Life Is Governed by Three Natural Forces

Phra Ajarn Suraphong opens by explaining that our life is governed by three natural forces, each with its own aim. When one of them seizes the seat of the mind, it forces us to act toward its own purpose. If the unwholesome side possesses the mind, it pressures and forces us to speak and act wrongly, bringing suffering and harm upon ourselves. If the indeterminate side seizes control, though it causes no direct harm, it squanders our time and resources for no benefit at all. Only the wholesome side genuinely benefits us.

Training With Eyes Open, So Closing Them Comes Easily

He teaches that practice has two parts: with the eyes open and with the eyes closed. In the eyes-open phase, we must train ourselves to abide in mindfulness and clear comprehension, so that when the time comes to close our eyes, we can do so with ease. Without training while the eyes are open, closing them becomes difficult. He teaches us to begin from the moment we wake — washing our face, brushing our teeth, bathing, changing clothes, eating — simply determining awareness through each posture: reaching for a shirt, we know we're reaching for a shirt; reaching for trousers, we know it. All we need is for the sphere of knowing to arise.

Knowing Body and Mind in Every Activity: Our Only Task Is to Determine Awareness

While eating, picking up the spoon, we know it; scooping the rice, we know it; the rice reaching the mouth, we know it. In every present moment, whatever activity we're engaged in, we simply know that activity. If it concerns feeling, we check whether we are, right now, suffering, happy, or neutral. Whatever state of Dhamma appears, we determine awareness of it as it truly is — bored, troubled, stressed, or relaxed — we simply know it as it comes. We need only the sphere of knowing, the sphere of mindfulness, to arise.

When Mindfulness Arises, the Triple Gem Shines at Our Center

When the sphere of mindfulness — the sphere of knowing — arises, the sphere of not-knowing, ignorance, falls away. This means the wholesome system has come to reside as the master of both body and mind. This wholesome system is overseen by the Triple Gem; when it takes residence, the Buddha Jewel, the Dhamma Jewel, and the Sangha Jewel appear as a stream of light. The sphere of knowing, once arisen, draws in the pure energy called merit, letting it flow continuously into the center of its own brightness.

Mindfulness and Clear Comprehension: The Two Most Helpful Qualities

The Buddha praised mindfulness and clear comprehension as the most helpful of all 84,000 sections of Dhamma. As we hold to mindfulness, it draws in pure energy to cleanse the stains. The sphere of merit that flows in continuously cleanses the stains that create obstacles in the many forms of the hindrances, whichever hindrance happens to be at work on us in the moment. We simply keep determining awareness, unlapsing — even when it's difficult, we endure for now.

Abiding With Every New Present: Do Not Attend to the Inner Voice's Offerings

He teaches us to rest on the last syllable, the present one — "Sammā Arahaṃ, Sammā Arahaṃ" — never minding what has already passed. If we dwell on a syllable that has passed, we become imprisoned in the dimension of the unwholesome and the indeterminate, which will present us with stories from the past to lure our attention. If we accept, we become trapped in that dimension, and then they will pressure and force us to act as they wish. We must therefore abide with every new present moment, giving no attention to any of it.

The Emperor Within the Sphere of Merit: A Personal Manager Handling Life Automatically

This is the heart of this teaching. He teaches that our life has a personal manager — the "emperor" (jakkraphat) — residing at the center of the sphere of merit, already watching over us. All we need to do is abide with the wholesome system. Whatever results unfold in our life follow the mechanism this emperor manages and administers on our behalf. We need not worry about that part; our only important task is to be aware of abiding with every new present moment. As for the outcomes of our life, this emperor allocates them automatically.

Bearing With It, Little by Little: Patience as Our Aid in Times of Suffering

He teaches that as we determine awareness, if a state arises that is hard to bear, we should simply endure it for a while — that's fine. As we endure even a little, patience arises to help lighten that suffering. The fortitude that comes with patience protects us from being overwhelmed. Whatever appears to us, we must be able to interpret what it means; if we don't know, we should ask someone who does. Every experience can be explained, because it is the result of the three natural forces at work.

Simply Determine Awareness — There Is Nothing to Drive Away

He teaches that if the unwholesome side possesses the mind and presses us into suffering, we are not capable of driving it away directly. What we can do is determine awareness so the sphere of knowing arises. Once it arises, the sphere of not-knowing — ignorance — falls away, and this sphere of knowing draws in the pure energy called merit, letting it flow into the center of its own brightness. It is this pure energy, merit, that cleanses the stain pressing us into suffering. Stay aware, unlapsing: "Sammā Arahaṃ, Sammā Arahaṃ" — keep determining awareness, on and on.

Dedicating Merit to Ancestors and Karmic Counterparties

As we keep determining awareness continuously, the stream of merit flows in continuously at the center of the sphere of knowing's brightness. We can then draw on this arisen merit to dedicate a portion to our departed ancestors — recalling them, along with our parents, relatives, grandparents, and the teachers who have shown us kindness, together with the guardian spirits who protect and support us, and all beings we may have wronged, our karmic counterparties, asking for mutual forgiveness so that all may share equally in this merit.

Radiating Loving-Kindness Across the World and the Cosmos

Once we have dedicated the merit, he has us draw upon the heart of a mother who wishes well for her young child, then extend it to all beings and the whole world, asking that they be free of suffering, that no enmity remain between us: may those with much suffering have less, those with little suffering have none, those with little happiness have more, and those with much happiness have ever more. He has us expand this loving-kindness-filled heart to cover our home, spreading across village, district, province, throughout the country and neighboring countries, until it becomes a radiant crystal sphere covering the whole world, clean and pure — through the special quality of loving-kindness that dissolves resentment and irritation. 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, life after life.