Without Practice, Making Progress Becomes Very Difficult

Meditation practice is essential and vital for every life. Without practice, the chance of real progress becomes very difficult, because we give nothing to support the wholesome system. The three natures each strive to seize control with all their might: sometimes the wholesome gets its opening and becomes ruler of the house, sometimes the unwholesome does — but most of the time, the neutral nature rules, spending our time recklessly, producing no benefit whatsoever.

Ninety percent of our life's time is squandered by the neutral nature, worthless and devoid of benefit — living day to day, eating, wandering, playing, then growing old and dying. But whenever the unwholesome gets its opening — and it happens periodically, every single day, stirring up trouble every day — it causes physical and mental distress, bringing suffering and harm to ourselves and others, in proportion to however much unwholesome nature each of us carries.

Suffering Is the Defilement of the Unwholesome: Without Approaching the Wholesome, the Unwholesome Tends to Gain Strength

Having suffering in our life means the defilement of the unwholesome is present — great suffering, moderate suffering, small suffering, unavoidable. When suffering arises we look for ways to break precepts and dhamma. If we don't approach the wholesome, the unwholesome tends to gain strength, because nothing restrains it. But whoever dwells within the wholesome system has a tendency for wholesomeness to flourish, and the unwholesome is kept within some bound — though it still finds ways to cause trouble; this is unavoidable and entirely normal.

Samatha and Vipassanā: Two Things We Must Learn Together

Given this, we must learn and understand both samatha and vipassanā. Samatha calms the mind away from the unwholesome, letting us dwell within the wholesome system, connecting with it so we can rest within a refined inner dimension and draw in pure energy, subtle assets, and a deep, refined blueprint for success, while also connecting with the knowing ones of power.

Samatha alone is not enough, because without knowing the truth, everything becomes hard to do — we get obstructed by our own ignorance without realizing it. Vipassanā is the cultivation of wisdom to know the truth of the nature that governs us. It isn't complicated — just know: they whisper to us, they command us, they slip their emotions into our mind, and we simply know. Both samatha and vipassanā require the same training in mindfulness and clear comprehension.

When Lust, Anger, or Delusion Arise: We Love a Sad Movie

When lust arises, we seek to soothe it. When anger arises, we try to vent it. When delusion enters, it just lingers there. We love watching sad movies and dramas, wallowing in the sorrow and grief of characters someone else invented, letting the emotion be stirred so deeply that we suffer for real, for days — and it only fades because of our own ignorance.

This is the signature of the unwholesome borrowing a story and an emotion that never truly existed — belonging to a character someone else wrote — to stir us into genuine suffering, even though that story isn't our real life at all. This is exactly why we must learn right mindfulness: through determined knowing, training, and proof. Know always without lapsing; know body and mind together, so that body and mind unite as one. Once body and mind are united, the wholesome system can take comprehensive control of everything.

The Six Sense-Faculties: The Doors Other Natures Use to Possess Our Mind

We must bring the mind to abide with the body — with the breath, with the seventh base, or with the Buddha image at the center of our body. When body abides with mind, the stream of merit flows continuously through the center of our body and mind, refining both mind — seeing, remembering, thinking, knowing — and body: the five sense-faculties of eye, ear, nose, tongue, and body must be purified, because other natures possess us through exactly these five faculties, the channels leading out to form, taste, smell, sound, and touch, which they use to twist and control humans.

On Sundays our revered teacher taught us to invite the Buddha jewel, Dhamma jewel, and Sangha jewel of the past, present, and future to occupy the eye-door, ear-door, nose-door, tongue-door, body-door, and mind-door, guarding all our faculties as we venture out into the dimension of the external world. So bring the mind and fuse it, settling it within the body — the easiest place is the seventh base, which is already the natural seat of the mind: it's where we arise and cease, sleep and wake, regardless.

Reciting "Sammā Arahaṃ": Staying Only With the Newest Syllable

When the mind rests at the seventh base center of the body, it becomes the center of the spheres of precepts, concentration, wisdom, liberation, and knowledge-and-vision of liberation, together with the subtle human body, the divine body, the brahma body, the formless-brahma body, and the dhamma body — eighteen bodies in all sharing this single center at the seventh base. When every sphere and every body converges here, we determine our knowing right at this point, and the stream of merit from the subtlest part of Nibbāna flows forth into the center of brightness of the seventh base, every sphere and body converging in brightness, and we recite "sammā-arahaṃ."

Stay with the newest syllable of recitation — the newest syllable is the present one. Don't attend to what has already passed; attend only to the newest syllable. If we attend to each syllable as it is newest, we cannot be imprisoned in the dimension of the past at all. Determining our knowing at the newest syllable of recitation, we are freed syllable by syllable, from one dimension into another, more refined dimension of the fresh present.

Nāma and Rūpa: Just Determine Your Knowing — No Need to Wait

Whatever nāma-state we determine, the corresponding rūpa-state appears. When we determine the nāma-state of the dhammakāya-arahant — "sammā-arahaṃ" — we attend to each syllable, or condense it to a single syllable, "sammā," staying settled in the present continuously, to remain firmly with the recitation in each present moment. Liberation arises in every present moment.

The rūpa-state, once it appears, doesn't last long — five, ten, fifteen, twenty to thirty seconds, then it fades, and must be determined anew. As we determine our knowing, the sphere of knowing arises; the sphere of not-knowing, ignorance, falls away. This sphere of knowing is the sphere of mindfulness, a wholesome sphere — and all 84,000 sections of the wholesome dhamma-sphere are bright spheres. We simply determine — our role is to be the one who determines, knowing the recitation, knowing the state present right before us, whether clear or unclear; that is not the important point. Attaining the Buddha image doesn't require waiting — it is attained right now, in the present, simply through determined knowing.

The Crystal Dhammakāya Radiating Through the Whole Body

As we determine the nāma-state, the rūpa-state appears, expanding and superimposing as one with our body. Our head becomes one with the bright, clear crown of the image; our forehead becomes clear, pure crystal of the dhammakāya, luminous and radiant, fusing us with every part of our body. We are the image; the image is us. We can become the image right now, in this very moment, in every present — no need to wait for the past or the future.

Our revered teacher once said that attaining the Buddha image ranges from 1% to 100%. But once someone attains the dhamma-sphere — the spheres of precepts, concentration, wisdom, liberation, knowledge-and-vision of liberation — reaching the divine body, the brahma body, and finally the dhammakāya, they must continue to maintain it diligently, or it fades. So let us train from this moment on, attaining the image at 1%, 2%, 5%, 10%, 20%, and diligently maintaining it, letting body and mind fuse as one, by abiding continuously with mindfulness, knowing always without lapsing.

The Stream of Merit and Dedicating Merit to Our Ancestors

The stream of merit flows continuously, together with subtle assets carried within the center of brightness of the sphere. We use this merit, flowing through us right now, to dedicate merit to our relatives — let us recall our ancestors, our relatives, 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, that they too may share fully in this merit.

Radiating Loving-Kindness to All Beings and the Universe

Having dedicated this merit, we turn to cultivating loving-kindness, bringing great benefit to the whole world and all beings. Our revered teacher taught that cultivating mettā should draw on the heart of a mother's goodwill toward her infant child, letting it arise within us, because it is a pure heart, brimming with goodwill, able to draw in the stream of merit together with subtle assets.

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 this heart, filled with loving-kindness, to cover our home, village, sub-district, district, province, throughout Thailand and neighboring countries, until it embraces the whole world, making it a crystal world, bright, clean, and pure. May the earth-dwelling devas, tree devas, sky devas, celestial beings of every heaven, the brahma and formless-brahma realms, together with the denizens of hell, the hungry ghosts, and the animal realm, all be free from suffering and find happiness together. We extend it further still, into the vastness of the universe, embracing countless stars throughout the ten thousand world-systems and the infinite cosmos, without limit.

Resting in the Triple Gem and the Closing Aspiration

We rest the mind, still, in the center of the Triple Gem, in the center of the great teachers who watch over our merit at all times, resting in the center of Nibbāna, in the center of the knowing ones of boundless power. We use this auspicious moment to ask their blessing, setting a blueprint for success arising both now and in the future, so our entire path of building perfections is filled with knowledge, happiness, and purity, fulfilling every righteous wish, closing with a Pali chant of dedication.