Dwelling With a System: the Most Important Thing in Life

Let us practice meditation together. Practice is essential for every life, and it matters more than anything else, because it is what allows us to train ourselves to dwell within the wholesome system. Apart from practice, how else would we train ourselves to align with the wholesome system? This is training a habit, an ongoing way of being. What matters most in life is dwelling with the correct system.

Idappaccayatā and Paṭiccasamuppāda: the Ancient Words for "System"

In ancient times, in the Buddha's era, the word "system" did not yet exist. When the Buddha spoke of a system, he used the word idappaccayatā — "because there is this, there is that; because this arises, that arises" — which sounds strange to modern ears. Besides idappaccayatā there is also paṭiccasamuppāda, dependent origination. Both terms describe the process, the system, that drives human existence.

The complexity of how this automatic system operates requires insight-vision — the eye of light, the light of wisdom-knowledge, vijjā — to be able to know and see how nature's system works. It requires wisdom: wisdom born of learning, wisdom born of reflection, and wisdom born of meditation. From this foundational wisdom comes light; that light leads to insight (ñāṇa); that insight generates further light, leading to the dhamma-eye and to vijjā itself. Once we know and see, we understand the truth of life — that life must dwell within the wholesome system alone; there is nothing else.

The Funeral Abhidhamma Chant: Why It Opens With the Three Natures

This is exactly why our elder teachers, when composing the chant for pouring water at funerals, placed the three natures — kusalā dhammā, akusalā dhammā, abyākatā dhammā — as the very first three phrases of the Abhidhamma chant recited at every funeral. It required the wisdom of the teachers of old to determine that the three natures must be named first, not hidden within other content, with no introduction needed at all.

The first word points to the wholesome dhamma, the source of happiness, prosperity, peace, and goodness. The second word points to the unwholesome dhamma, the source of harm and suffering, the cause of hardship. The third word clearly identifies the destroyer of time — the one who owns and destroys time, the most valuable resource of our life. If we grasp these three words, everything in Buddhism is resolved; the essence of the entire teaching lies in these three words. Understanding them, we see why practice is necessary — no one needs to coax us into it.

Asking Ourselves Again and Again: Are We Leaving Life to Fate, or Dwelling With the Wholesome System?

We seek out the time, make the effort, and act, in order to establish the wholesome system, to support it, to cooperate with it — never leaving life to fate. We must keep asking ourselves, over and over: are we leaving our life to fate? We ask this repeatedly so that we become aware — or would we rather dwell within the wholesome system instead?

How can we make this easy, continuous? Day after day passes, and life grows shorter every day. The most important thing is training the habit of dwelling within the wholesome system in a clear, concrete way. Do we have this in our way of life? This is exactly what we must ask ourselves, again and again, and answer: yes — this, right now, sitting in meditation, is it. We must keep doing this until it becomes automatic.

Recitation: the Determination to Bring the Wholesome System Into Being

Recitation (bhāvanā) is the resolve to bring something into being — to make the wholesome system arise and exist. We already make it arise each time we practice, but it isn't yet automatic; we must make it automatic. This is done by determining our knowing again and again, knowing always without lapsing: "sammā-arahaṃ, sammā-arahaṃ," knowing the recitation and the mental image, training repeatedly with every syllable, the Buddha image arising superimposed within us, expanding to fill our whole body, becoming one with our human form.

Reciting again and again, the image arises, one after another, flowing continuously through the center of our body. "Sammā-arahaṃ, sammā-arahaṃ" — let it stick to our mouth and mind continuously, together with the image arising again and again, doing this without pause. Know always without lapsing. We need only the sphere of knowing to arise — the sphere of mindfulness. Once it arises, the sphere of not-knowing, ignorance, falls away. This established sphere of mindfulness draws in the pure energy called merit, flowing through the center of brightness of the sphere of mindfulness.

Knowing Always Without Lapsing: Staying Continuously With Our Meditation Object

Know always without lapsing. Determine the sphere of knowing to arise, mindfulness to arise, abiding with our meditation object, something to hold onto and rely on. As long as we know our meditation object, the sphere of knowing continues to know, uninterrupted. "Sammā-arahaṃ, sammā-arahaṃ" — know every syllable, the newest syllable of recitation, which is wholesome and present. Don't attend to the syllable already passed; abide always with the fresh, new syllable.

Know what you know; abide with the meditation object you have chosen well, one with a clear and continuous signal. Once established, the wholesome system springs into motion, drawing in pure energy. This pure energy purifies the defilement that creates problems and obstacles in the many forms of the hindrances, leading to hardship and difficulty. Whether in meditation practice or in ordinary work, hardship is unavoidable. Know always without lapsing.

The Stream of Merit and Dedicating Merit to Our Ancestors

As the stream of merit flows continuously through the center of our body and mind, we then dedicate this merit to our ancestors. Let us recall our ancestors, our father and mother, grandparents, and relatives, along with the teachers who have helped us, 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 wish well for the whole world and all beings. Our revered teacher taught us to draw on the heart of a mother, her goodwill toward her small child, letting this sphere of mettā arise — simply recalling it is enough; the automatic system will bring it forth for us.

May all beings 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 extend this heart, filled with loving-kindness, to cover our home. The mind is a fully-accomplished element: however we determine it, so it becomes. Mettā, which relies on the mind as its birthplace, shines the light of wholesome dhamma, dissolving defilement in every atom of the elements and the surroundings, along with dissolving resentment.

We extend this heart, filled with loving-kindness, further out to cover the 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 whole world and all beings — 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 — 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 and Dhamma at all times, resting in the center of Nibbāna, in the center of the knowing ones of boundless power, countless as the grains beyond measure, in the center of every Buddha, every Paccekabuddha, and every Arahant. We rest, still, in their center, radiant within them, as they appear radiant within us, taking our seeing, remembering, thinking, knowing, and our earth, water, wind, fire, space, and consciousness elements, refining them to clarity and purity, and connecting us to a lineage of merit and fortune.

We take this opportunity, in this auspicious moment, to ask their blessing, setting an aspiration for a blueprint of success to arise 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.