Born for This One Purpose: Why We Practice

Phra Ajarn Suraphong opens by teaching that Dhamma practice is essential and necessary for every life — so essential that we are born specifically to do this. All our work and occupations exist only to sustain a life that can practice the Dhamma. Every life is governed by three natures, each with its own clear aim. The unwholesome side aims to destroy the lives of people and beings utterly; the wholesome side aims to benefit humanity and all beings, freeing them from suffering and bringing happiness, prosperity, peace, and goodness. But because people don't recognize that greed, hatred, delusion, lust, and unwholesome mental states are simply tools the unwholesome side uses to destroy life, they live under its direction without realizing it — until the Buddha arose and revealed these three natures, guiding us to abandon the unwholesome and cultivate the wholesome.

The Wholesome System as Master of the Heart: A Life That Becomes Easy

He teaches that practice helps the wholesome system take the seat of our heart to care for and help us. If we practice morning, noon, and night, dwelling with the wholesome system, dwelling with the inner Triple Gem, letting nibbāna layer onto our life, our life becomes easy rather than difficult. The wholesome system will make our work and career flourish and advance, our health grow strong, and our life full of good fortune. We must therefore train ourselves to dwell continuously with the wholesome system — which isn't difficult at all.

The Buddha's Words: Clearly Knowing Body, Feeling, Mind, and Dhamma to Eliminate the World's Covetousness and Grief

The Buddha taught, as recorded proof: "Bhikkhus, you should clearly know body, feeling, mind, and dhamma, in order to eliminate covetousness and grief regarding the world." He explains that if we fail to maintain awareness, some other nature will direct our attention instead — bringing no benefit, only harm. We must maintain clear awareness — mindfulness and clear comprehension — of the body (aware of the body itself, the breath, or our posture), of feeling (aware of each present moment — comfort, discomfort, or neutrality, exactly as it arises), of mind (thought — whichever nature has intruded, its thoughts appear in our mind), and of dhamma (which depends on whichever nature has taken the seat of the heart — its feelings appear in our heart). If the unwholesome intrudes, a defiled mind appears; if the wholesome intrudes, correct and wholesome thoughts and feelings appear. This awareness of body, feeling, mind, and dhamma has one purpose: to eliminate the world's covetousness and grief.

The Five Dimensions of Sensuality: Bait That Holds the Heart Captive in the World's Dimension

Covetousness and grief are gladness and sorrow bound up with form, taste, smell, sound, and touch — the five dimensions that together constitute "the world." We are all conditioned toward satisfaction, unwilling to be parted from what we love — and so suffering arises. What we like, we crave more of, and greed arises; when denied what we love, irritation, quarreling, and harm arise. All this gladness and sorrow serves as bait, trapping us within the unwholesome side's dimension, shaping and steering us into wrong speech and wrong action so it can smuggle further wrongdoing into our heart, creating suffering and harm. We must therefore dwell within the wholesome system, training both with eyes open and eyes closed — cultivating right mindfulness with eyes open, right concentration with eyes closed — to travel the inner middle path.

Dwelling With the Wholesome System Is Simple: Just Recite

He teaches that simply reciting "Samma Arahang" is enough to dwell with the wholesome system. There are many meditation methods, but our teachers have distilled the simplest one: recitation paired with visualization. Just stay focused, attentive, and reflective on the recitation "Samma Arahang" continuously — attending, focusing, and reflecting on this recitation again and again.

Reciting Until the Whole World Vanishes: A Beauty of Sound We Have Never Heard Before

He teaches us to recite "Samma Arahang" over and over, continuously, until the whole world vanishes entirely — everything in this world empties away, leaving only the recitation "Samma Arahang, Samma Arahang." Keep going until everything has disappeared, leaving only the recitation itself, as though we now dwell within a dimension, a world made entirely of the recitation. The sound of "Samma Arahang" arising from deep within, from a subtle level, carries a beauty we have never heard before in our lives. That sound exists — but we must recite until everything in the world has vanished completely, leaving only the sound of the recitation "Samma Arahang" resonating on its own.

Deliberation and Reflection: Attending to Each Word of the Recitation

He explains that to reach this state we must stay focused and reflective — engaging both "vitakka" (initial thought, directing the mind to the object) and "vicāra" (sustained reflection, turning it over again and again) with each recitation of "Samma Arahang, Samma Arahang." We must attend to and focus on each single word, unhurried, without rushing, word by word, with no attention to anything else at all. Reciting this way continuously, we eventually merge into one with the recitation itself. We keep this focus in every activity — talking with a customer, traveling, eating, bathing, in the bathroom — staying anchored in the recitation at all times. In that state, the Triple Gem appears bright at our center; we appear bright within it; nibbāna layers over us, correcting and purifying all defilement, and a radiant stream of merit bubbles up continuously along with a stream of treasure and success, with countless good things appearing one after another.

The Buddha Image Merges as One With Us, From Head to Toe

He teaches that once the recitation has become second nature — so that even after we stop reciting, the sound still echoes on its own — we should stay aware of the Buddha image continually arising at our center with every recitation. This is the act of speaking the name of the subtle Arahant Dhamma body. The moment we speak the name, the image appears, bright, at our center — and it does not appear for nothing, but expands and layers, becoming one with our human body. Image after image continues arising, layering until our entire body becomes the radiant, clear, cool, clean, pure crystal Dhamma body — from head, face, cheeks, shoulders, arms, to the whole torso — whether or not we can perceive it, even if it still feels dim and unclear. We merge ourselves with the image into one unity: we are the Buddha image, the Buddha image is us, because it is our own true self.

Reaching the Buddha Image: From 1 Percent to 100 Percent, No Need to Wait for Clarity

Luang Phu once said that reaching the Dhamma body ranges from 1 percent to 100 percent, depending on our knowledge and understanding — the more we understand, the easier it becomes. Our mind is a "successful element": whatever we determine, that is what becomes. It comes down to whether we believe or not; those who don't believe have some nature behind them steering that disbelief, and the unwholesome side resists by every means. Even now, dim and unclear as things may be, we should adopt the feeling of reaching the image at whatever level — 1, 2, 5, 10, or 20 percent — and go from there. Adopting the feeling that we are the Buddha image, the Buddha image is us, has a powerful effect: it lets the Triple Gem merge with us easily, and nibbāna's corrective work becomes highly effective. We don't need to perceive the whole body at once — whichever part we can sense most easily, start there, however small, and the rest will gradually become clearer on its own.

Merging Body and Mind With the Image: As He Does, So Do We

He teaches us to merge our body with the image's body and our mind with the image's mind into one unity. As he does, so do we: he gathers his mind, stills it, cultivating cessation attainment (nirodha-samāpatti) to purify the dharma-elements within us; we likewise gather our mind and still it at his center — stopping within stopping, stillness within stillness. We must reaffirm our true identity continuously, morning, noon, and night — the very first thing to recall upon waking is that we are the Buddha image, the Buddha image is us — merging body and mind with the image into one unity. Doing this makes us fortunate, because wherever we go, we go together with the Triple Gem and nibbāna, in every place and every activity.

Dedicating Merit to Ancestors and Karmic Counterparties

As the stream of merit continues bubbling through the center of our being without pause, we dedicate this merit to our ancestors — recalling our relatives, our parents, siblings, grandparents, 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 mutual forgiveness and sharing this merit equally with all.

Radiating Loving-Kindness Across the World and the Cosmos

Once merit is dedicated, he has us radiate loving-kindness to benefit all beings, all things, and every dharma-element, by drawing on the heart of a mother's love and goodwill toward her child. First we extend goodwill to ourselves — may we and all beings be free from suffering and find happiness everywhere — then expand this loving-kindness-filled heart to cover our home, spreading to neighbors, the village, subdistrict, district, provinces across the country, neighboring countries, and finally the whole world, until it becomes a radiant, clean, cool, pure crystal sphere. May the people of the world and all beings be free from suffering and find happiness — 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. We then expand further into the atmosphere of the cosmos, covering the countless stars — tens, hundreds, thousands, millions, and more — across the boundless galaxies, our loving-kindness benefiting all beings and all things 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 every Bodhisatta of old did, benefiting the world through loving-kindness practice until reaching jhāna attainment. Upon death they were reborn in the Brahma realm, enjoying bliss for an immensely long time, and when that life ended, were reborn on earth as universal monarchs, using the treasures of the world and cosmos to govern the four continents in long-lasting happiness.

Closing Aspiration

In closing, Phra Ajarn leads an aspiration for success to be established in us, now and in the future. 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 every obstacle; 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.