พระอาจารย์อธิบายว่า บุญ บารมี รัศมี กำลัง ฤทธิ์ อำนาจ สิทธิ และความเฉียบขาด ล้วนเป็นพลังงานฝ่ายบุญที่มีความบริสุทธิ์และคุณภาพต่างระดับกัน และชีวิตเรามีอยู่แค่สองเรื่อง คือทำความดีกับต้านทานความชั่วร้ายLuang Phor explains that merit, perfection, aura, power, psychic potency, authority, right, and decisiveness are all forms of the same wholesome energy, differing only in purity and concentration — and that our whole life comes down to two things: doing good and resisting evil.
A lay follower asked how merit (bun), perfection (barami), aura (rasmi), power (gamlang), psychic potency (rit), authority (amnat), right (sit), and decisiveness (chiap khat) differ from one another.
The many levels of merit's subtlety
Luang Phor explained that these are all degrees of subtlety within merit — energy on side, put to different uses at each level.
Merit nourishes us by washing away impurities, giving , and letting us remain comfortably in whatever realm we're in, never lacking in food or necessities drawn from the subtle possessions of the sense-sphere.
Perfection (barami) is what drives our life forward through the round of rebirth.
Aura (rasmi) brings benefit and standing — it earns fame and rank, so people see it and must show respect, and it makes others stand in awe.
Power (gamlang) lets us actually carry out any action. Not everyone has the same amount of it — someone with great power can become a leader of others and put it to work. Doing any work needs strength of body, strength of heart, the strength of one's allies, and other such conditions that give rise to power; without them, no power arises. Aura that makes people bow in awe also needs power behind it — some have an aura that makes people fearful, yet may not have enough power to actually act; they simply receive recognition.
Psychic potency (rit) brings about success. Having the power to act doesn't guarantee it succeeds — but with rit, whatever is undertaken succeeds.
Authority (amnat) and right (sit) require even greater still. Some people have authority without right, others have right without authority — for instance, having the right to use the things in one's own house, yet no authority over them.
As for decisiveness, Luang Phor gave the example of the King, or of the revered Luang Phor — someone so decisive that people feel awe just seeing them. It means that whatever they command, people commit themselves to carrying it out and making it succeed. There's no need for many words — one word is enough, and people throw themselves in body and heart to fulfill that wish. Not everyone can have this kind of decisiveness.
All of these are energy at different levels, each with a different degree of purity, each yielding a different result. When we perform wholesome deeds, that energy is drawn in and refined into ever greater purity — from the level of merit, through perfection and aura, on to power, psychic potency, authority, right, and decisiveness — each level more concentrated and pure than the last, and this purity determines the state we come to abide in.
This is exactly the point where , (abyakata), and the wholesome all vie to take hold: the more energy someone has, the more others will seek a way to seize control of it — which also means it can be put to great benefit if we're ready. But if we haven't yet trained ourselves to be ready, we shouldn't rush. What matters is training ourselves to be able to hold that energy first. Each side draws energy in to refine it toward greater subtlety and purity at its own level, in order to make use of this human body.
Energy never stops flowing
Our life really comes down to just two things: doing good, and resisting evil. When we commit ourselves to doing good, we draw in the energy of merit. But whenever unwholesomeness tries to interfere, we must resist that evil — we can't just let it draw sin in unchecked, because it will always find its own way in. When the time comes that it takes hold of our mind, it will direct and force us toward wrongdoing, and we must resist it. Then merit flows in instead. So life truly has only these two matters: doing good, and resisting evil.
We resist evil through (sila), concentration (samadhi), and wisdom (panna). Concentration resists the evil of (nivarana) — when the mind grows clouded, we use the strength of concentration, the strength of calm (), and the strength of wisdom. That's why we must study sila, samadhi, and panna together — to resist evil, and to carry out the good deeds that bring merit to us.
None of this is anything other than energy. Whether we're asleep, awake, standing, walking, sitting, or lying down, our mind never stops this flow of energy — it flows constantly, whether it is wholesome, indeterminate, or unwholesome energy; it is never, ever absent.
Energy is therefore of the greatest importance — it drives every system. A mobile phone without a battery cannot work; a car without fuel cannot move. Everything needs energy to run. Without the energy of merit, we would die. Beings in hell, if not sustained by the energy of sin, would be released from the woeful realms. Humans, celestial beings, and all the brahma realms — when their merit runs out, they must come to experience the woeful realms. Every realm depends entirely on energy to keep going.
Even our sitting here normally depends on merit sustaining us — without that merit we couldn't sit normally, we'd be bedridden. And when merit runs out entirely, we die out of this realm into another, where merit or sin will again sustain us — never, ever without it. We are never for a moment free of the energy driving us.
This is why energy matters so greatly. And energy itself comes in many qualities and levels — the energy of merit is the energy of light and brightness. The purity and brightness of merit ranges through perfection, aura, power, psychic potency, authority, right, and on to decisiveness — many levels, many qualities.