Resting With the Triple Gem Within

Phra Ajarn Suraphong opens by inviting us to think of this sitting as resting with the Triple Gem within — dwelling with them, under their protection and care, so that many good things come to be. Rest with them comfortably; eyes open or closed, it makes no difference. They alone can protect, care for, and guide us to happiness and prosperity.

Simply having them with us at all times is enough — at work, they're with us; in business, they're with us and help us; when we travel, they're with us and we're safe; even while asleep, they're with us and we sleep in a haven of merit; wherever we go, they're with us, and we can be at ease. No need to think — just know. Know that we're with them. Whatever we want to know, we simply ask them, as though thinking it ourselves, as though asking ourselves.

Life Is Simple When We Know — But the Unwholesome and the Neutral Try to Intrude

Life, when we truly know, is simple — the simplest thing there is. But the unwholesome and the neutral (avyakata) try to intrude, steering us wrongly, pulling us away from them into their own system instead. This is exactly why practice helps us focus on training to dwell with them continuously. Just know — don't think. Thinking gives us headaches and clouds the mind. Just knowing keeps the heart open and light. Know whatever puts us at ease.

Luang Phor taught this principle: know whatever puts us at ease, or simply know the feeling of being at ease itself — knowing brings ease, cool and clear. We can know the breath: the in-breath brings openness and relaxation, the out-breath brings coolness and ease — staying with the Triple Gem within. When we dwell with them, we appear bright at their center; they appear bright at ours; and both we and they shine bright at the center of Nibbana, the center of the knower of boundless power. Whether we're aware of it or not, this wonder occurs every time we recollect them.

The Stream of Merit Pours Through Continuously

While we dwell with them, a sacred, pure stream of merit — brimming with happiness and purity — pours continuously through the center of our body and heart, sphere after bright sphere, like blowing bubbles through a straw dipped in water, one bubble after another rising continuously. But the merit flowing through is delicate, subtle, soft and gentle, bright and clear, flowing continuously through our center until it becomes a stream of merit likened to happiness and purity itself. We simply know that this stream is flowing — whether we see it or not doesn't matter. Keep determining awareness, and as it grows purer and purer, clearing away the dimming elements, we will come to see the channel of merit appear. But while we don't yet see it, there's no need to crave seeing it — it appears only once the dimming elements are fully cleared away, at which point we connect with them directly; their Dhamma eye overlays onto our heart, and we come to see everything automatically.

Our One Task: Stay Continuously Aware, Without Lapsing

Our task has only one part: to know — to stay continuously aware, without lapsing — because knowing is mindfulness. For instance, feeling the body: mindful, we sit on the cushion, feeling its softness or firmness, and we simply know that. Wherever mindfulness knows, that's where the heart resides. If we know the breath, the heart has settled there. Mindfulness is the act of recollecting; a bright sphere appears at that spot, because it can arise nowhere else — only at the center of the heart.

To determine is to mark, to specify, to point precisely — for instance, specifying the breath, then perceiving the air passing in and out; or specifying the body's seventh base. Once we mark it this way, we go on to perceive it there. Marking is determining; determining awareness means marking the position we intend to know. The body relies on wherever the heart has settled through our marking — wherever we determine or mark, the heart resides there, and we go on to perceive that very spot.

The Sphere of Knowing Draws In Pure Energy: From Mindfulness to Clear Comprehension

As we perceive the spot we've marked — a bright, round sphere — it draws in the pure energy called merit, letting it flow continuously into the bright center of that sphere of mindfulness. This continuously pouring stream of merit drives the wholesome system, refining and correcting the elements within us toward cleanliness and purity. Once purified, the dimming elements are gradually withdrawn; clear perception arises, and mindfulness shifts into clear comprehension, carrying us into the inner dimensions, level after level — countless, beyond calculation.

Every time we dwell within the wholesome system, the drawing-in of pure energy — merit — happens continuously, so that the wholesome system can refine away defilement and carry us toward purity and liberation. A life spent dwelling within the wholesome system is a life of liberation. Whether we give, keep precepts, meditate, do good, or radiate loving-kindness — all of this can happen only when we dwell within the wholesome system.

Feeling Tells Us Who Rules the House: Wholesome, Unwholesome, or Neutral

As we determine awareness at the body or at the heart — marking the heart means marking the Dhamma: the thoughts, feelings, pleasant, unpleasant, or neutral, that appear in this very moment — we ask ourselves: am I at ease right now? If we're at ease, we simply stay with that ease. But if we feel uneasy — must we endure it? If we must endure, the unwholesome has become ruler of the house. When it takes charge, it arrives together with its own quality — suffering — and the sensation of being pressured appears; we find ourselves in a state that must be endured, and endured with difficulty.

When Suffering Arises, Simply Determine Awareness of It

That's fine, though — if we find ourselves in this state, know it as it truly is, because knowing it as it truly is makes it workable. The Buddha taught: when suffering arises, we should determine clear awareness of this state that must be endured with difficulty, without struggling against it — simply knowing is enough. Know that we are, right now, in a state that must be endured with difficulty; keep knowing it. What we want is for the sphere of knowing to form.

This state of suffering is coarse and intense, both coarse and intense at once — intense enough that it can topple any other meditation object we try to establish; this hard-to-endure state can overwhelm every other meditation practice. That's precisely why the Buddha taught that when suffering arises, simply determining awareness of it is enough. The sphere of knowing — mindfulness — anchors onto this state and perceives it; because its signal is so vivid, sharper than any other signal, it is easy to anchor to and easy to perceive.

Endurance Forges a New Crystal Armor Each Time We Endure

As we perceive this state that must be endured with difficulty, the sphere of knowing arrives together with khanti — endurance — because it is, indeed, hard to bear, and endurance comes to help. Endurance never arrives empty-handed; it comes together with tapas, a shield against torment, which lets us bear it, even amid distress. If our existing shield isn't strong enough, endurance forges a new one right then, while we're dwelling within this state that must be endured — it forges an armor, a crystal armor, more durable than the shield we had before.

If the state of suffering is intense enough, endurance will forge a crystal armor for us in that very moment of endurance — a brand-new set of armor, stronger and more durable than before, and with it comes an increase in our tapas. So do not fear suffering — suffering is not something to be afraid of. Looked at rightly, it does carry some benefit: it lets us forge a crystal armor, a tapas stronger than before. Once forged, we can rely on it from then on. Facing a lighter suffering afterward, it barely registers — the armor shields us so that torment no longer affects us; we remain at peace, untroubled.

When the Neutral Nature Rules the House: A Strange Kind of Blankness

But if what we perceive right now is neither pleasant nor unpleasant, not quite suffering, just a blank feeling — this is the nature of avyakata, the neutral. But its blankness is strange — not quite good, not quite bad either. When this feeling appears, avyakata tempts us to wander off — go for a walk, go out, go find something to eat or somewhere to be entertained — because the feeling is so odd and unsettling, it lures us into thinking it's our own idea: go get an iced coffee, have a snack, find a friend to chat with, seek some diversion — all leading us into its own dimension, where it can hold us captive while drawing on its own energy to drive its system.

That's why we must determine awareness, marking a firm base for the heart, relying on some meditation object, or some wholesome feeling — such as loving-kindness — or using the recitation-with-visualization "Samma Arahang, Samma Arahang," letting the sound of this recitation shield the heart from other sounds trying to intrude.

Reciting With Counting: "Samma Arahang"

Counting as we recite lets us evaluate our progress — Samma Arahang one, Samma Arahang two, Samma Arahang three, Samma Arahang four — and each time we count, if we recollect the Buddha image arising or forming, whether we see it clearly or not makes no difference; even without seeing it, simply feeling that it's there is enough — feeling the Buddha image passing through our body, or appearing at our center.

"Samma Arahang" is the descriptive name of the subtle Arahant Dhamma body. To utter his name is to utter the name of one who practices rightly and well, far from every defilement. When we utter his name, he passes through our center, appearing there; and having appeared, he does not appear in vain — Phra Dej Phra Khun Luang Phor taught that he appears together with benefit for us, refining our elements of seeing, remembering, thinking, and knowing — earth, water, wind, fire, space, and consciousness — making them clear, clean, and pure, clearing away every defilement, multiplying our merit, and applying the knowledge of the Dhamma body to clear our defilement further, while linking us to a stream of merit and treasure.

Beginners typically manage only fifteen or sixteen repetitions. Let's see how far our practice has brought us — whether we can now count the Buddha images continuously, sustaining mindfulness without interruption, however long that may be. Recite with a relaxed heart, open, spacious, empty, light, bright, cool, clean, and pure — with every syllable, the stream of merit flows continuously into the bright center of the sphere of knowing, the sphere of mindfulness.

The Meditation Object's Signal Must Be Clear and Continuous

We need to know, at every moment, exactly what we're aware of — staying with our chant or object of meditation continuously. Whatever object we choose needs a clear, continuous signal. If it's clear, the sphere of knowing can anchor to it easily, and as long as that signal continues without interruption, mindfulness never slips away. But if the signal isn't continuous, right at the gap where it drops out, other natures are always waiting to intrude. Once the signal grows unstable, they can slip in — and once they do, we become captive within their dimension, and it takes the wholesome system stepping back in as ruler of the house before we can break free again.

Radiating Loving-Kindness: Drawing on a Mother's Heart for Everyone and All Beings

Once we've brought about this good cause for ourselves, we go on to bring benefit to people and beings. Let us wish well for ourselves, for our loved ones, our family, our circle, and all who have supported us — may everyone be happy and free from every suffering; may people and beings everywhere find happiness and prosperity, free from suffering.

Phra Dej Phra Khun Luang Pu taught that in cultivating loving-kindness, we should draw on the heart of a mother, brimming with love and goodwill for her own young child, and establish that very heart within us. Once established, we taste the true flavor of sincere, pure love and goodwill, and from there we extend goodwill outward to benefit people and beings: may all beings be free from suffering and share happiness together.

As we expand this loving heart into the surrounding atmosphere, covering our own home — loving-kindness, which takes the form of a bright, round sphere, can arise nowhere but the heart — wherever the heart expands, loving-kindness, whose realm of origin is the heart, expands there too, its light shining into every atom of the surrounding air; people, beings, and all things there become bright, clear, and clean throughout.

Expanding Loving-Kindness to the Village, the Country, the World, and the Cosmos

We expand this loving heart to cover the whole village, then continuously onward to the subdistrict, district, province, until it covers the whole country, and onward still to neighboring countries and beyond, until it covers the entire world, making this world a radiant crystal sphere, clear, cool, clean, and pure. May the people of the world and all beings be free from suffering and share happiness together — 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 happiness together. May we never harm one another, never bear enmity or danger toward one another; may we conduct ourselves so as to be free from bodily and mental suffering; may all beings dwell within the wholesome system.

We then expand this loving heart out to 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 our loving-kindness shine out and benefit every being, every thing, and every element without limit. This light of loving-kindness shines into the center of every being's heart, dissolving the resentment that taints it completely; the wholesome nature takes up residence as ruler of the house of every being's heart, and the pure energy called merit pours continuously into the center of people's and beings' hearts, automatically driving the wholesome system to refine and purify them.

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

Whoever brings benefit to the world and the cosmos comes to make use of its treasures. We gather the mind within this loving-kindness, shining boundlessly in every direction around us, while the stream of merit continues pouring through the center of that brightness. We then dedicate this portion of merit to benefit people and beings everywhere without limit: may all beings be free from suffering and share happiness together.

Stopping Still at the Center of the Triple Gem and Our Teachers

We gather the mind to stop, gather it to be still, at the center of this stream of merit, at the center of happiness, at the center of purity. The heart is an accomplishing element: however we determine it, so it becomes. Whether we perceive it or not, these good things have already come to be. We gather the mind 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 — stopping still at the center of the finest Dhamma body of Luang Pu, stopping still at the center of the finest Dhamma body of Luang Phor, and stopping still at the center of the finest Dhamma body of our teacher, who has watched over our merit and our Dhamma from the very beginning.

As we recollect them, we appear bright within their center; they appear bright within ours; and both we and they appear bright at the center of Nibbana, the center of the knower of boundless power, beyond calculation.

Closing Aspiration

In this most auspicious moment, he leads us to pay respects and ask for blessings — the radiance, strength, power, and absolute authority of Nibbana throughout every element and every Dhamma, together with the merit and perfections of Luang Pu, Luang Phor, and our teachers. May all this merit combine with the merit we ourselves have sincerely accumulated since our very first life, across countless lives, up to the present — combining into sacred, potent merit of boundless power, refining our body, speech, mind, and the elements of seeing, remembering, thinking, and knowing — earth, water, wind, fire, space, and consciousness — making them bright, clear, cool, clean, and pure. May we be freed 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 fully into the knowledge of the Dhamma body — 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 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, by the boundless power of every Buddha.