Why We Must Practice: Three Natures Compete for Our Time and Resources

Phra Ajarn Suraphong opens by stressing that Dhamma practice is essential for every life. Using only a small portion of our time otherwise would be fine, but most people spend nearly their entire lives squandering it. We are born seemingly empty-handed and die carrying only sin, having never cultivated any wholesomeness. When the Buddha arose in the world, he pointed out the importance of wholesome dharma, the purity and goodness of merit, and showed that humanity is dominated partly by the unwholesome and partly by the neutral force. He revealed the suffering and harm caused by the unwholesome side, and the pointlessness of the neutral side, aiming to have people cultivate virtue and dwell in wholesomeness — already codified in the ten bases of merit-making and the ten perfections. But cultivating wholesomeness this way tends to happen only occasionally, not continuously woven into daily life. This is why he had monks train as living examples for the world.

The Buddha's Words: Know Body, Feeling, Mind, and Dharma to End Covetousness and Grief

He cites the Buddha's teaching to the monks: "Bhikkhus, you should clearly know body, feeling, mind, and dharma, in order to end the world's covetousness and grief (abhijjhā and domanassa)." Everyone must maintain this awareness — there is no way around it — because if we do not direct our own awareness, some other force will direct it for us, for its own benefit, not ours. What we should know is "knowing" itself — sati (mindfulness) — and "clarity" — sampajañña (clear comprehension). These two differ in function: sati's role is to know the topic. When we intend or wish to do something, sati brings that matter to our awareness, but only as a heading. Once that state has arisen, we cannot yet perceive its true nature, because ignorance conceals and obscures it. We must sustain awareness of that state for a while; sati then draws in pure energy to purify the defiling elements that conceal it. As defilement lightens, the state's subtle nature reveals itself, and sati automatically transforms into sampajañña to perceive that subtlety.

Knowing Feeling: The Unwholesome Brings Suffering, the Wholesome Brings Ease, the Neutral Brings a Strange Indifference

What we should know regarding the body is whatever pertains to it — being present, aware of the breath, aware of posture (standing, walking, sitting, lying down), aware of movement. What pertains to the mind is knowing feeling itself — knowing pleasure, pain, or neutral feeling. Whenever the unwholesome side possesses the mind, it displays its own qualities: suffering, discomfort, pressure, and constriction. Suffering does not arise without cause; the cause is the unwholesome side's qualities manifesting, making us feel a state that must be endured and is hard to endure. When the wholesome side takes the seat instead, it displays its own qualities: happiness and ease, which the heart directly perceives. The neutral force, when it seizes the seat, displays its own quality too — a flat, neither-happy-nor-suffering indifference, but this indifference is strange and off-kilter, entirely different from the equanimity (upekkhā) of the wholesome side. Wholesome equanimity, once established, brings balance to the heart — neither elated nor dejected, clearly aware of the state of equanimity itself, steady and firm, the mind unwavering. The neutral force's indifference, by contrast, is a strange kind of blankness that lures us toward outings, entertainment, and consumption that bring no benefit whatsoever.

The Fruit of Wholesome Dharma: The Triple Gem Shines Within, Even Without Knowing Buddhism

When the wholesome side possesses the mind, it displays happiness and ease, and guides and teaches the heart to see benefit and harm, showing what should and should not be done, anchoring us in wholesomeness. When wholesome dharma arises, the wholesome system takes its seat at our center, and the Triple Gem appears bright and radiant within — even in people who know nothing of Buddhism at all. Everyone carries the Triple Gem within, without exception. When wholesome dharma arises, the stream of merit flows through us. Within each sphere of merit lies sacred, pure dharma-elements of great power, able to dispel suffering, grief, sickness, and calamity, purifying defilement and lightening it, bringing benefit that helps life progress. As we dwell in wholesomeness, the sphere of merit contains physical wealth, material wealth, virtuous qualities, retinue, honor, praise, happiness, and the path and fruit of nibbāna, all complete within it. As merit flows through us, refined treasures flow through us too, and these refined treasures draw coarse, worldly wealth toward us.

Liberation Into Ever More Refined Dimensions

As merit flows through us, defilement is purified, and our inner dimension is refined further and further, growing purer, moving automatically from one dimension to the next. As we cultivate right mindfulness, this liberation continues without pause, bringing us into increasingly subtle dimensions. Merit, the pure energy itself, grows ever clearer and purer; refined treasures grow more valuable; and the knowing, empowered ones presiding over each dimension grow ever more capable of benefiting us. But if we let life drift according to karma, letting the three natures take turns ruling the heart without maintaining awareness, we can hope for nothing regarding how our life will unfold — neither in the near future nor in the next life after this one ends.

The Body's Built-In Tools: Precept, Concentration, Wisdom, Release, and Knowledge-of-Release

He teaches that we already possess tools within the sphere of dharma: the sphere of precept, of concentration, of wisdom, of release, and of the knowledge-and-vision of release. These five spheres reside in every body — the coarse human body, the subtle human body, the celestial body, the Brahma body, the formless-Brahma body, and the Dhamma body alike. Every single body carries all five of these tools. Since these tools already exist within us, we need only learn how to use them — and even without seeing them, we can still use them.

The Blind Person's Analogy: Not Seeing Doesn't Mean Not Able to Use

He compares this to a blind person living in the world: though unable to see the house, the bed, or money, they can still live their life, using the world's resources. Having a car, they use the car; without one, they take a taxi. A table, a chair, a refrigerator, a fan, air-conditioning, a bed — all usable, even unseen. Not seeing does not mean unable to use, because these tools genuinely exist; we only need to learn their method and properties in order to use them. The same is true of our inner sphere of dharma — even though it appears as darkness we cannot see, that does not mean we cannot use it.

Three Kinds of Precept in the Tipitaka: Wholesome, Unwholesome, and Neutral Precept

The sphere of precept is what protects, guards, and helps us avoid falling into wrongdoing, through the wholesome side. He teaches that the Tipitaka records three kinds of precept: wholesome precept (kusala-sīla), unwholesome precept (akusala-sīla), and neutral precept (abyākata-sīla). Searching "kusala-sīla akusala-sīla" reveals that these are indeed documented in the Tipitaka, findable on specific pages and in specific passages. He explains that these three kinds of precept are simply the "normal state" of each of the three natures, since the proportion of the three natures within each person differs; whichever nature holds the larger share, that nature's normal state dominates that person's behavior.

Precept Means "Normal": The Proportion of Nature Within Shapes Behavior

He gives an example: someone in whom the neutral nature holds the larger proportion is ruled by that force — neither pushed to do good nor to do evil, drifting along, neither good nor bad. But someone in whom the unwholesome nature outweighs the neutral tends toward prison, addiction, gambling, delinquency, and dropping out of school, creating trouble for themselves and others — this is the character of unwholesome precept. Someone in whom the wholesome nature holds the larger proportion is protected and guided away from wrongdoing in body, speech, and mind — well-mannered, humble, diligent in study, easy to teach, helpful to others. Precept (sīla) thus means "normal" (pakati): wholesome precept is simply the normal state of the wholesome side. When the wholesome proportion within someone dominates, their behavior in body, speech, and mind becomes naturally good and normal, with goodness as an automatic inner rule — not killing, not stealing, not committing sexual misconduct, not drinking intoxicants, not lying.

The Sphere of Concentration and Right Mindfulness: Maintaining Awareness to Enter the Inner Dimension

The sphere of concentration is the settling needed to steadily enter the inner dimension, but without knowing, there can be no settling — knowing is sati, so awareness must come first. The sphere of knowing draws in pure energy to purify the defilement that causes confusion and prevents steadiness. Right mindfulness is therefore essential, and it can be trained with eyes open or closed, in the midst of daily life — caring for children, working, driving, walking, bathing, brushing teeth, eating — by maintaining unbroken awareness of body, feeling, mind, and dharma, which in short means body and mind, in order to end the world's covetousness and grief — that is, elation and dejection. Do not let these arise in the heart, because the unwholesome side uses elation and dejection as bait to trap us within our current dimension. We must therefore learn to dwell in equanimity, neither pleased nor displeased, neither elated nor dejected, through cultivating right mindfulness, staying with one of the forty meditation objects, choosing one and making it familiar.

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

Our teachers taught a simple method: reciting "Samma Arahang" paired with visualization, done in a relaxed, easy, enjoyable manner. This phrase is the designated name of the subtle Arahant Dhamma body. Luang Phu once said that verbal recitation and mental visualization are a pair; the moment we speak this name, its form appears, whether we see it or not. Every time we name or recall a state, that state appears — just as recalling anger causes a dark sphere of aversion to appear and stir up irritation, while recalling relaxation causes a sphere of ease to arise and display its own qualities. In the same way, when we recite the name of the subtle Arahant Dhamma body — "Samma Arahang" — the subtle Arahant Dhamma body image appears at our center, visible through the Dhamma eye. Our teachers therefore had us visualize a Buddha image or crystal sphere in place of the sphere of dharma; when the subtle Arahant Dhamma body appears, it resides at the center of the sphere of dharma filling the lap, sphere and body appearing together.

The Buddha image expands and merges as one with us. Our head becomes the crystalline, pure sphere of the Dhamma body, radiant and gentle; our forehead and eyes become the same pure crystal; our neck, shoulders, and arms become the soft crystal Dhamma body; our chest, abdomen, and back become pure crystalline light. We are the Buddha image; the Buddha image is us.

The Sphere of Merit Holds Refined Treasures: The Story of the Engineer Who Asked Khun Yai

Every time we maintain awareness, the sphere of knowing arises, drawing in pure energy along with refined treasures carried within the brightness of the sphere of merit. Within each sphere of merit lies sacred, pure dharma-elements of great power. At its center also lie physical wealth, material wealth, virtuous qualities, retinue, honor, praise, happiness, the path and fruit of nibbāna, and the knowledge of the Dhamma body. As merit flows through us, refined treasures flow through us too, and these refined treasures draw coarse, worldly wealth toward us. He recounts that an engineer once asked Khun Yai how to earn a great deal of money; she advised him to accumulate abundant refined treasures within, which would draw coarse wealth in on their own — treasures obtainable through virtuous deeds, including Dhamma practice.

Dedicating Merit to Ancestors and Karmic Counterparties

As the stream of merit continues bubbling through the center of our being, we dedicate this merit to our ancestors — recalling our parents, siblings, grandparents, and all our teachers and benefactors, along with 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

Once merit is dedicated, he has us generate goodwill toward all people and beings. Luang Phu taught us to draw on the heart of a mother's love for her child, letting it arise at our center. May the world and all beings be free from suffering and find happiness; 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 and its surroundings; because loving-kindness dwells in the heart, wherever the heart extends, that light shines through every particle of the atmosphere. He explains that dharma-light differs entirely from ordinary candlelight or firelight, which cast shadows and cannot penetrate objects — dharma-light is subtle enough to shine through every particle of every being, thing, and element, unobstructed by anything. Loving-kindness has the special quality of dissolving resentment and irritation from the hearts of all people and beings. We then expand this heart to cover the 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, tree devas, 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. May all beings never harm one another, but conduct themselves so as to be free from suffering of body and mind.

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, reaching jhāna attainment, then being reborn in the Brahma realm to enjoy long-lasting bliss, and finally reborn on earth as a universal monarch, ruling all four continents through the treasures of the 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.