Right Mindfulness and Right Concentration: Mind and Mental Factors, Like an Actor With Only Two Roles to Learn

Meditation practice has two parts: right mindfulness, which establishes the mind firmly within the heart so it doesn't slip out into the external world, held in place by a meditation object for mindfulness to grip and rest on; and right concentration, entering progressively subtler inner dimensions. We know our body, know the breath, know the heartbeat, or know states connected to the body. Feeling (vedanā) is pleasure, pain, or neither, connected to the mind. Mind (citta) is thought — and thought is not truly us; it is something that intrudes. Thoughts we intend to think, we know we're thinking; but thoughts we never intended appear on their own — these have a source: body-within-body, feeling-within-feeling, which consist of two parts: the mind, which is fabricated thought, and feeling, which is sensation, called mental factors (cetasika). Human life runs on just these two: mind and mental factor — like an actor who has only two things to learn: the thought (mind) and twisting the emotion to fit the role (mental factor). However we think, our mood follows: wholesome mind, wholesome mental factor; unwholesome mind, unwholesome mental factor follows in turn.

The Buddha's Teaching: Clearly Discern Body, Feeling, Mind, Dhamma to Remove Craving and Aversion

The Buddha therefore taught the monastic Sangha: "Monks should clearly discern body, feeling, mind, and dhamma, in order to remove craving (abhijjhā) and aversion (domanassa) toward the world." Body is knowing one's own physical presence; feeling is pleasure, pain, or neither; mind is thought; and dhamma is the mental factor — the states of feeling themselves. That is all there is. If this were unimportant, the Buddha would not have taught it — it must therefore be of the utmost importance. Understanding it makes living easy; failing to understand it makes life very difficult.

Knowing Body, Feeling, and Mind: Training Determined Knowledge Systematically

We begin by determining knowledge of the body — knowing the breath, the heartbeat, the touch of the hands, the back, the seat against the cushion. Wherever consciousness arises, it draws mind to arise there too; wherever mind arises, the mental factor must arise there as well, since the mental factor is the feeling that arises together with mind. Next we determine knowledge of feeling — how do we feel right now? At ease, or in a state that must be endured, hard to endure? If suffering arises, the Buddha taught that simply determining to know it is enough. The benefit of determined knowing lies in this: the sphere of knowing arises, and the sphere of not-knowing — ignorance — falls away. Once established, this sphere of knowing draws pure energy inward.

Defilement: The Root of Every Problem and Obstacle

Once this pure energy enters, its role is to purify all defilement, because purity's function is precisely to purify defilement. Defilement itself is what creates problems; without defilement there would be no problems or obstacles, but because defilement exists, problems and obstacles must exist too. We must therefore determine our knowing so the sphere of knowing draws in pure energy to purify defilement, making it lighter; problems and obstacles grow lighter; the hindrances that result from defilement grow lighter; and as a result, hardship and suffering grow lighter too. We must first understand this mechanism — without understanding it, we cannot know whether we are solving the right problem.

The Sphere of Knowing Arises, Ignorance Falls: The Mechanics of Determined Knowing

Determined knowing is not difficult, because knowing arises the moment the wholesome side manages to seize control and become ruler of the heart — mindfulness then arises, since mindfulness always arises together with the wholesome mind. If the wholesome mind cannot become ruler of the heart, mindfulness does not arise. But once mindfulness has taken its seat, we do know — because we already have mindfulness; otherwise how could we conduct our affairs and live our daily lives at all?

Broken Knowing: Why We Know, Yet Accomplish Little That Is Wholesome

Yet our knowing is only ever this fleeting moment followed by another, with the space between filled by the neutral and the unwholesome. Our knowing is thus only a patchwork of moments, unable to fully accomplish anything wholesome, because for the most part the neutral holds sway. When the unwholesome holds sway instead, we still "know," but we know while doing unwholesome things — wrong thought, wrong speech, wrong action are all the fruit of the unwholesome. Most people in this world live with the neutral largely in control, spending their days on what brings no benefit. Whenever the wholesome mind manages to settle in as ruler, the drawing-in of pure energy together with subtle assets arises — bringing good results both now and in the future.

Minor, Major, and Supreme Wheels: Three Levels of Power Within the Sphere of Merit

Phra Ajarn points out that when the wholesome mind settles as ruler, a blueprint for success within the sphere of merit guides us, as if naturally, toward right livelihood — it may feel as though we're simply talented, but in truth it comes from the blueprint of the great "wheel-turner" (จักรพรรดิ), the guardian-manager within the sphere of merit, whose power varies by level. There are three: จุลจักร (minor wheel), มหาจักร (major wheel), and บรมจักร (supreme wheel) — the level of capability depends on the energy available. Someone with little energy has a minor wheel: they accumulate merit slowly, with just enough knowledge and capacity to scrape by, living paycheck to paycheck, sometimes going without, just enough to taste life. With a major wheel, one lives a comfortable, middle-class life — never wanting, able to obtain what one desires within reason. With a supreme wheel, one has everything: small effort yields great return, drawing in wealth of high value — compared to today's cost of living, one spends very little, because the rate at which such a person's wheel gathers resources is far more refined.

Subtle Assets: Why Equal Effort Yields Unequal Results

Phra Ajarn recalls a teaching from Khun Yai Achan (Khun Yai Ubasika Chandra Khonnokyoong), who once said that without subtle assets, hard work does not pay off — because it is these subtle assets that draw in outward wealth. Each person has a different value and draws in wealth differently: running the same kind of business, some people attract customers easily while others, despite equal or greater skill, or even more years in the trade, cannot compete with someone who has only just started — because the wheel-turner within their sphere of merit has a different level of power. Where defilement is slight, the purity of merit is abundant, able to resolve problems, and subtle assets grow in value — all of this depends on how well, in the past, we cultivated the causes, how beautifully we shaped our own heart and mind.

Giving, Precepts, Meditation: From Ordination to Layered Protection Into Safer Dimensions

To increase subtle assets requires not only giving but also keeping precepts and cultivating meditation, entering a dimension that is a wholesome environment — much like ordaining: leaving home for a place free of obstacles and problems, shielded from the sights, sounds, and smells that create defilement. Even within the monastery, one must enter the designated practice area, then a meditation hall, then wait for the teacher to lead one into the inner dimension — and from there, layer by layer, each dimension finer than the last, one receives protection from sinful and unwholesome defilement, layer upon layer, until one finally meets the inner "one who knows, one with power," who guides and instructs the way forward in practice.

The Ten Perfections: From Effort and Patience to Truthfulness and Resolve

Entering a subtler inner dimension requires the perfection of effort (viriya-pāramī), and the perfection of patience (khanti-pāramī), because there are checkpoints where the unwholesome tries to hold us back from breaking free of our current dimension. It requires the perfection of truthfulness (sacca-pāramī) — sincerity, honesty, integrity — as the foundation whenever we need to rise from one dimension to the next. Then comes the perfection of resolve (adhiṭṭhāna-pāramī) — fixing our aim on the goal we have set. With a clear goal to pursue, the heart no longer stays narrow, confined to oneself or one's own family, but opens wide with loving-kindness and generosity toward others. Having wealth, one shares it, rather than hoarding it only for oneself — extending it to one's children, grandchildren, and to others as well.

Loving-Kindness and Equanimity: The Final Perfection That Sustains the World and Leads to Liberation

This loving-kindness is what sustains the world — sustaining first our own family, then extending to sustain society and the world itself — until it can develop into the fullness of equanimity (upekkhā), the final perfection, the greatest of all dhamma qualities, because liberation from the cycle of rebirth requires the perfection of equanimity to be complete. Equanimity is freedom from liking and disliking — but that freedom must be built on a foundation of a generous heart, sincerity, patience, effort, and wisdom, before one can enter the inner dimension. Dhamma thus rests on precepts as its foundation and giving as its ordinary practice, so that life becomes balanced: having as though not having, not having as though having — possessing the wealth of the world while remaining free of liking and disliking, undisturbed, whether one has much or little. Once the generous heart bears fruit through the perfection of resolve, anything can be accomplished easily, because the wheel-turner within the sphere of merit has great power, able to manage everything.

The Stream of Merit and Dedicating Merit to Our Ancestors

Determined, unlapsing knowing is the foundation of everything. When the sphere of knowing arises, the Triple Gem appears bright within us, and the stream of merit from the subtlest part of Nibbāna flows in continuously. We use this to dedicate merit to our ancestors — parents, siblings, grandparents, 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, Resting in the Triple Gem, and the Closing Aspiration

We then extend the heart, filled with this loving-kindness, widely outward, encompassing our home, our village, our sub-district, district, province, country, and the whole world and universe, embracing countless stars without limit. May all beings be free from suffering and find happiness together; this special quality of mettā dissolves resentment to purity. We then rest the mind, still, in the center of the Triple Gem — the Buddha jewel, the Dhamma jewel, the Sangha jewel — in the center of the great teachers, in the center of Nibbāna, in the center of every Buddha. We let the stream of merit from the subtlest part of Nibbāna flow in to purify every dhamma-sphere and every body within us. Using this auspicious moment, we make an aspiration, setting a blueprint for success, for happiness and fulfillment of every righteous wish, in this life and every life to come, closing with a Pali chant of dedication.