Why We Practice: Three Natures Competing for Our Heart

Phra Ajarn Suraphong opens by stressing that Dhamma practice is essential and necessary for every life, because we are all under the control of three natures — wholesome, unwholesome, and neutral — competing to seize our heart every single moment without pause. Whichever nature wins that moment directs us toward its own aims. Except for the wholesome side, none of them brings us any real benefit; worse, if the unwholesome side wins, it creates suffering, danger, and hardship.

We therefore need to learn and understand these natures — which cause harm and which bring benefit — so we can train ourselves to dwell within the wholesome system, both with eyes open and eyes closed. If we fail to stay within it, another system can intrude and mislead us into mistakes, creating problems and obstacles that turn what should be easy into something hard. That is entirely the result of dwelling in the wrong system.

The Buddha's Words: Know Body, Feeling, Mind, and Dhamma to Eliminate Covetousness and Grief

He cites the Buddha's teaching: as long as the Noble Eightfold Path still exists, noble beings still exist in the world. The clearest guiding factor within it is right mindfulness (samma sati), the foundation of concentration and a cause of right view. The Buddha taught the monks: "Bhikkhus, you should clearly determine body, feeling, mind, and dhamma, in order to eliminate the world's covetousness and grief."

If we do not determine for ourselves, some other nature will pressure and direct us to determine instead, serving only its own aims. If the unwholesome side directs us, it will always mislead us, because its goal is to destroy our life. But the wholesome system, when we dwell within it, directs us toward what is beneficial — and its guidance appears within our own heart, like an inner voice that feels like our own thought.

Knowing Is Mindfulness, Clarity Is Clear Comprehension: Determine Only What Is Asked

What do we determine? We determine with clear knowing. Knowing is mindfulness (sati); clarity is clear comprehension (sampajañña). They differ: mindfulness at the basic level knows only the topic — the bare heading — of what we are determining. Once determined, we need to give it attention and time so the details can follow.

As we determine, this sphere of knowing — mindfulness — draws in pure energy to purify the defiling stains of ignorance (avijjā), the obscuring elements covering the subtle dhamma states. As these thin out, the subtle states appear, and mindfulness automatically shifts into clear comprehension, taking us into ever more refined inner dimensions — countless in number. All we need to do is give time to the determining, staying continuously aware without lapsing.

Focus Like Threading a Needle: The Recitation Technique

Our teachers advise us to recite "Samma Arahang" to make it familiar on the tongue and in the heart at first. But in this recitation we must give it our full attention, focus, and reflection, again and again — focus like threading a needle. Threading a needle leaves only the eye of the needle and the thread; the whole world disappears, and only what we focus on remains. The recitation is the same: stay with each word, one word at a time, without drifting to even the recent past — each word is a fresh present moment. We are freed from the past by dwelling in each new present. Recite with a relaxed mind, without rushing or pushing.

Watch for the Pressure to Rush: The Signal of the Unwholesome Intruding

He warns that whenever we feel pressured or rushed, that is the unwholesome system intruding, seizing brief moments to pressure us — like sparks flickering in, sending a surge of urgency without our even noticing, even while we are reciting Samma Arahang. We must therefore dwell on a foundation of relaxation — open, spacious, light, and at ease — doing everything gently and gradually.

Mindfulness is like the Buddha-nature dwelling in the heart; the recitation is like the water that nourishes mindfulness to grow, on soil that is our relaxed, open, light foundation, rich with the minerals that let this "Buddha field" flourish within us.

"Samma Arahang": The Name of the Subtle Dhamma Body and Wearing the Feeling of the Noble Image

"Samma Arahang" is the designated name of the subtle Dhamma body — one who practices well and rightly, far from the defilements, utterly pure and complete. When we utter his name, he appears at the center of our heart. Form and name are paired: when we speak the name, the form appears — and not in vain, for he expands, overlaying and becoming one with us, until our whole body becomes the radiant, cool, clean, pure crystal Dhamma body. We are the noble image; the noble image is us.

In merging with him, even while things remain dim and unclear, what helps is "wearing the feeling" of being the noble image — the way an actor takes on a role. Whatever we wear the feeling of, its mental factors appear: body within body, feeling within feeling, mind within mind, dhamma within dhamma, guiding our thoughts and feelings continuously, letting us play the part convincingly. Simply determining the qualities of that state changes our goal and outlook, and a system of purity and completeness appears.

Perceive as Much as You Can: Determining the Whole Body as the Crystal Dhamma Body

He guides perception part by part — head, face, eyes, neck, shoulders, both arms, chest, abdomen, back, hips, thighs, knees, shins, calves, feet — all becoming the crystal Dhamma body, radiant, gentle, and soft. Dwelling with him brings ease, comfort, and vitality; his qualities flow into us and into our heart.

Access to the Dhamma body, as the Great Teacher always said, ranges from 1% to 100%. Perceive whatever you can and take that for now — it will gradually grow through repeated determining, because the mind is an element that accomplishes whatever is determined.

The Automatic System of the Dhamma Body: Purifying Defilement, Connecting to Nibbana

Once we merge our body with his as one, the automatic system of the Dhamma body appears at our center, refining and eliminating the defiling stains — connecting with countless nibbana states layered together to correct us, drawing in the pure energy called merit to eliminate the obscuring elements of ignorance and resolve the problems and obstacles that cause hardship.

Our role is only to determine and stay continuously aware, without lapsing. All defilement arises from dwelling in the wrong system, the unwholesome system. Stay aware continuously with the noble image: we are the noble image, the noble image is us, our whole body the radiant, cool, clean, pure crystal Dhamma body.

Stopping Within Stopping, Stillness Within Stillness: The Seventh Base and the Path to Nibbana

Once our bodies are merged, we merge our minds as one with his. Whatever he does, we do the same: he gathers, stops, and stills the mind at the center of the body, so do we, at the same center — the seventh base, at the center of the body and abdomen, where all the bodies converge. Even if we can't pinpoint the exact spot, our mind already arises and passes there naturally, waking and sleeping.

Stop within stopping, still within stillness, into the center of the center. Every time we gather the mind to stop and still, an openness and spaciousness expands — not tight or cramped, but light, cool, clean, and pure. This is the middle path leading straight to nibbana. Stopping and stilling the mind at the center of the center is, in itself, an automatic journey toward nibbana; we grow ever more refined simply by stopping and stilling.

Dwelling With Him in Every Activity: A Life That Should Be Easy, Not Hard

Human life, he teaches, should proceed with ease, harvesting its successes simply — it should never have to be so hard. Human capability is limited; we cannot outmatch the unwholesome on our own, like a child who doesn't yet know the language. So we must dwell with him, letting him protect and support us, merging with him as one unity in every activity. He will guide us toward what is right and good, so problems and obstacles need not arise. There should be no crisis in life if we dwell within the system of the Triple Gem and nibbana, with a relaxed, open, light, and easeful mind — never rushing, always aware, never lapsing.

Dedicating Merit to Ancestors and Karmic Counterparties

Dwelling within the Triple Gem, gathering the mind to stop and still within the continuously flowing stream of merit, we dedicate this merit to our ancestors — recalling our parents, siblings, grandparents, our benefactor teachers, 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 with all equally.

Radiating Loving-Kindness Across the World and the Cosmos

Once the merit is dedicated, we cultivate loving-kindness. The Great Teacher advised us to draw on a mother's heart of love and goodwill toward her beloved child: may all beings, our fellow travelers in birth, aging, sickness, and death, be free from suffering and find happiness — may those with much suffering have less, those with little suffering have none, those with little happiness have more, and those with much have ever more.

We then expand this loving-kindness-filled heart to cover our home, spreading through village, subdistrict, district, province, the whole country, neighboring countries, and finally the whole world, until it becomes a radiant, clean, pure crystal sphere — reaching earth-bound devas, tree devas, sky devas, all the heavens, the Brahma and formless-Brahma realms, and even hell beings, hungry ghosts, and animals — expanding further across the countless stars and galaxies of the boundless cosmos.

He teaches that whoever benefits the world and the cosmos may make use of its treasures — as the Bodhisatta of old did, practicing loving-kindness continuously until the end of life, becoming a Brahma enjoying long-lasting bliss, then a universal monarch ruling the four continents in peace, free from mutual violence.

Closing Aspiration

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 nibbana. He closes by asking that old wrongdoing be forgiven, and that new merit bear fruit successfully for us all.