Three Natures Fight to Rule the Heart: Why We Must Practice

Phra Ajarn Suraphong opens by stressing that practicing the Dhamma is of the utmost importance and necessity for every life, because our lives are governed by three competing natures, each vying to become the ruler of our heart. If the unwholesome side manages to seize that seat, it pressures and forces us to think, speak, and act wrongly, generating sin and its results, bringing suffering and harm upon us. If the neutral (abyākata) side seizes it instead, it steers us into squandering our precious time and resources on eating, playing, and touring, producing no benefit at all.

If we don't practice to let the wholesome side become ruler of the heart, we are simply letting life drift according to whatever karma brings — left to whoever manages to seize the throne — and we cannot hope for happiness or progress at all. If we won't even help ourselves, who else will help us? The wholesome side wants to help us, but instead we cooperate with the unwholesome or neutral side, bringing suffering and harm upon ourselves, and closing ourselves off from the benefit the Triple Gem could otherwise bring.

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

Practice can be done both with eyes open and eyes closed. With eyes open, from waking until sleeping, we need to cultivate right mindfulness; when we close our eyes to enter the inner dimension, we cultivate right concentration, settling the mind on a single object to enter a subtler inner realm. Both bring good results, letting the wholesome system take its seat as ruler, guiding us toward purification, and continuously drawing in pure energy, refined treasures, and a pre-set blueprint for our lives.

The Buddha recorded in the Tipiṭaka: "Monks, you should clearly know body, feeling, mind, and dharma, in order to end the world's covetousness and grief (abhijjhā and domanassa)." If we do not direct our own awareness, some other force will direct it for us instead, drawing in its own energy to drive a system that brings us suffering and harm. So we should determine our awareness — knowing is mindfulness, clear knowing is clear comprehension — clearly knowing body, feeling, mind, and dharma, which is simply body and mind together. We bring mind into the body, aware through mindfulness, to draw in pure energy that lightens defilement; as it lightens, the inner state appears, and mindfulness converts to clear comprehension to perceive it, carrying us into ever deeper, subtler dimensions.

Why End Elation and Dejection: Delight and Displeasure Are Bait for the Unwholesome

Cultivating right mindfulness is meant to end the world's covetousness and grief. Abhijjhā and domanassa are elation and dejection over sights, sounds, smells, tastes, touches, and mind-objects. Why must we eliminate this elation and dejection? Because the unwholesome side and the neutral side use our delight and displeasure as bait. Whatever pleases us, they steer us toward, luring us to want more; the more we want, the more we're lured into their dimension, where they draw in their own energy to run their system, forcing us to fuel it for them. Elation and dejection are both forms of craving — craving to become, and craving not to become — wanting to get, to have, to be, and fearing to have or be what we don't want. They use greed and fear as bait to trap us within their dimension.

We therefore need to eliminate elation and dejection, resting instead in equanimity (upekkhā) — neither delighted nor displeased, neither elated nor dejected — maintaining balance by clearly knowing body, feeling, mind, and dharma. If we dwell in body, feeling, mind, and dharma, we can keep the heart neutral, not falling into elation or dejection. The body aspect means being aware of the body itself, or the breath, or the movements of posture; the aspect connected with the mind means being aware of feeling (vedanā), of which there are only three kinds: pleasant, painful (hard to bear), or neutral.

Reading Feeling to Know Who Rules the Heart: Pleasant, Painful, or Strangely Neutral

In this present moment, what feeling are we in? Comfortable, or is it suffering — a state that must be endured and is hard to endure — or neutral? There are only these three. If there is comfort, that's because the wholesome side is ruling the heart, its results ripening, producing ease. If the unwholesome side is ruling, sinful results are ripening, and we will feel that state which must be endured, hard to endure. If the neutral side is ruling — its results ripening — we feel a flat neutrality, but this neutrality is different from the balanced neutrality of equanimity; it lacks that balance, and feels strangely off, quite unlike upekkhā.

This concerns feeling. Mind (citta) is our thinking itself. Whenever a force enters and takes the seat of the heart, its thoughts and feelings appear within our own heart — because when it possesses us, it possesses the heart, and the heart is our instrument of knowing. Whatever it thinks, we know; it ripples through the heart, and whatever the heart knows, we know. Whichever nature has entered and settled within us, we know it immediately in our own heart, because its thoughts and feelings appear there. We assume we're thinking it ourselves, but in fact we are not — it is entirely the thought and feeling belonging to that force's mind and mental factors.

Mind and Mental Factors: Thoughts That Appear in Our Heart May Not Be Our Own

Citta is the act of thinking and cognizing itself. Cetasika is the mood of that mind — a state, a feeling — such as greed, hatred, delusion, boredom, gloom, stress, irritation, weariness, despair, dejection, restlessness, and constriction, on the unwholesome side; or, on the wholesome side, relaxation, spaciousness, openness, emptiness, lightness, ease, coolness, refinement, and gentleness. We determine and recognize which nature has entered and possessed us; whichever it is, we come to know it. If the unwholesome side possesses the mind, we know it through the arising of a state of suffering; if the wholesome side possesses it, we know the nature of happiness and ease; if the neutral side possesses it, we know it as a flat, neutral feeling.

If Even Ghosts Can Possess People, Why Couldn't Māra Possess Our Minds?

He points out that we usually assume no one can possess our own heart, because we can't imagine how anyone could get inside our mind. But in truth, someone can — **even ghosts can possess a person, so why couldn't Māra?** When a ghost possesses a person, the possessed person's thoughts and feelings become the ghost's, no longer their own. Māra possessing the mind works the same way — except that Māra doesn't let us realize it's happening; it makes it feel exactly as if we're thinking it ourselves, in order to plant bad thoughts on us. If we accept those thoughts as our own, and take delight or agree with them — whether in lust, hatred, or delusion — sin is created and layers itself onto our heart.

The Three-Step Technique: Recognize and Understand, Then Remain Still and Indifferent

We must therefore determine who has possessed the mind. Do not accept it — if the unwholesome side has entered the mind, do not accept it; instead, watch its behavior. **Recognize it, understand it — watch, know, and understand, again and again.** The moment we realize it has possessed us, we watch, know, and understand it; once understood, we do not accept it — **and then we let it be, remaining still and indifferent, stopped and still, indifferent.** Watch-know-understand, then stop-still-indifferent — that's all there is to it. Whether the unwholesome, the wholesome, or the neutral side enters, we recognize it, and then remain still and indifferent, which dissolves its system. We settle deeper into stillness until the vibration rippling through the heart quiets down — the subtler and stiller, the better. No matter what it tries to incite, we remain unmoved; whatever thoughts and feelings layer themselves in, we simply stay indifferent, and it can do nothing more.

Staying continuously aware without lapsing — knowing body, feeling, mind, and dharma, or simply staying with our chosen meditation object, whatever we're familiar with — we bring it together with the body, merging body and mind as one, then settle in stillness at the body's center, gathering the mind with the body. Stopped within stopped, still within still, at the center of the body. We may also recite "Samma Arahang" alongside this; the sound of the recitation blocks out every other sound. If we stay focused on the sound of the recitation, no other sound can get in.

"Samma Arahang": Naming the Subtle Form, Naming by Quality

Every time we recite "Samma Arahang," each syllable is the name of the subtle Arahant Dhamma body. When we utter the name, he appears at our center; form and name are a pair. We name a state of dharma according to its quality — relaxation is named for its quality, openness for its quality. But a "sphere" (duang) is the vessel that holds that quality: the sphere of relaxation holds the state of relaxation, the sphere of openness holds openness, the sphere of stillness holds stillness, the sphere of loving-kindness holds goodwill. Each name is a state contained within a wholesome sphere — a sphere of light. An unwholesome sphere, by contrast, is a dark, frightening sphere, carrying fear, anxiety, and suffering, and wherever it arises, it brings trouble with it.

The Crystal Buddha Image Merges as One With Us

When we utter the name "Samma Arahang," he appears bright and clear at our center, like an image on a screen. He does not appear for nothing — he expands and merges, layer upon layer, as one with our body, image after image. 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 loving-kindness; our neck, shoulders, and arms become the radiant, pure crystal Dhamma body; our chest, belly, and back become the refined, gentle, cool, pure 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 whole body becomes the radiant, pure crystal Dhamma body.

We must reaffirm this true identity — that we are the Buddha image, the Buddha image is us — so that we may merge with him into a single unity. This is the great wish of the Dhamma body itself, so that he may more easily help us clear away every kind of defilement. As we merge as one with him, unity arises: our body and his body become one; our heart and his heart become one. He dwells in cessation attainment, with a heart stopped and still; we do the same — stopped within stopped, still within still, at the center of the Dhamma body within us.

Reaching the Buddha Image Ranges From 1% to 100%: Wear the Feeling First

Luang Phor once said that reaching the Dhamma body ranges from 1% up to 100%. Even if it stays dim, hazy, faint, or flickering, that's fine — simply wear the feeling that it is there for now, and it will gradually grow clearer on its own. Don't let it stay so dark that the heart refuses to accept anything at all. We can wear the feeling that we are the Buddha image, the Buddha image is us, the way an actor wears the feeling of the role they're playing. In the same way, we wear the feeling of being the Buddha image, and we come to perceive the taste of purity, the taste of happiness, the taste of great wisdom, whatever that may be like — knowing clearly, in this very moment, what complete mindfulness and clear comprehension feels like.

Once we've worn the feeling of being the Buddha image, wherever we direct our attention, the Buddha image appears there. Focus on the head, face, cheeks, shoulders, arms — all become the Buddha image; the chest, belly, and back become the Buddha image too. Continue perceiving this way, and it steadily improves, because he refines our heart, clearing defilement, thinning the obscuring elements, so that we may come to perceive this pure Dhamma body. Our level of perception can develop from 1%, 2% up to 5%, 10%, 20%, 30% — but without maintaining it, development is difficult; some who have attained the Buddha image but neglect to maintain it find it fades away again.

The Triple Gem Shines Within: Nibbāna, the Central Station

As we stay anchored to him, the Dharma Jewel shines bright. Sustaining the recitation and visualization is itself sustaining the Dharma Jewel; the Sangha Jewel then appears within the center of that Dharma Jewel. The Buddha Jewel already oversees the whole wholesome system. The Triple Gem now shines continuously bright within us; we appear bright within him, and both of us appear bright within Nibbāna, at the center of the boundless, countless Knowing Ones of great power. The Triple Gem is like a local relay station present within every person — each of us has our own — while the central station is Nibbāna itself, which holds every being at its center, throughout the countless galaxies.

Every Buddha, every Paccekabuddha, and every Arahant, though they have long since passed into final Nibbāna, continue to watch over and help the world just as before, overflowing with great compassion. They no longer have a human body that tires or needs sleep, so they can benefit us at every moment, day and night, without pause. Whoever dwells in goodness appears bright within them, and they appear bright within that person. The same is true as we practice now: we appear bright within Nibbāna, and the Knowing Ones take our spheres of dharma, of seeing, remembering, thinking, and knowing, and refine them, clearing away defilement — greed, hatred, delusion, lust, ignorance, wrong view, craving, and clinging — resolving karmic results, demonic obstruction, sacred sin, and calamity of every kind.

Dedicating Merit to Ancestors and Karmic Counterparties

As the stream of merit continues bubbling through the center of our body and heart, 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 that in cultivating loving-kindness, we should draw on the heart of a mother's love and goodwill for her own child, letting it arise within us, overflowing with boundless, pure goodwill. May the world and all beings 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 and the whole area where we live, extending across village, subdistrict, district, and provinces throughout Thailand, to neighboring countries and every nation, until it covers the whole world, becoming a radiant, clean, pure crystal 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. We then extend this loving-kindness-filled heart into the atmosphere of the cosmos, covering the countless stars and galaxies — tens, hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands, hundreds of millions — throughout the boundless cosmos.

We are not doing this alone. The Great Teachers, the Triple Gem, and the countless Nibbāna of boundless number appear bright within us; we appear bright within them, and they within us, helping us to 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 every Bodhisatta of old did, practicing loving-kindness for the benefit of the world and cosmos until the end of his life, attaining absorption, enjoying happiness in the Brahma realm for a very long time, and later returning to be born as a universal monarch, ruling the four continents by the power of the world and cosmos's treasures. We should therefore diligently cultivate loving-kindness continuously, at every moment — morning, midday, afternoon, evening, and night.

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, complete with the Threefold and Eightfold Knowledge, the six higher knowledges, the four analytical knowledges, the eight liberations, and the fifteen conducts; 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.