Escaping the Coarse Dimension for the Subtle: The Goal of Practice

Phra Ajarn Suraphong opens by explaining that our wish to leave this dimension for another, subtler one is the goal of practice, and it happens moment to moment. The unwholesome side keeps trying to push us from this coarse dimension into an even coarser one; the wholesome side keeps trying to draw us out of this dimension into an ever subtler one. The two sides have entirely opposite aims. As Luang Pu once said: to become coarser, walk outward from yourself; to become subtler, walk inward.

Pure White Knowing Versus Knowing That Flickers Black and White: Why Sustaining Mindfulness Matters

He teaches that mindfulness must know what it knows. If we know but don't know what we know, ignorance has already crept in — because in every micro-moment, the wholesome and unwholesome sides trade seizure of the mind so quickly that we don't notice it happening. This makes our knowing flicker between clear and clouded, never fully complete. He teaches us to train mindfulness so that this clear, "white" knowing sustains itself for longer and longer stretches, letting the wholesome side hold continuity of the mind uninterrupted. When we manage this, the drawing-in of pure energy likewise becomes continuous.

Heavy Stains, Heavy Suffering — Light Stains, Light Suffering: Why We Must Endure

As pure energy is drawn in continuously, it cleanses the stains and defilements that give rise to hardship in the many forms of the hindrances. He explains: if the stains are few, cleansing is easy and quick, purity forms readily, and life is easy and happy. If the stains are many, life is correspondingly difficult and full of suffering. We must therefore endure, relying on patience as our aid — the greater the suffering, the greater the endurance required. The fortitude (tapa) born of that endurance becomes like armor, keeping the ordeal from becoming unbearable.

Vitakka and Vicāra: Focused Attention and Sustained Reflection on the Meditation Object

He teaches the method: whatever we set as the object of meditation is thereby raised up — this is called vitakka; and continuing to focus and reflect on that object is called vicāra. If we take the breath as our object, we must keep our attention fixed on the in-breath and out-breath at all times — knowing what we know, resting on a meditation object with a clear signal. Even before any brightness appears, keep knowing anyway, like a blind person feeling the way forward with a cane.

The Sphere of Knowing Arises, and the Stream of Merit Flows In Continuously

As we keep knowing without lapsing, the sphere of knowing draws in pure energy, letting it flow continuously through the center of its own brightness. He warns: if the sphere of knowing goes dark, merit slips away and the flow of pure energy stops. We must therefore sustain the sphere of knowing, unlapsing at all times. Purity and stain are enemies that cannot coexist — one must cleanse the other. A little water cannot overcome fire; purity must flow in continuously, like a clean stream washing the stains away entirely.

The Subtle Wealth Within: A Magnet That Draws the Coarse Wealth of the World

This is the heart of this teaching. He explains that the sphere of merit contains physical fortune, material wealth, virtue, retinue, honor, praise, happiness, the path and fruit of nibbāna, and knowledge. When merit flows through us, this subtle wealth flows through as well, and it is this subtle wealth that draws the coarser wealth of the ordinary world into our lives. Khun Yai Ajarn once stated this clearly: how much wealth a person has depends on the subtle wealth already present within them. If subtle wealth is scarce, the pull of energy is only slight — not enough to live on, leaving one destitute. But if subtle wealth is abundant, it draws the coarse wealth of the world in easily and in great quantity.

The Fan Analogy: A 500-Baht Price That Must Be Paid in Full

He offers an easy-to-grasp analogy: it is like going to buy a fan priced at 500 baht, but having only 490. The store will not sell it to you, because the price isn't met in full. We must likewise accumulate merit up to its full value before it can be drawn in through exchange. When our subtle wealth reaches its full measure, it draws in what we seek; when it falls short, nothing is drawn in at all. If our reserve of merit is already abundant, we need not build it up further — the desired thing is drawn in directly. But if our reserve is small, we must keep diligently building it up, again and again, until it reaches the full amount.

The Triple Gem Shines at the Center of Our Being

As we keep knowing without lapsing, the sphere of knowing settling continuously, we come to rest at the center of the Triple Gem — the center of the Buddha Jewel, the Dhamma Jewel, and the Sangha Jewel, the center of the great teachers who oversee our merit and Dhamma at all times, the center of nibbāna, the center of every Buddha, every Paccekabuddha, and every arahant — the boundless knowing and empowered ones. They take up the elements of our being — seeing, remembering, thinking, knowing, earth, water, fire, wind, space, and consciousness — and cleanse them clear and pure, connecting our stream of merit and fortune.

Dedicating Merit and Radiating Loving-Kindness

He has us dedicate this merit to our ancestors — recalling our parents, relatives, grandparents, and teachers who have shown us kindness, along with the guardian spirits who help and support 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 this loving-kindness-filled heart outward — covering our 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 lives to come. 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.