Two Parts of Practice: Right Mindfulness and Right Concentration

Phra Ajarn Suraphong opens by explaining that Dhamma practice has two parts: right mindfulness (sammā-sati) and right concentration (sammā-samādhi). Right mindfulness can be practiced with the eyes open, during every daily activity — waking up, washing your face, brushing your teeth, bathing, cooking, eating, dressing, going to work, driving, talking on the phone. All of it calls for right mindfulness. Using it makes life's course easier; without it, we can only draw on old merit. Using it well lets us draw on both old and new merit, together with the refining care of the Knowing Ones of great power, making life truly wondrous.

Cultivating right mindfulness means cooperating with the automatic wholesome system, with the Triple Gem, with Nibbāna itself — letting the wholesome system take its seat as ruler of the heart. The Triple Gem appears bright within us; Nibbāna settles in, resolving things and arranging matters ahead of time. For one who cultivates right mindfulness, wonder becomes ordinary — sometimes what we merely think of comes true. Obstacles become few and small; what would have been heavy is turned light by the Triple Gem and Nibbāna, and what is light simply disappears. Life keeps moving forward.

Don't Take Money as the Foundation: Those Who Do Rarely Succeed

Right mindfulness must be applied in every activity with eyes open, something we must prove to ourselves. But there is a critical warning Phra Ajarn stresses here: **do not take money as your foundation.** He says he has seen that people who make money their foundation rarely succeed. We must take the doing of good — building the causes of dharma — as our foundation; money and wealth exist to support dharma, not the other way around, where dharma is used merely as a means to get money. Doing it that way makes progress difficult. Doing good deeds must be primary, not money.

Even if we are short on means, we don't have to force ourselves to give lavishly. We give what we have, simply enough to cut through stinginess, and wealth comes on its own — not by placing money, or profit, at the center, but by placing good deeds there instead.

Giving for Profit Yields Less Merit Than Other Dharma Practices

He goes on to teach that the merit from giving (dāna) alone, compared to building other causes of dharma, is actually small — the energy it yields is not great. So we shouldn't rely on giving alone; it must go together with other practices. We should not want to give lavishly purely because we want to become rich — placing profit at the center this way brings trouble to everyone. The very thought is already a mistake from the start.

When we place profit at the center instead of dharma, the heart becomes clouded and troubled, hot and restless — and how could that possibly attract wealth? Sin and unwholesome states seize the opening to possess the mind. When we place good deeds at the center instead, cultivating right mindfulness, noting awareness, and meeting people with loving-kindness, generosity, and helpfulness, that is different. Cultivating right mindfulness means keeping the mind within the body, not letting it drift to things outside; when the mind is kept within, body and mind begin to merge as one.

The Purpose of Being Born: Reaching the Triple Gem Within

From there we move toward fulfilling the purpose of having been born: merging ourselves with the Triple Gem, with the Buddha image, into a single unity. The reason we came to be born is to reach the Triple Gem within. Luang Phor once said that it is precisely this human body that must be the vehicle for reaching the Triple Gem within, because ignorance is a powerful force, and the human body is a strong, resilient vessel able to bear that work. We therefore need to merge ourselves with the Triple Gem, to become one with Nibbāna — simply by dwelling in our true identity, that we are the Buddha image and the Buddha image is us, we fulfill the purpose of life itself.

Reaching the Buddha Image Ranges From 1% to 100%: Don't Worry About Clarity or Darkness

Luang Phor taught that reaching the Buddha image ranges from 1% up to 100%. So we begin at 1%, 2%, and it's fine even if things stay dim, hazy, or dark. Whether dark or bright, the Buddha image we perceive is still, in a sense, a mental representation — clear or unclear, vivid or hazy, it remains a representation. But even as a representation, the Buddha image — the subtle Arahant Dhamma body — still appears bright at our center regardless. Whether it's clear or unclear, dark or bright, we can set that concern aside entirely; there's no need to worry about it. All that's needed is faith, and the feeling that we are the Buddha image, the Buddha image is us.

He asks us to test ourselves: if we died right now, would we go to a heavenly realm? In the very moment we're recollecting "we are the Buddha image, the Buddha image is us," if we died now, a good destination would indeed be where we'd go — proof that this recollection has real effect. Knowing this, we should plant our faith firmly: simply by determining that we are the Buddha image, the heart, being an accomplishing element, becomes exactly what we determine. Don't let the unwholesome side erode this by whispering that it isn't real, doesn't exist, isn't so.

The Heart Is an Accomplishing Element: Don't Let the Unwholesome Destroy What You've Built

Faith is a bright, clear sphere that always leads us to the way out, the way to safety, the way to light. When we have faith in the Triple Gem, we reach the Triple Gem right here, right now — nowhere else, no other time. If we accept the unwholesome possessing the mind and let it convince us "it isn't real, it doesn't exist, it isn't so," everything dissolves — they will shatter the Buddha image we've built, and we'll have to build it again, each time a little harder than before. So don't accept that whisper; don't let it be shattered. Hold fast to the faith that we are the Buddha image, the Buddha image is us; recollect him arising and merging as one with our body. The moment we hold that confidence, courage arises immediately, and rapture (pīti) begins to arise.

The Five Faculties: Faith, Mindfulness, Wisdom, Concentration, and Effort Build Sovereignty Within

Reaching the Triple Gem within grows clearer and clearer over time. Those with faith reach it easily; those without faith, or with faith but no wisdom, don't understand, and so find it hard to reach. Reaching it requires faith, mindfulness, wisdom, concentration, and effort — the Five Faculties. From these Five Faculties, our true identity is built, merging us into a single unity with him, and only then does sovereignty within ourselves arise. Without relying on him, we cannot become sovereign within ourselves at all — because the unwholesome side keeps trying to stir up doubt, sensual desire, resentment and ill-will, drowsiness, to undermine our reaching the Triple Gem.

This inner sovereignty only becomes sovereign when we merge ourselves with the Triple Gem, which requires faith and a foundation of wisdom — the wisdom to know that the Triple Gem is our true identity, present within us and within every being at all times, and that we only need to merge with him into one unity. The wisdom we must have is knowing that the heart is an accomplishing element — as Luang Phor also taught — determine that we are the Buddha image, the Buddha image is us, and when we determine this with faith and confidence, the merging into one unity develops from 1%, 2%, 3%, 4%, 5%, gradually growing.

The Buddha Image Continually Rises and Merges With the Human Body

It's like watching a screen where the Buddha image continually rises and merges, layer upon layer, with our human body, image after image. He also shows us this mental representation directly. Beyond telling us to determine that we are the Buddha image, we rest the mind in stillness at its very center, at the small bright point within, stopped within stopped, still within still — gathering the mind to stop and be still so the Buddha image can rise and merge, uniting us with him into a single unity, expanding image after image. Every recitation of "Samma Arahang" is the Buddha image rising and merging, uniting us with him into a single unity, layer after layer. The stream of merit bubbles continuously through the center of that brightness, together with a stream of treasures, without pause.

The Triple Gem shines bright within us — the Buddha Jewel, the Dharma Jewel, the Sangha Jewel. Nibbāna is not outside us; it dwells within, at our center. When we send mind and heart inward, that is the journey along the middle path within, heading straight toward Nibbāna.

The Buddha Image Merges With the Whole Body: From Head to Toe

Our head becomes the pure crystal of the Dhamma body, with a bright crystalline crown-bud; our forehead becomes pure bright crystal; our eyes become the eyes of the Dhamma body, closed gently, with a serene, softly smiling face, full of boundless, pure loving-kindness; our neck, shoulders, arms, down to our fingertips, all become the radiant, pure crystal Dhamma body; our chest, belly, and back all become the radiant, clean, pure crystal Dhamma body. Let us perceive it part by part; in the beginning, the perception may not be very clear, and that's fine — it develops naturally with each day's practice.

If we still can't perceive it, there's no need to force it — simply hold the feeling for now. If defilement is heavy, it will obscure our perception, and we may not be able to picture the Buddha image at all; that's fine too — simply hold the awareness that we are the Buddha image, in whatever way feels easiest and most comfortable. Staying continuously aware without lapsing draws the pure energy called merit continuously into the center of the sphere of knowing, the sphere of mindfulness. This pure energy purifies the defilement that creates every kind of obstacle and hindrance in its many forms.

Dedicating Merit to Ancestors and Karmic Counterparties

As the stream of merit continues bubbling through the center of our body and heart, together with refined treasures, we dedicate this merit to our ancestors — recalling our relatives, 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 and share equally in this merit.

Radiating Loving-Kindness Across the World and the Cosmos

Once the dedication of merit is complete, we generate goodwill for the world and all beings. Luang Phu taught us to draw on the heart of a mother's boundless love and goodwill for her own child, forming it into a powerful sphere of loving-kindness, transformed by purity — a pure love that would give even one's own life. May all beings and the whole world be free from suffering and share equally in happiness: 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, our village, subdistrict, district, and provinces throughout the country, our neighboring countries, and every nation, until it covers the whole world — may the world and all beings be free from suffering and share equally in happiness, including 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 none harm one another; may all conduct themselves so as to be free from bodily and mental suffering.

We then extend this loving-kindness-filled heart into the atmosphere of the cosmos, covering the countless stars and galaxies throughout the boundless cosmos. The Triple Gem and Nibbāna settle within our mind and heart, refining our elements of seeing, remembering, thinking, and knowing — earth, water, wind, fire, space, and consciousness — making them ever brighter, so that we may benefit the world and the cosmos as greatly as possible. 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 until he attained absorption; upon death he was reborn in the Brahma realm, enjoying happiness for a very long time, and later returned to be born as 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.