A Half-Open Gaze Before Closing the Eyes: Clearing Defilement at the Threshold

Phra Ajarn Suraphong teaches that when we gently close our eyelids and feel dazed or drowsy, we should open our eyes again and keep them half-open, reciting "Samma Arahang" to clear the defilement waiting right at the threshold. If we go inward while still dazed and drowsy, we will drift off and fall asleep. So we need to keep our eyes half-open — this keeps us positioned between the inner and outer world. We do this meditation exercise first, to draw in continuous, unlapsing determination, letting the sphere of knowing bring in pure energy to thin the defilement to the point where, once we fully close our eyes, no daze or drowsiness remains, and we are ready to go inward.

Staying Continuously Aware Within: Determine, Then Understand

Once the eyes are closed, we enter the inner dimension. Even amid dimness and murkiness, we stay continuously aware within it. In this determining, know what you know — ask yourself what you are perceiving, what state is present before you, and then come to understand it. As we determine to know, the inner knower clarifies the dhamma state appearing before us. But if defilement — ignorance — is present, it obscures things with its concealing elements, and we cannot yet perceive that state clearly. That's fine; simply know that this is how it is, and keep determining, letting the sphere of knowing draw in pure energy to thin the defiling stains to the level where we can perceive the state before us. Mindfulness then shifts into clear comprehension, fully perceiving the various states appearing within.

The Buddha's Words: Eliminating Covetousness and Grief From the Six Senses

Stay continuously aware, without being pleased or displeased — this is the most essential point, the very goal of practice. As recorded in the Tipitaka, 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." He taught this with the purpose of eliminating covetousness and grief — gladness and sorrow, pleasure and displeasure — arising from form, taste, smell, sound, touch, and mental objects, the six things that make up "the world." Only these six things influence us, capable of making us glad or grief-stricken to the point of weeping and despair — all from gladness and sorrow alone. Since this is exactly what the unwholesome uses to dominate us, we must train ourselves not to be swayed by gladness or sorrow over anything in the world, and to carry that training into daily life.

Suffering From Defilement: Our Role Is Only to Determine

Understand that an unpleasant experience, or a state appearing before us that feels confusing, cramped, and tedious — putting us in a state that must be endured and is hard to endure, called suffering — arises because we have defilement. Once present, defilement performs its role of creating problems and obstacles, bringing hardship and suffering, forcing us into that state that must be endured. If we don't clear this defilement, it accumulates and eventually causes harm in our work and affairs. That is why we close our eyes to determine — but understand that our role is only to determine, to stay continuously aware, so the sphere of knowing draws in the pure energy called merit. This pure energy — not us — is what purifies the defilement.

The Sphere of Merit Holds Refined Treasures: Form, Wealth, and Virtue

Purity and defilement are opposites; wherever defilement exists, purity must come to cleanse it. But this purity called merit can only arise through the sphere of knowing, the wholesome sphere — round, clear, and bright — which arises through our own determining. As we determine, the sphere of knowing, mindfulness, is established in our heart, continuously drawing the pure energy called merit into the center of its brightness. Our role, beyond determining, also includes ongoing quality control — watching over the sphere of knowing to keep it continuously established.

This pure energy carries a sacred, pure nature, able to thin all defiling stains — suffering, grief, illness, and karmic results. Beyond that, at the center of this sphere of merit lies a full array of refined treasures: form, wealth, virtue, retinue, honor, praise, happiness, the path and fruit of nibbana, and the knowledge of the Dhamma body — all complete within it. When merit flows through us, these refined treasures flow through us too, and it is these treasures that draw in the world's shared treasures toward us.

Focus Like Threading a Needle: Attending to the Start, Middle, and End of Each Word

In determining to stay continuously aware, relying on the recitation "Samma Arahang" that our teachers compassionately taught, we must give it attention, focus, and reflection — focus the way one threads a needle, with only the eye of the needle and thread remaining, everything else utterly vanishing: the surroundings, trees, grass, houses, the moon, the sun, all disappear, leaving only the eye of the needle and the needle itself in that moment. Attend and reflect on "Samma Arahang" word by word, without rushing or hurrying. We don't need quantity — only focused perception of each single word, from its beginning, through its middle, to its ending sound.

The More Refined the Mind, the More Time Expands; the Coarser the Mind, the More Time Contracts

At first this may be a little hard to grasp, but once we give it real attention, our mind grows more refined, able to perceive the beginning, middle, and end of each word — and we begin to enjoy each word. This invites us to perceive, learn, and understand the refinement of the mind. As we perceive this very refinement, time itself seems to expand; but if we rush and hurry, time contracts. So let us gradually learn and understand, to refine our mind — time will expand accordingly. If our mind is coarse, time contracts. Recite with a relaxed, open, light, easeful mind. We need a right and good foundation, like planting a seed in soil rich with moisture and minerals suited to growth — cultivating this "Buddha field" likewise requires a relaxed, open, light, easeful foundation of wholesome mind.

Wearing the Feeling of the Noble Image: Determining the Whole Body as the Crystal Dhamma Body

"Samma Arahang" is the designated name of the subtle Dhamma body. When we utter his name, he appears at our center — one who practices well and rightly, far from the defilements. Once he appears, he does not appear in vain — he flows through and expands, overlaying as one with us, merging us with him without our even noticing. He arrives together with the stream of merit, the pure energy flowing in continuously, even while things remain dim and unclear; whether we perceive it or not doesn't matter.

We want to merge with him as one unity — we simply wear the feeling of being the noble image, the noble image being us, the way an actor imagining a role wears the feeling of being that role. Once we determine it, it appears in the heart; wearing that feeling, its qualities appear. As we wear the feeling of being him, our whole body becomes the radiant, cool, clean, pure crystal Dhamma body — head, forehead, eyes, neck, shoulders, both arms, chest, abdomen, back, hips, thighs, knees, shins, calves, and feet, all becoming the crystal Dhamma body, radiant, gentle, and soft.

The Great Teacher once said that reaching the inner Triple Gem, reaching the noble image, can be easy or hard: hard without knowledge and understanding, easy with them. The Dhamma body already exists within us — he is our true self. Our mind is an element that accomplishes: whatever we determine, so it becomes. Access ranges from 1% to 100%; take whatever level you reach for now — you needn't reach 100% at once. Let it gradually flourish and grow.

Stopping Within Stopping, Stillness Within Stillness: The Cakkavatti Center Toward Nibbana

Once our bodies are merged as one, let us merge our minds as one with his too. Whatever he thinks, whatever he does, we do the same — he stops and stills the mind, so do we, gathering the mind to stop and still at the center of the center, at what is called the "cakkavatti center" (universal-monarch center), where all the Dhamma bodies across all 18 kaya converge into a single center — the same center as the boundless, all-powerful knower: nibbana and the inner Triple Gem. We simply gather the mind to stop and still at the center of the center, the center of happiness, the center of purity, the center of knowing.

Stay continuously aware, dwelling with the dhamma state called mindfulness. We are the noble image; the noble image is us — merged with him as one unity. Stop within stopping, still within stillness, into the center of the center continually — this is the path leading straight toward nibbana. Simply gathering the mind to stop and still at the center of the center plunges us into the very center of nibbana, pervading every element, every dhamma. A stream of light appears at the center of every Buddha, every solitary Buddha, and every arahant — the boundless, all-powerful knowers. The boundless, radiant stream of merit flows through every sphere and every body — the sphere of dhamma, precept, concentration, wisdom, liberation, and the knowledge and vision of liberation — throughout our entire lineage of bodies.

Dedicating Merit to Ancestors and Karmic Counterparties

As this stream of merit flows continuously, we dedicate this merit to our ancestors — recalling our forebears, grandparents, relatives, 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 to benefit the world and all beings. The Great Teacher advised that when cultivating loving-kindness, we draw on the heart of a mother overflowing with love and compassion for her young child, establishing that heart at our center: 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 have none, those with little happiness have more, and those with much have ever more.

We then expand this loving-kindness-filled heart toward those dear to us, our home, our surroundings, our neighbors, 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. May the people of the world and all beings be free from suffering and find happiness — earth-bound devas, tree devas, sky devas, all the heavens, the Brahma and formless-Brahma realms, and even hell beings, hungry ghosts, and animals — then expanding further into the vastness of the cosmos, covering countless stars, spreading across the boundless galaxies.

He teaches that whoever benefits the world and the cosmos may make use of its treasures — as the Bodhisatta of old did, cultivating loving-kindness continuously until reaching jhāna attainments; at death he was reborn in the Brahma realm enjoying long-lasting bliss, then returned as a universal monarch, using the treasures of the world and cosmos to rule the four continents so that people need not struggle to earn their livelihood, dwelling in virtue, free from strife and war.

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.