พระอาจารย์สอนว่าการภาวนา "สัมมาอะระหัง" เหมือนการเรียกชื่อคนที่เรารัก ยิ่งเรียกและทำความคุ้นเคยบ่อยเท่าไหร่ท่านก็จะปรากฏชัดและอยู่กับเรานานขึ้นเท่านั้น พร้อมชี้ว่าพระรัตนตรัยภายในมีอยู่ในทุกคนไม่จำกัดชาติศาสนา ผู้ตั้งอยู่ในคุณงามความดีย่อมมีพระรัตนตรัยคุ้มครอง แล้วนำนั่งสมาธิสวมความรู้สึกเป็นองค์พระ แผ่เมตตา และอุทิศส่วนกุศลPhra Ajarn compares chanting 'Samma Arahang' to calling the name of someone we love: the more we call and grow familiar, the longer and more clearly the Buddha image stays with us. He also teaches that the inner Triple Gem belongs to anyone who upholds goodness, regardless of religion or nationality, before leading a sit of becoming the crystal image, radiating loving-kindness, and dedicating merit.
Meditation is recollection. We need it because () exists; whenever ignorance arises, darkness arises with it, and the energy of demerit enters along with it. So we must establish awareness through .
Ordinarily the body is the dwelling of the mind, but whenever the mind strays outside the body, we become fixated on external forms, tastes, smells, sounds, and touches. It is like a spirit that has a house but refuses to stay in it — the longer it stays away, the more demerit seizes the house, until returning becomes difficult, even sleep becomes difficult, waking again and again. We become that wandering spirit even before death; after death, lacking merit, we remain one.
When mindfulness arises, it must recollect the body, feeling, mind, and mental objects. Meditation is recollecting the body and mind together. After a short while, defilement pushes awareness back outside, and we must recollect again — training like this, over and over.
Choosing a Clear Point of Contact
If working with the body, we might use the breath, the pulse, or the vibration of the cells — whichever senon is clearest for us — and recollect there. If working with the mind, it is the or suffering born of feeling and mental formations: relaxation, ease, spaciousness, fullness, brightness, coolness, . These arise naturally in every present moment.
What we can also construct is an image, sound, or feeling we deliberately set up — for example, recollecting the Buddha image through the word "," which is his name. The moment we call him, he appears automatically, even if we cannot see him — as a body or as , as an element or as a state. We may recollect just the sphere, just the Dhamma, or the full Buddha image.
Calling His Name Like Calling Someone You Love
Phra Ajarn draws a simile: every time we recollect his name, "Samma Arahang," it is like calling the name of our parents, siblings, or children. We call their name, and they come. Once they come, we must grow familiar with them; if we don't, they leave, and we must call again. We do this repeatedly until we become close — and the closer we grow, whether with an element or a Dhamma state, the longer it stays with us. Without that closeness, it fades quickly.
So we must stay with what we've recollected, again and again, and familiarity naturally arises — and with familiarity comes fondness and closeness. Normally, for someone unaccustomed to meditation, the image lasts only fifteen to twenty seconds before fading; we simply recollect it again. For someone accustomed to the practice, it lasts progressively longer.
When We Recollect Him, He Comes with Purification
The revered teacher once said that when we recollect the Buddha image, the Buddha appears — and he never appears empty-handed. He takes the elements of seeing, memory, thought, cognition, earth, water, fire, wind, space, and consciousness within us and purifies them, while also connecting us to the stream of merit and treasure — dissolving suffering, grief, illness, and the results of past wrongdoing. This is what he does for us every time we recollect him. When we do, we appear at his center, and both of us appear at the immeasurable center of Nirvana.
The Inner Triple Gem: Beyond Nation or Religion
The world does not know this wonder occurs every time a human being recollects the Triple Gem within, or recollects the Buddha, Dhamma, and Sangha. Phra Ajarn explains: the Buddha is our own true self. The Dhamma is all that is good, unbounded by nation or religion — even someone of another faith who has never heard the word "Buddha," but who stands in goodness, is said to already dwell with the Dhamma. The Sangha is whoever upholds the jewel of Dhamma, that is, ; as long as goodness is preserved, the Sangha truly appears.
Every person in this world already carries the Buddha within. Whenever anyone recollects the Dhamma and preserves goodness and rightness, the Triple Gem appears at their center too. So whatever religion a person follows, so long as they stand in goodness it is enough — even if in this life they have not yet entered the Buddhist path, it does not matter; the Triple Gem within still protects them. Sooner or later, in one life or another, they will enter the path, study the Dhamma, and attain its fruits. As the great teacher once said: everyone must eventually reach Nirvana — only the timing differs.
Merit Arises in Two Circumstances
When we recollect the Buddha image, merit flows through us — not through the human body alone, but through every body we possess: the human body, the celestial body, the form and formless brahma bodies, and the Dhamma bodies of the Stream-Enterer, Once-Returner, Non-Returner, and Arahant, countless bodies all the way to Nirvana. We practice only in the human body, yet the merit that flows is stored simultaneously in every one of them — this is the wonder.
The revered teacher said merit arises in two circumstances: doing good through body, speech, or mind, and resisting evil through body, speech, or mind. In both cases, merit flows to support us. Consider — if, while we resist evil, merit did not come to help, we would simply suffer without relief. But because a guardian force watches over us always, merit flows in to power the automatic system that purifies our elements.
Growing Familiar with the Buddha Image
Last time, we learned to hold the feeling of being the Buddha image — the whole body becoming a radiant crystal Dhamma body, pure from head, face, cheeks, and shoulders down through the torso, letting go entirely of the human sense of self.
This time we learn to call and invite him by name: "Samma Arahang." Every time we speak his name, his named state and formed state appear. Whatever state we name — "relax, relax" — its corresponding bright sphere appears; name ", loving-kindness" and the sphere of loving-kindness appears at our center. Whatever state we name, we must go and grow familiar with it, sensing and touching it directly. The Buddha image works the same way — we call his name, then go and sense his presence. Clarity grows gradually; at first it may be faint and unclear. But if we reaffirm our confidence that calling brings his presence without fail, the sensing becomes markedly clearer.
The Repeated Chant: Calling His Name Again and Again
Repeating his name — "Samma Arahang, Samma Arahang" — is called mantra recitation, the means by which he and the state appear. We must keep calling his name; if we neglect him, our perception of him fades, just as something right in front of us can be missed if we pay it no attention. So each time we call his name, we approach with a heart that is humble, gentle, tender, soft, cool, and pure, while the stream of Dhamma flows through the center of our body and mind — all while we abide at the center of the Triple Gem and of Nirvana.
Radiating Loving-Kindness and Dedicating Merit
May all beings who share with us the suffering of birth, aging, sickness, and death be free from all suffering. Extend love, kindness, and goodwill to fill your whole body, then your whole home — expanding it is like flipping a light switch: the brightness of the 84,000 sections of the Dhamma appears entirely. Loving-kindness expands exactly as far as the mind directs, because the mind is a wish-fulfilling cloth — whatever it sets, that is what appears.
We can do no more than learn what benefit each Dhamma quality offers and then set it in motion, the way a cook learns the sweet, salty, and sour qualities of ingredients before using them. Loving-kindness set to fill the home will, on its own, dissolve any resentment in the atmosphere, then extend to the village, district, province, and the whole world. Loving-kindness is a wave that corrects the waves in the minds of beings across the world; merit is the pure energy that dissolves demerit, refining the systems of the world and universe toward greater rightness and goodness.
Setting Resolve and Dedicating Merit
Abiding at the center of loving-kindness, of Nirvana, and of the stream of merit, Phra Ajarn leads the resolution: invoking the blessing, power, radiance, and authority of every Buddha, every Silent Buddha, every Arahant, together with the merit of the great teachers, to combine with the merit we have sincerely accumulated — becoming sacred, potent merit that purifies our elements, freeing us from bondage to Mara, from greed, hatred, delusion, lust, and clinging, without residue; granting and penetration into ; good health and long life; unwavering resolve toward Nirvana; good fortune, safety, and the affection of humans and celestial beings; prosperity in our work; and, when we eventually pass from this world, birth in the Tusita heaven's special sphere of merit in the region of the great Bodhisattvas — and when we return to the human world, birth into a warm family of right view. May all past wrongdoing be forgiven, and may every accumulated merit bear sacred and visible fruit for all of us, until we reach the ultimate goal of the Dhamma.