Right Mindfulness and Right Concentration: The Two Parts of Practice

Practice consists of two parts: right mindfulness and right concentration. Right mindfulness trains us to establish steady awareness. Right concentration is what follows once we've settled — learning how to enter progressively subtler dimensions, and understanding each dimension we pass through. Learning and understanding these things in advance makes the practice much easier.

We Cannot Settle the Mind by Ourselves Alone

Phra Ajarn explains that ordinarily we cannot settle the mind purely by our own effort. Whenever the wholesome system manages to seize the moment, it takes its seat within us, and mindfulness arises. With sustained practice, mindfulness becomes easier and more frequent to establish, because the wholesome system becomes more effective as we cooperate with it. We need to learn to align ourselves with this wholesome system so it can more easily do its beneficial work for us.

Knowing the Body: Where Clarity Begins

The key point is to bring our awareness and the body into a single unity. The first step is simply knowing the body. Once we know it, compare: how different does it feel now, knowing the body, versus before, when we didn't? When we establish body-awareness, clarity arises; the mind becomes steady, grounded, more truly itself. Every time we know the body, we abide in equanimity — neither pleased nor displeased — unlike the state of not knowing the body, where the mind constantly swings between attraction and aversion.

Two Kinds of Meditation Objects

Phra Ajarn explains there are two kinds of meditation objects. The first kind already exists naturally — the breath, body-awareness, ordinary feelings — things we simply need to understand and perceive. The second kind must be deliberately constructed, such as a repeated word (parikamma) or a visualized image (nimitta), which we must actively set up.

The Four Iddhipāda: A Dhamma Package Working Together

Beyond the tools of the "sphere of knowing" and the meditation object, Phra Ajarn explains, we also need another set of qualities: **chanda (zeal), viriya (effort), citta (mind), and vimaṃsā (investigation)**. Multiple qualities must converge and support each other so that this sustained knowing can continue uninterrupted. Each has its own specific property that supports mindfulness in continuous knowing:

- **Chanda** brings satisfaction and delight in the activity itself. - **Viriya** drives continuous forward progress. - **Citta** keeps attention anchored and focused. - **Vimaṃsā** brings reflective examination.

When these four factors converge, the activity we're engaged in advances continuously, growing ever deeper and more subtle, never regressing — able to carry us into progressively subtler dimensions. Phra Ajarn calls these four factors the "Four Iddhipāda" — the qualities that give rise to success.

The Specific Role Each Factor Plays

Phra Ajarn explains that continuous advancement into subtler dimensions relies on viriya — perseverance, diligence, refusing to give up, pushing forward. It relies on chanda — the satisfaction of staying with the meditation object, with whatever state is present. Citta, attentiveness, allows the mind to settle. Vimaṃsā, reflective investigation, deepens things ever further. Simply abiding in these four qualities is enough. Even if a painful state — one that must be endured and is hard to bear — arises, that's fine too; stay determined and present with the new, unfamiliar state for a while, and it will soon become familiar. Once familiar, it becomes bearable.

Sustained Awareness Without Lapsing: The Heart of Drawing In Pure Energy

Stay continuously aware, without lapsing. This sphere of knowing draws in pure energy that purifies defilement. We only need to maintain and steer this sphere of knowing to remain settled continuously, knowing at ease, so the pure, purifying stream of merit flows in without interruption. Sphere after sphere blossoms within, each one composed of pure, sacred Dhamma-substance, possessed of power and might, able to dissolve suffering, sorrow, illness, misfortune, karmic results, and all the various obstacles and problems of life.

The Refined Treasures Within the Sphere of Merit

Within the center of the sphere of knowing, the center of the sphere of merit, the center of pure energy — as knowing draws in this pure energy, refined treasures come along with it. Each sphere of merit is complete with pure, sacred Dhamma-substance together with refined treasures: form-assets, material assets, virtuous qualities, retinue, honor and praise, happiness, the path, fruit, and Nibbāna, and knowledge of the Dhammakāya — all fully present within the sphere of merit. As merit flows through us, these refined treasures flow through us too — and it is precisely these refined treasures that draw worldly, coarser wealth toward us.

Time as the Factor of Refinement

If we wish for treasures that are refined and of high quality, we need to cultivate right concentration to enter subtler dimensions. Every subtler dimension we reach brings us access to correspondingly subtler treasures. To enter subtler dimensions, we first need to establish right mindfulness, staying settled with our meditation object. In truth this isn't difficult — it only requires repeated, sustained determined knowing: perseverance, zeal, staying continuously engaged with our meditation object. The more time we give it, the deeper we can go; with little time, the opportunity to reach subtler dimensions is correspondingly small.

Dedicating Merit to Our Ancestors and Karmic Counterparts

As this stream of merit flows continuously in, we use the moment to dedicate this merit to our ancestors — remembering our parents, siblings, grandparents, and the teachers who have helped us, along with the guardian devas who assist us, and all beings we may have wronged, our karmic counterparts (คู่กรรมคู่เวร) — asking for mutual forgiveness so that they, too, receive a full share of this merit.

Radiating Loving-Kindness to All Beings and the Universe

Once this wholesome wish is set, we extend the mind, filled with loving-kindness, to cover our home, then extend it outward to the village, the sub-district, the district, the province, the country, and finally the whole world and the entire universe, embracing countless stars without limit. This special quality of mettā dissolves resentment (paṭigha) both in our own hearts and in the hearts of all beings.

Resting in the Triple Gem and the Closing Aspiration

Phra Ajarn leads the mind to rest, still, in the center of the Triple Gem — the Buddha jewel, the Dhamma jewel, the Sangha jewel — and in the center of the great teachers who watch over our merit and Dhamma at all times, resting finally in the center of Nibbāna. The stream of merit from the deepest part of Nibbāna flows in, purifying the sphere of Dhamma, the sphere of precepts, concentration, wisdom, and liberation-knowledge-and-vision within each of our bodies. Using this auspicious moment, he leads an aspiration for a life of happiness, success, and fulfillment in all that is right and good, closing with a Pali chant of dedication.