Right Mindfulness: A Practice That Begins the Moment We Wake

Meditation practice has two parts: right mindfulness (sammā-sati) and right concentration (sammā-samādhi). Right mindfulness can be practiced from the very moment we wake up and open our eyes — simply by bringing the mind to abide with the body, letting body and mind fuse into one.

The Wonder of Body and Mind Becoming One

The moment body and mind fuse as one, something wondrous happens: the Triple Gem appears bright within us, we appear bright within it, it appears bright within us, and both we and the Triple Gem appear bright within the countless Buddha-fields of Nibbāna. The dhamma-elements — seeing, remembering, thinking, knowing, earth, water, wind, fire, space, and consciousness — together with our dhamma-sphere, are refined and corrected, their defilements dissolved, by the knowing ones of great power within Nibbāna. This is the wonder of cultivating right mindfulness — simply by bringing the mind to rest with the body, fusing mind and body into one.

Knowing the Body, Knowing the Breath: A Simple Starting Point

Practice with eyes open or closed. Be aware of your own body. The moment we are aware of our own body, that is the sign that the wholesome system has taken its seat as ruler of the heart. Know the in-breath, know the out-breath; know it whether short or long. Know the breath touching the wall of the nostrils continuously. Wherever consciousness arises, determine your knowing right at that spot — this is knowing at the level of the consciousness-element.

World Within World: The Body-Within-the-Body That Directs Our Role

But the fuller kind of knowing we cultivate in practice is knowing clearly within our "world" (ภพ) — because world truly nests within world. We live in the human world, yet outside there are houses, people, trees, grass, countless objects we pay no attention to; we attend only to what is close, what confronts us directly. This is a smaller world nested inside the greater human world, and the body-within-the-body is what controls it, manages it, and directs the role we play. Right now we are playing the role of a meditator. The body-within-the-body belonging to the wholesome side oversees and cares for us, but the bodies-within-the-body of the neutral (abyākata) and unwholesome sides also intrude periodically, taking the seat as ruler for stretches of time, depending on how refined each of us is. But overall, this field of time still belongs mostly to the wholesome system, which retains the greater share of control — which is why we are able to remain here, practicing.

When the Wholesome System Rules, Knowing Becomes Beneficial

If we don't know, it means ignorance (avijjā) has become ruler of the heart — the unwholesome has taken hold, and ignorance rules in its place; then we either fail to know, or we come to know things that bring no benefit and even harm. But when we abide in the wholesome system, our knowing becomes knowing that produces genuine benefit. The wholesome dhamma ruling the heart guides us toward drawing the pure energy called merit into the center of brightness of the sphere of knowing, because the sphere of knowing is a wave that induces pure energy. All 84,000 sections of the wholesome dhamma-sphere exist to draw the energy of purity flowing into the center of brightness of the wholesome dhamma-sphere present in the heart. This wholesome dhamma is the conductor that flows through mind and body; as it passes through, it refines both. Wherever merit flows, it purifies — it is like a purifying instrument, dissolving whatever defilement it touches — refining the mind where it passes through mind, refining the body where it passes through body — and then it comes to be stored within the center of the dhamma-sphere.

The Dhamma-Sphere: Matter, Wave, and Merit-Demerit Energy in Overlapping Dimensions

The dhamma-sphere is the storehouse of three things: matter (สะสาร), wave (คลื่น), and energy (พลังงาน), each stored according to its own nature. Matter is the earth, water, wind, fire, space, and consciousness elements. Wave is the "software" — the spheres of precepts, concentration, wisdom, liberation, and the knowledge-and-vision of liberation, together with the subtle body, the divine body, the brahma body, the formless-brahma body, and the dhamma body — all of it software stored within the dhamma-sphere. And the third thing is merit-energy and demerit-energy, which share the same center, overlapping — every completed sin and every completed merit is stored there, at the center of the dhamma-sphere. Matter, wave, and energy all exist within the same dhamma-sphere, yet occupy different dimensions, overlapping without any conflict — unlike physical objects, which need to be divided into separate compartments. Because the refined matter, the refined "software," and the refined energy are each stored in their own dimension, they can overlap without any problem whatsoever.

Know Always, Never Lapse: Luang Pu's Teaching

Yesterday we received Luang Pu's teaching: "know always, never lapse." Phra Ajarn is simply expanding on that teaching, restating it for us — not inventing anything new. Knowing always without lapsing means knowing what we know; even knowing that we don't know something is itself a form of knowing. But that knowing must be a clear knowing — knowing not mixed with ignorance. We must know clearly what we are knowing right now: abiding with our meditation object, which has a clear and continuous signal. If it's the breath, the signal is the sensation of air striking the wall of the nostrils; the sense of perception registers right there. Knowing always without lapsing allows the sphere of knowing to remain continuously present. As long as the sphere of knowing persists, the drawing-in of pure energy continues without interruption. This pure energy is what purifies defilement — we ourselves are not the ones who purify it; we don't even know what defilement looks like, or how to purify it. All of the purification is the work of the wholesome system's own automatic mechanism. Our role is simply to determine our knowing, to know always without lapsing — nothing more.

Choose Your Own Meditation Object — Don't Rely on External Sounds

We need to choose our own meditation object and train with it. Try not to let external sound become the thing that determines our knowing, because external sounds are always a path toward liking and disliking. For instance, listening to a dhamma recording while meditating — some days we like it, some days we don't; a whispering voice tells us we're bored, that we want something new, that this one isn't likable and that one isn't either — all of this rides on liking and disliking. We need instead to rely on a meditation object connected with body, feeling, mind, and dhamma, as the Buddha taught, or on any of the roughly forty other objects recommended by our teachers. We need to choose one and train with it until it becomes familiar. Once trained to familiarity, it becomes smooth and easy; practicing often, merit arises often, purifying the defilements, problems, and obstacles until they grow light and disappear — making our life easy, convenient, and comfortable. Happiness arises, and we naturally come to love the practice.

Love Born of Familiarity, and the True Happiness That Comes from Dhamma

Love begins with satisfaction. That satisfaction, when it brings benefit, gives rise to love, which in turn deepens the sense of satisfaction. Whether we love a person, an animal, an object, or anything else, it follows this same pattern: an initial satisfaction that grows through familiarity, until love takes shape and we wish to remain with that thing more and more. But the happiness born of dhamma is different from the happiness born of satisfaction — it is a purely pristine happiness, a natural quality of its own, not merely satisfaction, which is only a borrowed, temporary label.

Mindfulness and Clear Comprehension: The Gateway to the Inner Dimension

As we sustain the determined knowing of the sphere of knowing without lapsing, mindfulness becomes continuously established. Once established, clear comprehension (sampajañña) enters to know the details of whatever state we are determining. This is a form of attainment — we enter the inner dimension automatically, as though stepping into a room that, though dim at first, protects and shelters us from outside disturbance. We need to purify defilement within this dimension before we can proceed into the next; before entering a new dimension, we encounter a subtler layer of defilement — meaning our mind must be refined further still. The mind that knows the realm is developed to be increasingly subtle, allowing us to perceive ever more refined dimensions continuously, for as long as we know that we know, knowing at ease, again and again. We must sustain zeal (chanda) — attending, tending, and reflecting continuously on our meditation object, again and again, always knowing without lapsing. Pure energy is drawn in, purifying defilement until it grows light; problems and obstacles grow light; the hindrances grow light as well.

The Stream of Merit and Dedicating Merit to Our Ancestors

As we determine the sphere of knowing to draw pure energy in continuously, we use this time to dedicate merit to our ancestors — parents, siblings, grandparents, and the teachers who have helped us, the guardian devas who protect and assist us, and all beings we may have wronged, our karmic counterparts (คู่กรรมคู่เวร) — asking for mutual forgiveness, that they too receive a share of this merit.

Radiating Loving-Kindness to All Beings and the Universe

Having made this dedication for our ancestors, we turn to wishing well for the whole world and all beings: may all beings who share this same suffering of birth, aging, sickness, and death be free from suffering and find happiness together — may those with much suffering have less, those with little suffering be free of it entirely, those with little happiness have more, and those already happy grow happier still. We then extend the heart, filled with this loving-kindness, outward to encompass the home, 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 heart 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 in the center of Nibbāna. The stream of merit from the subtlest part of Nibbāna flows in to purify every dhamma-sphere and every body within us, making them clear and pure. Using this auspicious moment, he leads an aspiration for a life of happiness, knowledge, purity, and success in all that is right and good, in this life and every life to come, closing with a Pali chant of dedication.