouldn't flow through; neither the stream of merit nor the stream of treasure would flow through, and the imperial stream of treasure would have nothing to refine and improve. Once merit flows in, the wholesome system takes it and uses it to drive the process of purifying our elements, and we become liberated bit by bit, with the proportion of wholesomeness continually increasing. The more it increases, the closer we get to Nibbana; merit becomes ever more sacred and pure, subtle treasures grow ever finer, and we gain access to ever wiser, more powerful knowers — nothing but good arises, abundantly.

The teacher emphasized that our future depends entirely on remaining within the wholesome system — that alone is what builds our future. Otherwise, we simply consume our old merit little by little until it runs out, and then where would new merit come from to sustain our life in the present and future? The teacher invited everyone to come sit together at the center, hoping everyone would prove it for themselves through practicing here — whether experienced or not doesn't matter, so long as one loves to sit. Devote day and night to being a channel that lets wholesomeness manage things for us — just like going to see a doctor: the doctor says there's nothing you need to do, simply relax, and the doctor will examine, ask questions, and handle everything — whether that means an IV drip, an injection, or surgery, it's the doctor's job. The wholesome system works exactly the same way, except it doesn't even need us to direct or follow along — simply sit at ease, and it will fix things for us, through the manifestation of countless Nibbanic beings beyond number.

The teacher cautioned: if we don't bring body and mind to be corrected this way, and instead let body and mind fall under unwholesomeness, unwholesomeness will crush and shatter everything, while the neutral nature offers no help either — only dragging us off to eat, play, dance, and travel, squandering our precious time and wealth until it's all gone. But if we remain within the wholesome system, the stream of merit and treasure flows through, and wholesomeness guides us to perform good deeds: giving, keeping precepts, cultivating meditation, practicing humility, being of service in others' affairs, dedicating and rejoicing in merit, discussing and listening to the Dhamma, and correcting our views to align with the truth. All of this — only wholesomeness can guide us toward it.