Practicing the Dhamma: The Only Way to Align with Wholesomeness

Phra Ajarn Suraphong opens by stressing that Dhamma practice is essential for every life. Without it, we cannot hope for any real progress, because we are not aligning ourselves with the wholesome side — the system that brings happiness, prosperity, and success. The unwholesome side, meanwhile, crushes and grinds us down, while the neutral side leads us toward idle amusement, squandering our time and money without benefit now or later. Aligning with the wholesome system isn't difficult: it only requires dwelling in precepts, concentration, and wisdom, and training in right mindfulness. When right mindfulness is cultivated, right concentration follows naturally — but without it, what looks like meditation can simply become sleep.

Distraction and Sleep: Two Similar-Looking States That Are Utterly Different

He points out that during sitting practice, the two most common obstacles are a wandering, distracted mind and drowsy sleep. Distraction passes on its own — it has its own natural span, and if we keep sitting through it, it gradually settles. Sleep is different: if we let ourselves nod off every single time we sit, even after ten or twenty years we will still just be falling asleep. He states plainly: "Sitting distracted is still better than sitting asleep" — because what lies behind each state is entirely different.

Why Distraction Beats Sleep: The Receiver Is Working, or It's Shut Down

He explains that during distraction, a certain frequency continues to sustain our capacity for awareness. Even as unwholesome defilement lightens in places, our "receiver" — the instrument of knowing — keeps functioning normally. When the unwholesome side intrudes, it only disturbs that frequency; it does not shut the receiver down. Sleep is a different matter altogether: the moment we sit, we drop off, sitting after sitting, year after year, still asleep, because in that state the receiver itself is switched off. Ignorance (avijjā) covers it entirely, keeping us in continuous sleep.

He also acknowledges that sometimes falling asleep leaves us feeling refreshed — the body, tired from sitting, gets the rest it needed. When we wake refreshed, we should simply continue practicing rather than stop. This is the real point: don't quit halfway through, whether you were asleep or distracted. Keep sitting, no matter what, until the defilement that was driving the sleep or distraction has been used up and lightened. And even once it has lightened, don't stop — keep going.

Don't Quit: Keep Sitting Through Distraction or Drowsiness Until Defilement Lightens

His concrete advice: the one thing that matters is not quitting. Sit for an hour, two hours; if the mind wants to wander, let it wander. Try three or four hours and see just how much defilement surfaces to keep you distracted. Sit every single day without stopping, and results will come on their own. The first result is calm: once defilement stops disturbing us, we recognize that there's no more disturbance — no distraction, no drowsiness — and we can dwell within the inner dimension. The mind no longer scatters outward but stays within, aware of whatever state arises. Understanding deepens step by step, and confidence grows along with it.

The Method: Stay Aware, Never Lapse

He teaches that this understanding only comes through staying constantly aware, without lapsing. Awareness of anything will do — the breath, the body, one's posture and movement, feelings of pleasure, pain, or neutrality. Whatever state arises, simply know it. Stay with whatever meditation object is familiar to you, or, if none is yet familiar, recite "Samma Arahang" repeatedly. This phrase is the designated name of the subtle Arahant Dhamma body; the moment we speak the name, its form appears at our center and continues arising there, image after image. We must maintain this awareness deliberately — if we do not direct it ourselves, something else will direct our attention toward things that bring no benefit at all.

He stresses cultivating genuine interest, reflecting on and attending to each recitation, one word at a time, dwelling only in the present moment with the latest word of recitation — paying no attention to the past, however recent. And always choose whatever feels easiest: whatever brings ease, comfort, and joy, do that, because the unwholesome side will always try to steer us toward what feels difficult and burdensome.

The Sphere of Knowing Draws In Pure Energy That Purifies Defilement

When the sphere of knowing arises, the sphere of not-knowing — ignorance — falls away. This arising sphere is a wholesome sphere called the sphere of mindfulness: sati, recollection and awareness, bright and luminous by nature. It can arise in only one place — the heart — and nowhere else; once it arises there, the heart itself becomes bright and clear. This sphere of knowing draws in the pure energy called merit, flowing into the center of its own brightness. This very energy is what purifies the defilements that are the root of every kind of obstacle and hindrance. As we stay anchored in awareness of our meditation object, mindfulness — the instrument of knowing — continually draws in pure energy to lighten defilement, lighten obstacles, and lighten hardship, until ease and happiness gradually arise on their own, simply by dwelling continuously in recitation and visualization.

Recitation Paired with Visualization: The Buddha Image Merges as One with Us

As we continue reciting "Samma Arahang," the Buddha image arising within us layers and merges, becoming one with our human body. Our head becomes the crystalline sphere of the Dhamma body, radiant, clear, and gentle; our forehead and eyes shine likewise, the face closed in a faint, gentle smile; our neck, shoulders, and arms become the same soft crystal form; our chest, abdomen, and back become pure crystalline light. The sphere of knowing continually draws in pure energy along with the refined treasures carried within each sphere of merit — sacred dharma-elements of great power. At the center of the brightness lies physical wealth, material wealth, virtuous qualities, retinue, honor, praise, happiness, the path and fruit of nibbāna, and the knowledge of the Dhamma body, all complete. As merit flows through us, these refined treasures flow through us too, and it is these treasures that draw coarse worldly wealth toward us.

As we maintain awareness, the sphere of merit continually bubbles up, forming a stream of merit — bright, cool, clean, and pure — with a stream of treasure flowing through its center. We simply rest and receive this stream with ease, staying anchored in recitation and visualization.

Dedicating Merit to Ancestors and Karmic Counterparties

As the stream of merit continues flowing without pause through the center of our being, we dedicate this merit to our ancestors — recalling our relatives, our parents, siblings, grandparents, and all our teachers and benefactors, the devas who help and support us, our caretakers and guardians, and all beings we may have wronged, our karmic counterparties — asking that we forgive one another mutually and share equally in this merit.

Radiating Loving-Kindness Across the World and the Cosmos

He then has us generate goodwill for the world and all beings. Luang Phu taught us to draw on the heart of a mother's love for her child, letting that love arise, then extending it to the world and all beings as if they were our own beloved children: may those with much suffering have less, those with little have none, those with little happiness have more, and those with much have ever more. We expand this loving-kindness-filled heart to cover our home, spreading across village, district, province, Thailand, neighboring countries, and finally the whole world, until it becomes a radiant, clean, pure crystal sphere — reaching the earth-bound devas, the tree devas, the sky devas, all the heavens, the Brahma and formless-Brahma realms, and even beings in hell, as hungry ghosts, and as animals — and further still, across the countless stars and galaxies of the boundless cosmos, with our loving-kindness expanding without limit.

He teaches that whoever benefits the world and the cosmos may, in turn, make use of the treasures of the world and cosmos — as the Bodhisatta of old did, practicing loving-kindness continuously until the end of his life, becoming a Great Brahma enjoying long-lasting bliss, then later a universal monarch ruling the four continents.

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.