Why We Must Practice: Letting the Wholesome System Rule the Heart

Phra Ajarn Suraphong opens by stressing, as he says he must every time, that practicing the Dhamma is essential and necessary for every life. People who don't practice may not look troubled — some even seem very happy — but underneath, the problems and obstacles they face are still there. Practice is what frees us from those obstacles and opens the door to a truly wondrous life. Those who never practice face problems every day, quarrel every day, and worry every day, so a wondrous life is simply out of reach for them.

Reaching this wondrous life is not limited to monks — lay practitioners can reach it too, because whoever dwells within the wholesome system attains a good, wondrous life. The opposite is also true: whoever relies on the unwholesome system experiences a kind of "wonder" as well, but one that leads to suffering and harm — crises that look accidental but are, in truth, the deliberate consequence of that system. We therefore need to learn, understand, and dwell in practice so the wholesome system can take its seat as ruler of the heart.

The Buddha's Teaching: Know Body, Feeling, Mind, and Dharma to End Craving and Grief

Practice must be grounded in what the Buddha himself taught; the methods teachers use to make it simple can vary widely, but the principle stays the same. The Buddha taught that cultivation happens both with eyes open and eyes closed — open eyes cultivate right mindfulness (sammā-sati), closed eyes cultivate right concentration (sammā-samādhi) to enter the inner dimension. Right mindfulness can be practiced at every moment, in every daily task. He taught the monks: "Monks, you should clearly know body, feeling, mind, and dharma, in order to end the world's covetousness and grief (abhijjhā and domanassa)."

There are four key points in this teaching. First, we must determine our own awareness — if we do not, some other force will direct our attention instead, for its own benefit, not ours. Second, we must know clearly: clear knowing is mindfulness-with-clear-comprehension (sati-sampajañña), applied to body, feeling, mind, and dharma — which is simply body and mind together. At first, mindfulness is only a heading, a topic — we cannot yet perceive the detail because obscuring elements cover it. We must sustain awareness for a while so mindfulness can draw in pure energy to lighten the defilement; once that happens, the underlying state appears, and mindfulness automatically converts into clear comprehension, perceiving that subtle state.

Learning About Mindfulness: Sustained by Faith, Wisdom, Effort, and Concentration

The first problem we face is that we haven't trained ourselves to be the one directing our own awareness — instead, other forces command us to notice this or that all day long, except during the moments we actually sit with a meditation object or dharma topic. The second thing to learn is training mindfulness to be sustained by faith and effort, which must in turn be accompanied by wisdom. Without wisdom, we get talked out of practice and can never settle firmly, because a single momentary settling isn't enough for the inner state to fully appear and for mindfulness to convert into clear comprehension. Training mindfulness therefore requires faith, wisdom, effort, and concentration all working together, forming the "faculties" (indriya) — a sovereignty within ourselves. These faculties let us settle firmly first, and only then does mindfulness convert into clear comprehension.

Once the inner state appears, mindfulness automatically becomes clear comprehension, and we enter the first level of the inner dimension. Subtlety, gentleness, softness, and lightness gradually appear, carrying us toward ever deeper subtlety in each successive dimension, with clear comprehension staying anchored to that state, knowing it directly. The deeper we go, the purer the energy we draw in, the more refined the subtle treasures, and the more capable the inner Knowing Ones become at helping us.

The Heart Is an Accomplishing Element: Wherever We Place It, There It Rests

At this level, he teaches us to bring mind and body together as one. Wherever we set our awareness, the mind settles there. If we focus on the breath, the mind rests at the nostrils; if we're aware of the whole body, the mind pervades the whole body; if we note a shifting posture, the mind is wherever that movement is. As for the recitation, if we set it at the body's center, the mind rests at the center — because the heart is an "accomplishing element" (thāt samret): however we set it, so it becomes. We then determine the Buddha image and rest in stillness at its center; the mind settles there too. There's no need to be rigid about exactly how it should feel.

As we maintain this awareness, we rely on the qualities of equanimity (upekkhā) and contentment (santosa) to help us. Equanimity keeps us from being excited, elated, or upset by anything — not the flat indifference of the neutral (abyākata) nature, but a balance that keeps the heart steady, not caught up in liking or disliking. This equanimity is itself a mental factor that already arises together with wholesome dhamma; even without our attention it forms a light baseline in the heart, but when we deliberately note it, it becomes clearer and easier to connect with. Alongside it, contentment means being satisfied for now with what we have and are; when we settle into that, the unwholesome side tries to stir us up, and these very qualities act like guardians, correcting and protecting us.

The Key Exception: Wisdom Does Not Arise Automatically Like the Other Factors

Cultivating meditation means building up the Five Faculties together — mindfulness, faith, wisdom, concentration, and effort — they must go hand in hand. Without faith, we sit for only a moment before switching to a different method, because we have no confidence in the practice we've chosen. But the point Phra Ajarn stresses in particular concerns wisdom: without it, when a problem arises we have no way to solve it — there is no "solver," because wisdom itself is the one that resolves problems.

He teaches this very plainly: **wisdom is a mental factor that does not arise together with wholesome dhamma** the way relaxation, spaciousness, openness, emptiness, lightness, and ease do — those all arise automatically alongside a wholesome mind. Wisdom instead requires a deliberate, specific summoning. When a problem occurs, we call on wisdom for help — we ask ourselves how to solve it, and wisdom arises to solve it. It may feel like our own ordinary thinking, but it is in fact wholesome dhamma working through the very act of our calling on it. This distinction matters, because it means a practitioner must never neglect to deliberately invoke wisdom the moment a problem shows up — it will not simply appear on its own the way ease or lightness does.

Reciting "Samma Arahang": The Sphere of Knowing Draws In Pure Energy

Let us keep our awareness anchored to the recitation "Samma Arahang." When the sphere of knowing arises, the sphere of not-knowing — ignorance — falls away. This arising sphere of knowing is a wholesome sphere, the sphere of mindfulness, bright, and it can only arise in one place: the heart, nowhere else. When mindfulness arises, wholesome dhamma arises together with it, because whenever wholesome dhamma arises, mindfulness comes to be with us — meaning that body-within-body, feeling-within-feeling, mind-within-mind, and dhamma-within-dhamma have, at that moment, become wholesome, dwelling with our very flesh and being.

Recite with a heart that is relaxed, open, spacious, empty, light, cool. We must temper the heart so it isn't rigid or overly intense. Relying on the spheres of relaxation, openness, emptiness, lightness, and ease — all mental factors already present, arising together with the sphere of the wholesome mind — we find that the moment we deliberately note them, their clarity sharpens. Defilement still seizes brief openings even during practice, causing occasional difficulty; when we feel uncomfortable, we simply determine comfort, and the sphere of comfort rises again.

The Crystal Buddha Image Merges as One With Us

Next, we recite "Samma Arahang" while picturing the Buddha image, then rest in stillness at its center — entering into it, perceiving it within the body, wherever the Dhamma body is, that is where we rest. As the sphere of stillness arises, every other system halts, because stillness itself is already the sphere of the wholesome system. Settling into that stillness, every wave of vibration quiets down. The Dhamma body continually rises and passes through the center of our being, image after image, expanding and merging as one with our human body.

Our head becomes the crystal-clear Buddha image, with a bright crystalline crown-bud; our forehead becomes the bright crystal of the Dhamma body; our eyes become his eyes, closed gently, with a serene, softly smiling face full of boundless loving-kindness; our neck, shoulders, and arms all become the radiant crystal Dhamma body, pure and clean; our chest, belly, and back become the crystal Dhamma body; our hips, thighs, knees, shins, and feet become the radiant, pure crystal Dhamma body. We are the Buddha image; the Buddha image is us. Our entire body becomes the crystal Dhamma body, radiant, pure, and clean.

We must reaffirm this true identity again and again, because every time we do, our unity with him deepens further; he becomes more apparent, and our heart grows clearer, cleaner, purer, and brighter. That is why we need to keep reaffirming and merging ourselves with him into a single unity, over and over.

Our Role: Simply to Stay Aware — the Rest Belongs to the Automatic System

Once we dwell with him in a stopped, still heart, we have, in a basic sense, already fulfilled the purpose of being born. What remains is simply to preserve this unity, sustaining it continuously, while maintaining the dharma called "stopped" and "still." He is dwelling in worldly absorption, with a heart that is stopped and still — whatever he does, we do; whatever he is, we become. He is a Dhamma body; we become a Dhamma body too. This is what he wants from us more than anything. We only need to stay this way; everything else is the work of the inner automatic system, the work of the Triple Gem, the work of Nibbāna refining us. Our unity with the Dhamma body develops steadily from 1% to 2%, 3%, 4%, and onward. Our role is simply to keep our awareness anchored to the Buddha image, gathering the mind to stop, gathering it to be still — do just this, and everything else improves on its own.

The Stream of Merit Flows Through Our Center: The Straw-in-Water Simile

As we stay continuously aware without lapsing, the sphere of ignorance falls away, and the bright, wholesome sphere of knowing draws in the pure energy called merit, bubbling up continuously through the center of our body and heart. Within each sphere of merit lies pure, sacred dharma-elements of great power, able to dispel suffering, illness, misfortune, karmic results, demonic obstruction, sacred sin, and calamity of every kind. Beyond that, the sphere of merit also contains 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 within it. When merit flows through us, these refined treasures flow through us too, drawing coarse worldly wealth toward us and making our livelihood easier and more comfortable.

As this stream of merit continuously bubbles up through the center of our body and heart, it becomes a true stream of merit flowing together with a stream of treasures, and we sit receiving it with a relaxed, light, joyful heart.

Dedicating Merit to Ancestors and Karmic Counterparties

As the stream of merit continues flowing through the center of our being, we dedicate this merit to our ancestors — recalling our relatives, 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 and share equally in this merit. The heart is an accomplishing element: however we determine it, so it becomes.

Radiating Loving-Kindness Across the World and the Cosmos

We then generate goodwill for the world and all beings. Luang Phu taught us to draw on the heart of a mother's boundless love for her own child, forming it into a pure sphere of loving-kindness: may those with much suffering have less, those with little have none, those with little happiness have more, and those with much happiness have ever more. We expand this loving-kindness-filled heart to cover our home, then our village, subdistrict, district, province, Thailand, neighboring countries, and finally the whole world, until it becomes a radiant, clean, pure crystal sphere. Loving-kindness has the special quality of dissolving resentment and irritation from the heart.

From there we extend further, to cover the earthbound devas, tree devas, sky devas, the heavenly beings of every level, the Brahma and formless Brahma realms, and even beings in hell, as hungry ghosts, and as animals — may they all be free from suffering and share in happiness. We extend further still, across the countless stars and galaxies of the boundless cosmos. 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, 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.