Bringing the Mind to the Body: Where the Inward Journey Begins

Phra Ajarn Suraphong opens by explaining that meditation practice means bringing the mind to rest on the body itself, so that it can settle within the body first. Only after that can we proceed into the inner dimensions. Ordinarily our mind lives outside the body at all times, like a wandering spirit whose attention darts about externally, unable to settle in its own house — drifting after sights, tastes, smells, sounds, people, animals, and things, caught in an endless cycle of liking and disliking. Left this way, life grows more and more constrained. He teaches us to train the mind to settle on the body first, so that we can then travel the middle path inward.

Knowing at the Point of Contact: The Example of Two Fingers Touching

He teaches us to rely on clear comprehension to perceive whatever state appears right before us — even if it's dim and unclear at first, that's fine; simply keep perceiving it, and it will grow clearer as the mind refines. He offers the example of touching the index finger and thumb together: after holding the touch for a while, we begin to sense the faint throb of blood pulsing to the fingertip. At the first touch we can't sense it yet, because the perception isn't refined enough — it takes a period of sustained attention before that subtlety becomes apparent. Wherever knowing settles, that point receives cleansing; the stain there grows light and eventually disappears.

The Six Nerve-Centers: The Seats of Eye, Ear, Nose, Tongue, Body, and Mind

This is the heart of this teaching. He explains that when we direct awareness to the body, the body receives cleansing — meaning nerve-centers two through seven are cleansed as well. The second center is the seat of the nose; the third and fourth are the seats of the left and right eyes; moving inward to the center of the skull, then down above the Adam's apple, and down further to the sixth center at the middle of the body; the seventh center sits two finger-widths above the sixth. Each of these centers is a seat for the doors of eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, and mind. If they are not cleansed and purified, the unwholesome and the indeterminate will come and lodge themselves there.

When the Unwholesome Seizes the House, It Lodges at the Nerve-Centers

He explains that in the ongoing contest among the three natures for the seat of the mind, whichever side seizes control brings its own mental factors to construct a kind of "model realm" before consciousness carries it forward into experience — and this process always passes through the six nerve-centers. If the unwholesome side wins that contest, it lodges itself at the nerve-centers first, before carrying its influence out to contact with sights, tastes, smells, sounds, and touch. This is exactly why Luang Pu taught us to invite the Triple Gem to take up residence in advance, every time before we sit.

Inviting the Buddha, the Dhamma, and the Sangha to Reside at Every Door

He teaches the invocation: invite the Buddha, the Dhamma, and the Sangha — past, present, and future — to reside at the eye-door, the ear-door, the nose-door, the tongue-door, the body-door, and the mind-door of the Buddha, here and now. Have them take up residence at every door in advance, because when the unwholesome side tries to set its program running at the nerve-centers, the Triple Gem already stationed there can correct it immediately. He stresses the importance of bringing the mind to unite with the body, especially at the seventh center at the middle of the body — the same center shared by morality, concentration, wisdom, liberation, and the knowledge and vision of liberation.

Constant, Unlapsing Awareness: Our Only Task Is to Keep Knowing

He continues by teaching us to stay continuously aware without lapsing, resting on a meditation object with a clear, continuous signal — whether the breath, or the silent recitation "Sammā Arahaṃ" together with visualizing a crystal sphere or a Buddha image. Do it playfully, without tension. Focus in on the detail — this is where clear comprehension gets put to use, carrying us into an open, spacious, light, cool, and pure inner dimension. The mental factors that arise together with the wholesome mind automatically refine what is coarse, lighten what is heavy, and ease what is difficult — our only job is to observe the results.

Recalling the Triple Gem and Our Teachers, Resting at Their Center

He teaches that if the image isn't yet clear, that's fine — simply recall the Triple Gem, recall nibbāna, recall Luang Pu and Luang Phor with faith. If the image is unclear, it's only because stains still obscure it; that's not a problem. The knowing ones smile upon us and hold us at their center regardless. Let us endure resting at their center, warmed by that presence, as they take our seeing, remembering, thinking, and knowing — the earth, water, fire, wind, space, and consciousness elements — and refine and cleanse them pure. The longer we stay with them, the longer they work to correct us: five minutes brings five minutes of correction, half an hour brings half an hour.

The Sphere of Merit: A Wishing Gem Filled With Subtle Treasures

As the stream of merit is drawn in continuously into the sphere of knowing, each sphere of merit contains pure, sacred elements of Dhamma, possessing power and potency capable of dissolving suffering, sorrow, misfortune, karmic results, demonic obstruction, sacred sin, and calamity of every kind. Nothing else can cleanse these stains — only the pure energy called merit can. At the center of the sphere of merit also lie physical fortune, material wealth, virtue, retinue, honor, praise, happiness, the path and fruit of nibbāna, and the knowledge of the Dhamma body. When merit flows through us, these subtle treasures flow through as well, and it is these subtle treasures that draw the coarser fortunes of the ordinary world into our lives.

Dedicating Merit and Radiating Loving-Kindness

He has us dedicate this merit to our ancestors, who wait in the other world longing for merit to sustain their existence there — recalling our parents, grandparents, teachers who have shown us kindness, the guardian spirits who protect us, and all beings we may have wronged, our karmic counterparties, asking for mutual forgiveness. He then leads an aspiration of goodwill for the world and all beings, that all may be free from suffering and share happiness equally, and has us expand our loving-kindness-filled heart outward — beginning with our own home, spreading across village, district, province, country, and finally the whole world, until it becomes a radiant crystal sphere, clean and pure — through the special quality of loving-kindness that dissolves resentment and irritation from the heart. From there it expands further still, across the countless stars and galaxies of the boundless cosmos.

Closing Aspiration

In closing, Phra Ajarn leads an aspiration for success to be established in us now and in all future lives. May the merit and blessings of our teachers and our own accumulated goodness since beginningless time combine into sacred, potent merit. May we be freed from misfortune, karmic results, demonic obstruction, and obstacles of every kind; may greed, hatred, delusion, lust, ignorance, wrong view, craving, and clinging come to an end; may we gain the eye that sees the Dhamma and penetrate the knowledge of the Dhamma body; may we be strong in health and steadfast in spirit as we build perfections toward nibbāna. He closes by asking that old wrongdoing be forgiven, and that new merit bear fruit successfully for us all, life after life.