About This Teaching
Many people are born with wealth, good education and good work, which Ajahn Dtun says must come from goodness done in past lives. Yet now they rarely give or visit monasteries, and are deluded by the world into seeking only worldly happiness. If they never extend that goodness, they simply consume it, and in a future life must rebuild their pāramī again.
By contrast, many who come to monasteries have less wealth or schooling and less comfortable lives, yet want to give, practise and cultivate their minds. They may have done less merit before, but they have met wise people to guide them, or carry a conditioning towards Dhamma.
He distinguishes worldly intelligence, being smart or clever at things, from intelligence in Dhamma, which is the wholesome conditioning to develop mindfulness and wisdom. Generosity without mental cultivation, he suggests, can leave a person deluded by worldly pleasures.