Born for This: The Principle from the Tipitaka

Phra Ajarn Suraphong opens by reminding us that practicing the Dharma matters enormously for every life — so much so that we could say we were born specifically to do this. If we are born and don't do this, we've missed the very purpose of human birth, because humans and all beings are governed by three natures, each with its own aim. Setting the wholesome nature aside, the other systems offer no real benefit at all. Even the neutral nature, though it causes no direct harm, wastes our time and resources without improving our future. Worse still is the unwholesome nature: whenever it seizes the position of "ruler of the heart," it directs, pressures, coerces, and forces us into actions that bring suffering and harm. Only the wholesome system gives benefit — happiness, peace, rightness, goodness, and genuine prosperity.

He cites the principle the Buddha taught, recorded in the Tipitaka: "Monks, you should determine clear awareness of body, feeling, mind, and dharma, in order to eliminate covetousness and grief toward the world." This sentence is wondrous because it brings this life to wonder at the beginning, in the middle, and at the end. At the beginning, even a little practice brings a taste of wonder; sustained over time, it brings wonder in the middle; and when we commit to dwelling continuously within the wholesome system, we reach wonder without limit at the end.

Samma Arahang: The Secret of Our Lineage, Aimed at the Subtle Dhamma Body

In practice, our teachers have distilled a simple technique: recite "Samma Arahang, Samma Arahang" continuously. Each lineage of merit has its own secret that its founding teacher discovered; ours is centered on reaching the subtle Dhamma body, our true identity — the subtle arahant Dhamma body. He teaches us to determine this name-state by giving it focused, attentive contemplation, the way threading a needle demands focus at one exact point — zooming in on the word "Samma Arahang," word by word, staying with each present moment, without rushing, without pressure, reciting with a relaxed heart, open, spacious, empty, and at ease.

Let this ground of the heart be wholesome: relaxed, open, spacious, empty, at ease, clear, cool, pure, subtle, gentle, and soft — nothing but ease upon ease. Because "Samma Arahang" is the descriptive name of a Dhamma body that is pure, exalted, and good, replete with boundless wisdom, purity, and compassion — staying with him brings only comfort and ease, with no anxiety at all. "Samma Arahang" is the descriptive name (nemittika-nama) of the subtle arahant Dhamma body: one who practices rightly and well, far removed from every defilement and stain.

Form and Name Are a Pair: Speaking the Name Makes the Form Appear

He explains: when we utter a name, it is like calling someone — the person comes. When we speak his name, "Samma Arahang," the arahant Dhamma body appears bright and clear at the center of our heart. Form and name are always paired: wherever there is name, there is form; wherever there is form, there is name. When we speak the name, the form-state must appear — and it can appear nowhere but the heart, at its very center. Once he appears, he does not appear in vain; he expands, layering as one with us, dwelling within us, image after image rising and merging as one with us — clear, cool, pure, radiant, subtle, gentle, and soft. We are the Buddha image, the Buddha image is us; our entire being becomes clear like crystal, like diamond, of the subtle arahant Dhamma body.

We must therefore reaffirm our true identity again and again, because every time we do, our sense of oneness with the Dhamma body deepens, and our conviction and faith grow steadier.

An Actor's Technique: Putting On the Feeling of Being the Buddha Image

After reaffirming our true identity, we merge ourselves with him into one being. Even if we still feel dim, hazy, and dark, unable to perceive much, that isn't a real problem — it's perfectly normal. But we have a method: put on the feeling that we are the Buddha image, the Buddha image is us. This is a secret that actors themselves use. Whatever role an actor wants to play, they put on the feeling of being that thing — a wealthy person or a poor one, a king, a teacher, a father, a mother, a child, a grandparent, an elderly person, a beggar, a monk. They simply put on the feeling of being that thing. Once they do, their mind latches onto that role's mind, and that mind layers down — mind-within-mind, dharma-within-dharma, feeling-within-feeling, body-within-body of that role appears, layered in.

Nested Boxes Within Boxes: The Simile of the Inner Dimensions

Once our mind has layered together with the mind of the Buddha image, we gather the mind to stop, gather it to be still, into the center of the center — the center of our body and his body as one and the same position — the path leading straight toward Nibbana, straight toward the sense-base of Nibbana, into the center of the knowing ones of boundless power, uncountable as the sands.

He offers a key image here: **"To enter the center of the center of each successive dimension requires refinement — like stepping into a box that holds a smaller box inside it, layer after layer after layer, nested within, uncountable layers deep."** He stresses that this is a matter of going inward, layer after layer — not moving forward, backward, left, or right, but stopping and staying still, ever inward toward the center of the center: not left, not right, not forward, not back, not up, not down. It is stillness that relies on refinement to pass, layer by layer, deeper into the box.

He adds that the inner dimension is not literally a square box — it takes the form of a clear sphere, spheres nested within spheres, each finer than the last, smaller and finer without end, moving ever toward the center of the center. All it takes is making the heart refined, stopping, staying still, staying continuously aware without lapsing. This sphere of knowing is of the greatest importance.

The Sphere of Knowing Arises — The System Draws Us In Automatically

The moment the sphere of knowing, the sphere of mindfulness, arises, the sphere of not-knowing — ignorance — falls away. This arisen sphere of mindfulness draws in the pure energy called merit to flow continuously through the center of its own brightness, purifying the defilement that causes problems and obstacles in the many forms of hindrance, lightening the defilement proper to the dimension we currently inhabit. Once it lightens enough that our own refinement matches the next, subtler dimension, that dimension simply draws us in — everything happens automatically, as a self-operating system. Our role is only to determine our awareness continuously, without lapsing, knowing stillness and stopping with a heart that is subtle, gentle, soft, clear, cool, and pure.

The more refined our heart becomes, the clearer, brighter, subtler, more sacred, and more pure the stream of merit that flows through us becomes. The treasures carried within the brightness and purity of that sphere of merit become correspondingly refined and valuable. The more refined our dimension becomes, the more knowing and more powerful the guardian of that dimension becomes, helping us escape countless problems and obstacles in wondrous ways.

Dedicating Merit to Ancestors and Karmic Counterparties

As the stream of merit bubbles up continuously from our determining awareness without lapsing, let us dedicate this merit to our ancestors and relatives — recalling our parents, 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

With the merit dedicated, we cultivate loving-kindness for the benefit of 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 young child, forming it into a sphere in our heart, then aspiring: may all beings who share with us the suffering of birth, aging, sickness, and death be free from suffering and share in happiness. May those with much suffering have less, those with little suffering be entirely free of it, those with little happiness have more, and those already happy grow happier still.

As we make this aspiration, loving-kindness appears bright at the center of our heart, radiating through every pore of the body, every element, every particle of earth, water, wind, fire, space, and consciousness — all growing bright with the light of loving-kindness, whose quality can dissolve resentment and irritation entirely. We then extend this heart, filled with loving-kindness, to cover our home, our neighbors, our village, subdistrict, district, province, neighboring countries, until it embraces the whole world, making it a crystal world, radiant, clear, cool, and pure.

May all beings and the whole world be free from suffering and share in happiness — the earthbound devas, tree devas, sky devas, the heavenly beings of every level, the Brahma and formless Brahma realms, and beings in hell, as hungry ghosts, and as animals. We then extend this further into the atmosphere of the cosmos, embracing countless stars beyond number, extending further still through the ten thousand world-systems and the infinite cosmos. Whoever benefits the world and the cosmos may in turn make use of its treasures, as the Bodhisatta of old did, cultivating loving-kindness continuously until reaching the attainments of jhana; when his life ended he was born a Great Brahma, enjoying a very long life of bliss, and afterward was born again as a universal monarch, ruling the four continents so that people did not harm one another, free of war, established in virtue and goodness.

Resting Still in the Center of the Triple Gem and Nibbana

We then gather the mind to stop and be still at the center of this loving-kindness, radiant and boundless, with ourselves as the center point of the world and the cosmos. The stream of merit bubbles up continuously through the center of our heart. We rest the mind, stopped and still, in the center of the Triple Gem — the Buddha jewel, the Dhamma jewel, the Sangha jewel — the center of the subtle Dhamma body of our great teacher, still in the center of the subtle Dhamma body of Luang Pu, still in the center of the subtle Dhamma body of Luang Phor and Khun Yai Acharn. The heart is an accomplishing element — however we determine it, so it becomes. This belongs to the automatic workings of the wholesome system; we cannot presume to grasp it with our limited knowledge — we simply leave it to that automatic system. Our only duty is to determine our awareness.

We rest the mind, stopped and still, in the center of Nibbana pervading every element and every dharma, in the center of every Buddha, every Paccekabuddha, and every Arahant. Our entire being is bright, clear, and pure. We dwell in his center; he dwells in the brightness of ours. He then takes our seeing, remembering, thinking, and knowing, our earth, water, wind, fire, space, and consciousness elements, and refines them to clarity and purity, dissolving every stain of defilement, every form of suffering, sorrow, and misfortune.

He compares this to how, every day, we still need to wash the clothes we've worn and bathe the body we've used. The heart is no different — it must be brought to abide in the center of the knowing ones of great power, who can dispel its defilement. Never let the heart become a place where defilement simply accumulates, unaddressed, unpurified. Every new morning, we must wake determining our true identity, setting the automatic system so that the Dhamma body, our true self, arises by speaking the words "Samma Arahang, Samma Arahang," then merging ourselves with the Dhamma body as one.

Closing Aspiration

As we dwell within the center of the knowing ones of boundless power, uncountable as the sands, Phra Ajarn leads an aspiration for success to be established throughout our life, now and in all lives to come, along the entire path of building perfections — complete with knowledge, happiness, and purity, and the fulfillment of every righteous and good wish. May the merit, blessings, radiance, and decisive power of Nibbana pervading every element and dharma, together with the blessings of Luang Pu, Luang Phor, and Khun Yai Acharn, combine with the merit we ourselves have diligently accumulated since beginningless time into sacred, potent merit. May we be freed from misfortune, karmic results, demonic obstruction, and every obstacle in life; may greed, hatred, delusion, lust, ignorance, wrong view, craving, and clinging be extinguished without remainder; may we gain the eye that sees the Dhamma and penetrate the knowledge of the Dhamma body; may we enjoy strong health and boundless resolve as we build perfections toward the ultimate end of the Dhamma. He closes by asking that old wrongdoing be forgiven, that no new wrong be committed, and that all our accumulated merit bear fruit successfully for us all.