A New Attitude: Meditation as "Just Sitting and Playing"

Phra Ajarn Suraphong opens by inviting us to reframe how we think about meditation. If sitting ever starts to feel "heavy" — if the very idea of sitting down to meditate feels burdensome — tell yourself plainly: "I'm just sitting and playing." Sit and enjoy it, have fun with it. We need to cultivate a new attitude that meditation is easy: just know, sit playfully, and stay pleasantly aware. The more we know, the subtler it becomes; the subtler it becomes, the more enjoyable it gets. Wherever we place our awareness, that spot gradually grows finer and finer, because merit keeps accumulating there.

If drowsiness comes, that's fine too — we simply let ourselves doze off, then wake up refreshed and continue. But let the dozing happen while still in the sitting posture, staying subtle and comfortable the whole time, receiving the stream of merit and treasure — playful, enjoyable, at ease.

When It Feels Hard, Make It Simple

He teaches that if it feels difficult, just know whatever spot feels easiest — for instance, the breath: knowing the in-breath as it touches, knowing the out-breath. That's all it takes. But if even that feels too hard for someone, then simply let the heart rest with the felt sense of the body — aware, present, the body felt — that alone is enough. Just keep sinking into it, gently.

And if that still feels hard, rest the hands folded together and notice the sensations there — cool, warm, soft, firm — and keep knowing, moment by moment. When a hand starts to go numb, simply shift it, and notice that fresh sensation instead — that alone is enough. Keep going until we understand: it really isn't hard at all.

A Fallback Ladder: From Breath, to Body, to Hands

He lays out a fallback ladder of anchors to use in order of ease. Start with the breath, in and out, as the first rung. If that still feels hard, shift to the felt sense of the whole body. If that's still hard, shift to the sensation where the hands rest together — cool, warm, soft, firm — and when a hand goes numb, shift it and notice the sensation that arises there instead. Whichever level we use, the point is simply to stay continuously aware, without lapsing. Lapsing is natural for beginners; we train so the lapses grow fewer and fewer, until none remain.

Staying Continuously Aware Is the Most Important Task

He teaches that once we stop lapsing, we enter the inner dimension automatically. Once inside, we know it. A little restlessness may still linger, but as we continue, the restlessness fades, drowsiness fades, and a feeling of openness, lightness, and spaciousness — empty of anything in particular — remains. Even so, we must keep determining our awareness, so the mind doesn't drift. To stand within the wholesome system, the mind needs a place to anchor. Wherever we determine our awareness, the mind settles there; wherever we know, merit flows through there.

Merit Is the Pure Energy That Flows Through the Sphere of Knowing

Merit is the energy of purity flowing into the bright center of our awareness. Wherever we know, merit flows in continuously, at ease, heart at peace. Is meditation really something heavy and obligatory? He asks us to adopt a new attitude: meditation is a matter of openness — sit and play, stay aware and enjoy it, so as to be liberated layer by layer. The more we're liberated, the more our status shifts from one level to a better one.

The More We're Liberated, the Better Our Status Becomes

A better status must come with something better than what we have now — that's what makes it "better": a purity that's purer still. A better status is also more sacred, more beneficial; its knower knows more, and its power is greater. He teaches that we can make what's hard become easy: if unwholesome states are mixed in, it's hard; if it's purely wholesome, it's attainable. Just know the body, the breath — in and out — and stay pleasantly aware. Wherever we determine our awareness becomes a doorway into the inner dimension; merit flows through there, the elements that dim and obstruct at that spot grow lighter, and we're able to enter that inner dimension.

Staying continuously aware is the single most important task of being human, because through it, the sphere of knowing — mindfulness — draws in the pure energy called merit, letting it flow into the bright center of our awareness. This stream of merit refines the defilement obstructing the spot we've determined, lightening it, carrying us into the inner dimension — freeing us from the outer dimension into an inner one that is clean and pure. Once it's clean and pure, nothing tainted remains, and we're liberated into ever subtler dimensions, layer by layer. The more we're liberated, the purer the stream we receive — whether we're aware of it or not, even while sitting with eyes closed in the dark. Liberation continues layer by layer; all it requires is that we stay continuously aware, without lapsing.

While we determine our awareness, the hindrances may still try to intrude in various ways — whatever we can perceive, we simply acknowledge. If drowsiness comes, we can let it settle right there in the sitting posture; once full and calm, we feel refreshed, opening our eyes to gather that freshness before returning to subtlety. If restlessness comes, we open our eyes until it passes, then close them again and continue refining — still, soft, relaxed, and at ease.

Radiating Loving-Kindness: Drawing on a Mother's Heart for All Beings Across the World and Cosmos

Once the sitting has grown reasonably subtle, he leads us into loving-kindness practice, so as to benefit the world and the cosmos. This sphere of loving-kindness is an essential tool we use to benefit all beings without limit. Simply by determining loving-kindness with love and goodwill, it appears bright and clear at our center.

Phra Dej Phra Khun Luang Phor once taught that we should draw upon the heart of a mother toward her own young child, establishing that heart as one brimming with pure love and goodwill. We then extend goodwill to all people and beings: may all beings be free from suffering and share in happiness together. We expand this heart, filled with loving-kindness, to cover this very meditation hall, wishing our fellow practitioners happiness, free from every suffering.

We expand further — to the village, subdistrict, district, province, many provinces, covering all of Thailand and all who dwell in it with love, then onward to neighboring countries and beyond, until it covers the whole world, making this world a radiant crystal sphere, clear, cool, clean, and pure. May the people of the world and all beings find happiness — earthbound devas, tree devas, sky devas, the heavenly beings of every level, Brahma and formless-Brahma realms, together with beings in hell, hungry ghosts, and animals — may all beings be free from suffering and share in happiness together. Those with much suffering, may it lessen; those with little suffering, may it end entirely; those with little happiness, may it grow; and those already happy, may their happiness increase further still.

We then expand this loving heart out into the atmosphere of the cosmos, covering the countless stars — tens, hundreds, thousands, millions, billions of them — and continuing across the ten thousand world-systems and the boundless cosmos, letting this light of loving-kindness benefit every being, every thing, made bright, clean, and pure. This light of loving-kindness shines into the center of every being's heart, dissolving resentment and irritation completely; the wholesome nature comes to take up residence as ruler of the house, and the stream of merit is drawn in continuously, driving the wholesome system to refine and correct, freeing people and beings into purity, continuously, toward what is good.

Whoever Benefits the World and the Cosmos Comes to Use Its Treasures

He teaches that whoever benefits the world and the cosmos may in turn make use of its treasures — just as the Great Bodhisatta did in ages past. When he was born into the world, he brought great benefit to it through this very tool, loving-kindness, extending it to benefit the world and all beings throughout his life, until he attained the jhanas. When his human life ended, he was reborn in the Brahma realm, attaining the status of the Great Brahma, enjoying immense happiness for an age until that life, too, ended, whereupon he was reborn once more as a human. This time he attained the status of a universal monarch, using the treasures of the world and cosmos to benefit the world and all beings, giving them lives like those of heavenly beings — people caring for one another, with no scarcity and therefore no war, everyone established in virtue and goodness.

He asks us to train in using this tool of loving-kindness to benefit the world and all beings. We gather the mind to stop, gather it to be still, within the brightness of loving-kindness, while the stream of merit continues pouring through the center of that brightness. We gather the mind to stop and be still at the center of the Triple Gem — the center of the Buddha jewel, the Dhamma jewel, the Sangha jewel, the center of our great teachers — at the center of the finest Dhamma body of Luang Pu, stopping still at the center of the finest Dhamma body of Luang Phor, stopping still at the center of the finest Dhamma body of our teachers. The heart is an accomplishing element: however we determine it, so it becomes.

As we stop still at their center, we appear bright within them; they appear bright within us; and both we and they appear bright at the center of Nibbana, the center of the knower of boundless power. Nibbana already holds all beings within its center, protecting and caring for them there. Any being established in universal goodness shines brightly at the center of Nibbana, carried by this stream of merit pouring through the center of our body and heart even now.

Dedicated to Luang Phor on the Occasion of His Birthday

At this point he has us make use of this auspicious moment to pay respects and ask for blessings — the radiance, strength, and power of Nibbana, combined with the merit we have intended to make on this occasion, together with the merit arising from our practice of giving, precept-keeping, meditation, and cultivating wisdom. May all this merit be respectfully offered to Luang Phor on the occasion of his birthday this year. May Luang Phor enjoy strong health, be free from all illness, and live a long life — remaining our shelter once more, a refuge for the world and all beings. Whatever good aspirations Luang Phor has set, may they all be fulfilled easily and completely. We, his children, offer this merit to him, gathering together at the center of Nibbana, on the path of the knower of boundless power.

Closing Aspiration

In closing, Phra Ajarn leads an aspiration for success. May the merit of our teachers and our own accumulated goodness across countless past lives combine into sacred, potent merit, freeing us from misfortune, karmic results, demonic obstruction, and every obstacle in life. May greed, hatred, delusion, lust, ignorance, wrong view, craving, and clinging end without remainder. May we gain the eye that sees the Dhamma, penetrating the knowledge of the Dhamma body completely — the three knowledges, the eight knowledges, the six higher powers, the four analytical insights, the eight liberations, and the fifteen conducts, in full. May we also enjoy strong health and a long life, building perfections throughout our lives, with unfailing spirit as we press on toward Nibbana, the ultimate end of the path.

He closes by asking that any wrongdoing committed knowingly or unknowingly across countless past lives be forgiven fully, that no new wrongdoing be committed in body, speech, or mind, and that all the merit we have sincerely accumulated combine into sacred, potent, and wondrous power, bearing fruit continuously from this moment until the very end of the path — with this good aspiration made complete for us all, by the boundless power of every Buddha.