พระอาจารย์สอนวิธีสังเกตสัญญาณของกายใจเพื่อรักษาสติในการนั่งสมาธิ และสอนเทคนิคสำคัญคือ เมื่อรู้สึกเบลอ มึนงง จนเริ่มควบคุมสภาวะภายในไม่ได้ ให้สั่งตัวเองลืมตา ตั้งสติใหม่ แล้วค่อยกลับไปนั่งต่อ ฝึกซ้ำเช่นนี้จนกว่าจะรักษาสถานการณ์ภายในได้ จากนั้นแผ่เมตตาธรรมและอุทิศส่วนกุศลPhra Ajarn teaches how to read the body and mind's signals to sustain mindfulness in meditation — and shares a key technique: when a sitter becomes hazy or dazed to the point of losing control of the inner state, deliberately open the eyes, re-establish awareness, and go back in. Repeat until the inner state can be held steady, then radiate loving-kindness and dedicate the merit.
Phra Ajarn has us close our eyes and gather the mind, observing which point in the body feels clearest — perhaps the breath moving in and out against the walls of the nostrils, the point where the index finger and thumb touch, or where the hands rest on the lap. Wherever feels clear, anchor there; if it's unclear or unsfying, change the point. That signal of awareness is present at all times — the task is simply to know it continuously, without lapsing.
Consciousness Arises Where We Direct Attention, and Merit Flows to Purify It
At the point of contact we've chosen, consciousness arises. As we sense that arising consciousness, merit flows in to purify it further and further. But the moment the signal of awareness disappears, it means has slipped in. When ignorance enters, it brings demerit and defilement with it, extinguishing and letting unwholesome states arise in place of wholesome ones. True knowing is therefore the single most important thing — the mind's only real function is to know.
If side gains control, it extinguishes that knowing and replaces it with not-knowing; darkness appears, and nothing at all is known. We must therefore keep re-establishing that awareness, without fail.
Reading the Level of Haze, and the Technique of Opening the Eyes to Reset
As we sustain mindfulness, we begin to notice the signal growing faint — a haziness or confusion creeping in. The key question is: are we still within a state we can control? If yes, we simply know that we can. If control begins to slip, we must recognize that clearly — and recognize that ignorance is intruding more and more.
At this point, Phra Ajarn teaches: deliberately open your eyes. Once open, re-establish mindfulness. A signal too weak to control needs to be pulled back and re-anchored before going back in. Repeat this process again and again until you can hold it. Once you can, know that you can; once you can sustain the inner state, know that too. If you cannot control it, know why — drowsiness, restlessness, or some other cause — you must identify it. When the inner "operator" can no longer keep up, command yourself to open your eyes, reset, and once the mind clears, go back in.
Why Control Slips: Accumulated Defilement
Losing control usually traces back to having absorbed a fair amount of defilement before sitting down, leaving something unresolved lodged in the mind. We must train through this, correcting the situation again and again. Entering inner concentration is like entering an inner dimension: when you can stay, know you can stay; when you cannot, know why you cannot. Once you're able to stay, you must also know which signal you're relying on to hold there — always knowing, without ever lapsing, exactly which signal you are using.
Experience Is the Signal, Changing as Purification Progresses
Sensing is experience. Experience is the signal we perceive continuously, and this experience keeps changing according to the pace of its own purification — however far the purification reaches, the experience changes that far and no further. Our task is only to know continuously, without lapsing, whatever signal appears, so that the stream of merit can flow in and purify the defilements within us, making them progressively subtler, finer, and brighter. The automatic system of wholesome handles the correction itself; our only job is to keep recollecting the signal we are attending to.
Signals Already Present, or Signals We Construct
There are countless inner signals available to us — some already present naturally, such as the breath, the pulse, or other states we can directly sense, even the touch of two fingers together — and others we construct through mantra recitation. If we cannot sense a signal that's already there, we build one using mantra recitation or the breath. We simply direct attention to the point where an internal sense base meets an external one — wherever that contact occurs, we anchor our attention there, and keep knowing it until the signal grows clearer and clearer. Once clear, we can remain continuously with that state.
The Stream of Merit Flowing Through the Sphere of Knowing
Once consciousness is sustained continuously, the stream of merit flows in to refine the elements of seeing, memory, thought, and cognition — earth, water, fire, wind — uniting with Nirvana, from of the great teachers down to the very roots of our own elements and Dhamma, making them clear and pure. Merit is stored within every one of our bodies.
Radiating Loving-Kindness Outward
As this stream of Dhamma brings benefit to us, set the wish for the wellbeing of all beings who share with us the suffering of birth, aging, sickness, and death — may they all find . Let the heart, filled with love and goodwill, expand outward, because performs its own function once we set it. This wholesome quality — loving-kindness — is established in the mind, the mind being a wish-fulfilling cloth: whatever we set, that is what appears. Let loving-kindness shine through every corner of the atmosphere within the home, then extend to neighbors, then the whole village, with us as its center of brightness, then onward to the sub-district, district, province, neighboring countries, every nation, the whole continent, until it covers the entire world — turning this world into a crystal world, bright and clear.
Loving-Kindness Performs Its Own Function as We Direct It
Phra Ajarn explains: whatever we set, that is what becomes — the heart is a wish-fulfilling instrument. What results depends on the nature of loving-kindness itself performing its function. We only need to set the intention we want, and loving-kindness carries out its role according to its own qualities, expanding into the countless galaxies of the universe. May those with much suffering have less; may those with little suffering be free of it entirely; may those with little happiness have more; and may those with much happiness have ever more.
Receiving the Stream of Merit at the Center of Body and Mind
Learn the principle that the stream of merit flows continuously through the center of body and mind. Receive this stream at the center of loving-kindness, the center of the Triple Gem, the center of the great teachers, and of Nirvana. The sphere of merit continuously arising at our center contains a pure, sacred nature with power and potency capable of dissolving suffering, grief, illness, misfortune, and karmic obstruction, and is complete with wealth of form, riches, , retinue, honor, praise, happiness, the path and fruit of Nirvana, and of the Dhamma body.
Setting Resolve and Dedicating Merit
In this auspicious moment, Phra Ajarn leads the invocation, asking for the blessing, power, radiance, and authority of every Buddha, every Silent Buddha, every Arahant, together with the merit of the great teachers, to combine fully with the merit we have sincerely accumulated — becoming sacred and potent merit that frees us from misfortune and karmic obstruction, grants and penetration into the Dhamma body, good health and long life, and unwavering resolve toward Nirvana; may we meet only good fortune and safety, be beloved of humans and celestial beings, and prosper in our work; and when we eventually pass from this world, may we be born in the Tusita heaven's special sphere of merit in the region of the great Bodhisattvas, and when we return to the human world, be born into a warm family of right view, studying the true Dhamma correctly alongside the great teachers. May all past wrongdoing be forgiven forever, and may this good wish be fulfilled for all of us, until we reach the ultimate goal of the Dhamma.