ท่านจะคุมบุญให้เราในขณะที่เรานึกถึงท่านแล้วปรากฏสว่างอยู่ในกลางกันและกัน แต่ถ้าใจเราไปหมกมุ่นอยู่กับโลภะ โทสะ โมหะ ราคะ ท่านก็ช่วยไม่ได้ จึงต้องฝึกนึกถึงท่านให้ต่อเนื่องสม่ำเสมอจนเป็นอุปนิสัยThe teacher watches over our merit exactly when we bring him to mind and both of us appear luminous within each other. But when the mind is absorbed in greed, hatred, delusion, or lust, he has no way to help — so we need to keep bringing him to mind, again and again, until it becomes second nature.
Someone asked: since making already gives us merit, why does it need to be “watched over” at all? Merit is the source of happiness and success in life, but the māra side keeps trying to hold it back or drag out how long it takes to ripen. Whether we get rich quickly or slowly, our richness itself can't be stopped — but māra can delay it. That's because merit and māra are constantly contending with each other over the timing — it's a subtle, delicate matter. So the questioner wanted to know: when exactly does the teacher watch over our merit for us? And if we remember him and then forget during the day, does it still work, or do we need to keep him in mind all the time?
Why merit needs “watching over” even after we've made it
This connects to something already touched on. Once we've made merit, side keeps trying to seize an opening, so that at least some of it clings to our stream of merit and rides along with it. Once it's attached, it can interfere along the way — making things slower or faster, more or less, whatever it can manage — because it has found a way in, it can stir things up. This is exactly where the teacher needs to step in and watch over things for us, so the unwholesome side can't get inside our center. Kept out of the center, it can't drag things out, speed them up, or dilute them the way it wants — left unchecked, it would leave us anxious and troubled in all sorts of ways. That's why the teacher needs to be invited in to watch over our merit.
An example — being cheated out of money
Take being scammed out of money as an example — nobody fails to feel hurt by that. We know we've been cheated, we know we've already lost once — so don't lose twice. The teacher's saying goes: “don't lose once, don't lose twice.” But can we actually let it go? No, we really can't — because once we've lost once, something pushes us to lose a second time too: we're forced into grieving for days on end. But what does that grief accomplish? It draws in more unwholesome karma. The unwholesome side has ways of piling the sorrow on thicker, crushing the heart to pieces — already wounded by the financial loss, and now ground down further into sorrow and gloom on top of it. This is exactly where we need to ask the teacher for help, because the unwholesome force is too strong for us to handle alone — we have to invite him in. The moment we bring him to mind, we appear bright within his center, and he appears bright within ours — it's a wondrous thing, a subtle thing, and it happens this easily.
But we also have to stay within his center — it's not that we think of him for a moment and then drift off to think of something else. The moment we think of something else, our mind goes and dwells there instead, and that something else settles into our heart. But if we keep bringing the teacher to mind and stay within his center, he comes to dwell within ours too — each residing within the other's center — and that's when the refining and resolving into oneness happens, easily. That is his subtle body doing the work of refining and correcting things for us.
When does he watch over our merit
Normally, he watches over our merit exactly at the moment we remember him — we appear bright within his center, he appears bright within ours. Whenever we think of the teacher, he will watch over our merit, without question — because thinking of him is what makes us appear bright within him and him within us, and that's what lets him watch over our merit. So we need to bring him to mind often. And if we remember, then forget, off and on through the day — does it still work? Yes, it works for that moment: the instant he's able to come in, he fixes things right away. His power has no limit.
But if our attention drifts to something else — nature, or anything else — and that something is wholesome, there's no problem; he can still watch over us, because when we're dwelling in what's wholesome, the Triple Gem appears bright and radiant within us too, and we're bright within Nibbāna as well. But the moment our mind drifts into what's neutral — neither wholesome nor unwholesome — that state holds sway over us instead. And if we go further and indulge in , hatred, delusion, or lust, we're no longer appearing bright within the teacher's center at all — we've settled into the center of the unwholesome, and the unwholesome side takes hold of us there, keeping from getting anywhere near. Since we ourselves are the ones drawn toward it, the teacher has no standing to help — how could he? That's simply how it works.
We have to keep bringing him to mind, again and again
That's why we need to bring him to mind often, consistently, until it becomes second nature — until we and he become one and the same. That takes real practice. Whoever thinks of him the most benefits the most from it — it's just like studying: you have to keep thinking about the lesson you're learning in order to actually get anything out of it. A student who studies but never thinks about what they've learned isn't going to progress — they can't. Someone who loves a sport but never puts in the practice isn't going to improve either. Whatever we want to progress in, we have to train in it, understand it, and keep practicing with it. If we want to merge into one with the teacher, we have to keep our attention fixed on him, and progress will keep building on its own until we become the same as him. At that point everything becomes easy, because it's all under his care — though getting there still takes practice.
Once we're within his center, he watches over our merit constantly — whatever we do, he's watching over all of it, because we're shining within his center and he holds us there with him. However subtle and refined he is, we become that subtle and refined too. It really is a wondrous thing.