พระอาจารย์อธิบายว่าเรื่องนี้เป็นไปโดยอัตโนมัติ มนุษย์ไม่จำเป็นต้องรู้รายละเอียด เพราะภายในตัวเรามี “จักรพรรดิ” ผู้บริหารจัดการทรัพยากรและดูแลผังสำเร็จอยู่แล้ว หน้าที่ของเราคือหมั่นสร้างบุญใหม่มาเสริมบุญเก่าเพื่อช่วยจักรพรรดิทำงาน แต่ถ้าเราอยู่ในระบบอกุศล อกุศลก็จะชี้นำให้เราก้าวก่ายหน้าที่ของจักรพรรดิ จนทุกอย่างติดขัดไปหมดPhra Ajarn explains that this happens automatically, we do not need to know the details, because within us there is already an “Emperor” who manages our resources and watches over the blueprint. Our task is simply to keep bringing in new merit to reinforce the old and help the Emperor’s work. But if we are under an unwholesome system, that unwholesomeness will lead us to interfere with the Emperor’s function, and everything becomes obstructed.
How do we know that we already have a “completed blueprint” within us, and that what we are doing right now is on the right path and in line with that blueprint? Phra Ajarn answers that this all happens automatically, we do not need to know it. Within us there is already a “manager” in place. Human beings therefore do not need to know how to arrange the causes, we only need to let flow through to the “Emperor,” the one who nurtures and protects us, so that he can manage the resources. That is enough.
An Unwholesome System Will Obstruct the Emperor
Whether we are on the right path or not, whether we are aligned or not, depends on which system we are in. If we are under an unwholesome system, that unwholesomeness will guide us into all sorts of obstacles, obstructing the Emperor, obstructing the manager, so that he cannot do his work. Things that should be simple become difficult, tripped up at every turn. Unwholesomeness leads the various -functions away from their own duties, causing them to overstep and interfere with the Emperor’s work.
Example Working Around the Clock versus Letting Go to Meditate
As a student once shared, when he worked from dawn to dusk, he got fewer results than when he let go and sat in meditation. That is because while he was working around the clock, unwholesomeness led him to interfere with the Emperor’s function. But once he sat in meditation, bringing merit to help the Emperor, he achieved greater success, because the human body’s existing duty is to bring in new merit to reinforce the old.
If we do not create the causes of goodness, we are left with only old merit, and the Emperor can only work with that old merit, sometimes enough, sometimes not. When it is not enough, deficiencies and losses follow, because the Emperor does not only nurture us, he must also protect us.
The Emperor Nurtures and Protects Us
The Emperor nurtures us so that we can keep the standard of living we now have, our belongings, our water and electricity bills, our car, our food and shelter. He also has to guard and protect us from illness, from sickness, from fever, from karmic results, from accidents and misfortunes. He already knows what karma we have created and what results are due to arise, so he must draw on merit, pure and wholesome energy, to correct our karmic results, using happiness to dissolve the suffering that would otherwise occur. In this way our stores of goodness are used to dissolve calamity.