ธรรมรสอยู่ในดวงบารมีแต่ละดวง จะซาบซึ้งถึงธรรมรสได้ต้องเข้าไปถึงดวงบารมีนั้น ๆ ไม่ใช่เพียงทำบุญแล้วอิ่มใจเท่านั้น พระอาจารย์อธิบายต่อไปถึงธรรมะว่าคือสภาวธรรมที่ปรากฏในใจ กุศลกับอกุศลที่ช่วงชิงกันเป็นเจ้าเรือนใจ และหนทางหลุดพ้นที่ต้องเป็นไปทีละขั้น โดยเริ่มจากการเห็นทุกข์โทษภัยของสิ่งนั้น ๆ ก่อนThe taste of Dhamma lives inside each perfection (บารมี), and truly savoring it means entering that sphere directly — not simply the fullness of an ordinary act of merit. Phra Ajarn traces this back to what Dhamma itself is: a sphere that appears only in the mind, contested moment to moment by wholesome and unwholesome forces. He closes with the step-by-step path to freedom, which begins with seeing the danger in whatever still binds us.
This taste of lives inside a sphere. It only appears once we reach the sphere of a perfection (บารมี) — only then can it be reached. Tasting the Dhamma is not something we can simply receive, or savor, with ease.
The taste of Dhamma appears within the sphere of a perfection, and the sphere of must be refined until it is clear and pure. To taste the flavor of the Dhamma born of giving, we have to look inside the sphere of that perfection — only then can we taste the flavor of Dhamma that comes from giving. To know the taste of morality (ศีล), we have to reach the sphere of the morality perfection. To know the taste of renunciation (เนกขัมมะ), we have to reach the sphere of the renunciation perfection.
The taste of Dhamma appears within each sphere of perfection — giving, morality, renunciation, wisdom, effort, , truthfulness, resolution, , — each its own sphere. That is where we go to taste the flavor of Dhamma. Ordinarily, when we make merit we simply feel fullness in the heart. But to truly savor the taste of Dhamma, we have to enter that sphere of perfection itself. The perfection of giving, for instance, yields the taste of Dhamma that belongs to giving — and what that flavor is, where it comes from, we can only savor once we enter each sphere of perfection.
A Word No One Else Uses
You won’t find the word “taste of Dhamma” used anywhere else. Even the schools that teach Buddhism don’t use it, because no one does. (laughter) Guess I’ll just claim it, then.
It runs very deep, this phrase. It isn’t something easily grasped. Without reaching the sphere of perfection, there is no way to perceive the taste of Dhamma. It has to be refined until pure — the flavor of giving refined clean and pure — and that requires the sphere of perfection.
A perfection (บารมี) carries a certain level of the flavor of Dhamma. A higher perfection (อุปบารมี) goes further still — utterly captivating. And when it reaches the ultimate perfection (ปรมัตถบารมี), that is supreme beyond compare. Only the Lord Buddha can enter and savor the taste of Dhamma of the ultimate perfections. Only Bodhisattvas at that level can savor the ultimate perfection of each and every sphere.
Making the Ordinary Extraordinary
Our school teaches Dhamma in simple terms, yet with real depth — taking the ordinary and turning it into something extraordinary. Someone might say this sounds like it has gone off track. It hasn’t — everything here has a source, a lineage.
Some of it comes from our revered Luang Phor. Some comes from our revered Luang Pu. Some comes from Khun Ajarn. Some comes from the Lord Buddha himself. None of this is exaggerated — everything can be referenced, cross-checked, and it holds together reasonably.
Phra Ajarn will not speak of what we cannot do; he speaks only of what we can actually put into practice. He won’t go deep into something we cannot do and just talk about it for its own sake — that serves no purpose. Our time together is limited, so every teaching should be of real benefit. He won’t speak of anything trivial, or anything beyond what we can practice. Instead, he takes the ordinary and makes it extraordinary — because that lets us see the mechanism working behind each and every thing, Dhamma included.
What Is Dhamma?
What is Dhamma? Dhamma is a (สภาวธรรม). It has the characteristic of a clear, round sphere, and it can appear in only one place — the mind. It cannot appear anywhere else. Once it appears, it manifests its own qualities. Those manifested qualities we call the “nama” aspect — the mental state. As for the “rupa” aspect — the form — if it is wholesome (กุศล), it takes the shape of a clear, bright sphere. That brightness comes from the element of merit flowing through it, producing clarity and light. But if it is unwholesome (อกุศล), it is a dark sphere — dark because a current of demerit has flowed through it, making the sphere dark and murky.
The Mind as an Office Where Forces Compete
A wholesome state arises only when, in the contest among the three forces of nature, one of them succeeds in seizing the moment and becomes the resident master of our mind. That force then overlays its own version of body, feeling, mind, and mental object — as a complete set — onto , feeling, mind, and mental object of the human being.
The mind is like an office — the operations center where these three forces of nature compete. Whichever force seizes the moment fastest and most subtly becomes the resident master. The feelings and thoughts that arise from mind and s appear in our mind; the mind is our instrument of knowing — whatever the mind knows, that is what we know.
But the mind is not us, and we are not the mind. The mind is our tool, just as the body is — a vessel we depend on. Whichever force of nature takes possession becomes the resident master, overlaying its own body onto the human body, and our behavior changes as a result.
When an Unwholesome or Wholesome Force Takes Hold
Whenever an unwholesome force takes possession, its pattern appears at once — its behavior shows up automatically, like a program forcing our behavior to go astray. The feeling that comes with an unwholesome state is suffering. Its mind and mental factors: the mind here means thought — it can be a picture, a sound, or both — while the mental factor is the emotion of the mind at that moment. When unwholesome, that emotion is , aversion, delusion, or lust — these are the mental factors that color an unwholesome state.
A human being is pulled down by the set an unwholesome force overlays — body, feeling, mind, mental object. But when a wholesome force is present, we are lifted up by the body, feeling, mind, and mental object of that wholesome state, raising our own body, feeling, mind, and mental object to something finer — purified, freed, moving from a coarser dimension toward a subtler one. Even while we may still feel somewhat dim or clouded, this is not the of a Noble One (พระอริยบุคคล) — that is far beyond this.
Freedom Comes Step by Step — Seeing the Danger First
He teaches step by step: first, we must free ourselves from the ordinary cowardice and weakness of being human — laziness, fear, irritability, drunkenness, addiction, gambling, boastfulness, talkativeness, anger, and the like. If we cannot free ourselves even from these, then hoping to attain the state of a Noble One is simply not possible. Start with freeing ourselves from these basic, ordinary things first — until the faculties (อินทรีย์) — , wisdom, , effort, and concentration — mature and ripen. Once ripened, they are cultivated into the powers (พละ), and only then does success arise, freeing us from the human state toward a subtle human body, and so on. From there, we must free ourselves from the defilements of that subtle human body, one level at a time — letting its faculties mature and ripen through continued practice — and only then can we move on into a subtle divine body, and so on. It has to happen step by step like this.
To attain the state of a Noble One, we must see the danger and the suffering in things. If we don’t see the danger and suffering of the world, liberation is difficult — it simply cannot happen. As long as we haven’t seen that danger and suffering, the sphere of liberation cannot do its work. To free ourselves from laziness, we must see the danger and suffering in laziness. To free ourselves from anything at all, we must first see the danger and suffering in that very thing — only then can liberation take place, only then can the sphere of liberation do its work. It isn’t simply a matter of wishing to be free and then becoming free. We have a tool for this work — the sphere of liberation.
The Sphere of Liberation and the Sphere of Liberating Insight
The sphere of liberation (ดวงวิมุตติ) frees us from the defilements born of unwholesome states. The sphere of liberating (ดวงวิมุตติญาณทัศนะ), on the other hand, brings us to a better life — an excellent life, a wondrous and truly marvelous life. For that, we need to see the value and benefit of wholesome states, because only wholesome states can develop this sphere of liberating insight to bring us to that better life. It isn’t simply a matter of wanting this or wanting that — everything here operates through its own mechanism.
The Mind Is Like Our Liver, Kidneys, and Intestines
These spheres are like our own liver, kidneys, and intestines. Our organs can only function properly when we feed them good food — that’s what keeps the body healthy. The part that digests does its job of digesting, the intestines do their part, the stomach does its part — everything works together, and together they produce quality nourishment that sustains and strengthens the body.
Our mind works the same way. We have to take in good things — that is the Dhamma — and stay grounded in the right system, the system of wholesome Dhamma. We take in a body that is wholesome; a feeling that senses wholesome senon; a mind of wholesome thought; and mental factors that are wholesome — for which we need to know exactly what wholesome mental factors there are, and how they combine to form Dhamma. All of this is mechanism — a tool, a working system — just as the liver, kidneys, and intestines are the mechanism of the body, so body, feeling, mind, and mental object are the mechanism of the mind.
Body, Feeling, Mind, and Mental Objects in the Four Foundations of Mindfulness
This is why the Lord Buddha instructed the monks to clearly discern body, feeling, mind, and mental objects — to first learn these four before anything else. In the Mahasatipatthana Sutta, he said: monks, you should contemplate the body in the body, feeling in feeling, mind in mind, and mental objects in mental objects. At first, one is simply to discern body, feeling, mind, and mental objects.
Once we understand body, feeling, mind, and mental objects — once we understand this instrument, this mechanism — we then go on to contemplate the body in the body, feeling in feeling, mind in mind, mental objects in mental objects belonging to whichever force of nature has taken residence: how, once it possesses us, it overlays its own body, feeling, mind, and mental object onto ours, and what behavior results. Each of these — body, feeling, mind, and mental object — must be studied in turn before we can truly come to know it deeply.