Eyes Open and Eyes Closed: Two Parts of Practice, Both Resting on the Triple Gem

Phra Ajarn Suraphong opens by explaining that practice has two parts: the part with eyes open and the part with eyes closed, and each matters in its own way. While we are carrying out our work and duties, we practice with eyes open to stay connected to the Triple Gem so they can watch over and help us. Otherwise we fall under the care of the neutral or unwholesome side, which will direct our thoughts, speech, and actions toward its own aims — the results will be poor, or at best neutral if it's the neutral side, but certainly bad if it's the unwholesome side.

But if we dwell in determining, dwelling within the wholesome system, that system will guide us instead. We come under the care of the Triple Gem and nibbana, who correct and help us so we can harvest success in astonishing ways. That is the importance of practicing with eyes open while we work. But once our duties are complete, we sit down and close our eyes to enter the refined inner dimension.

Entering the Refined Inner Dimension: Countless Dimensions Within

Closing our eyes draws in energy and shifts our dimension, which requires continuity to correct the root cause within, drawing in pure energy to purify defilement so we can be freed into ever more refined dimensions. The energy drawn in this way becomes purer, more sacred; the knowers and the powerful beings within become wiser and more capable of helping us. Even if things remain dim and murky, that is not the real issue, because within us lie countless, immeasurable dimensions. Simply by closing our eyelids and determining to know, pure energy enters to purify defilement, freeing us from one dimension into the next, even if we still don't feel it in our body. Just by determining to know, the purification happens on its own; once one dimension is purified we're freed into a new one. Even while things remain dim and murky, we are not standing still — we are changing continuously.

Two Different Paths: The Wholesome Lifts Us Up, the Unwholesome Drags Us Down Unnoticed

Conversely, if we create the causes of unwholesome kamma — greed, hatred, or delusion — the sinful side draws in sinful energy. We fall into a state that is hard to endure, pressed down lower and lower without even realizing we're declining. A dull, clouded feeling arises — the heart grows dull, and even the face begins to look dull. This is the result of the sinful sphere being pressed down layer by layer without our awareness. He compares the wholesome and unwholesome to a pendulum swinging within a normal range — not lower, not higher than that range.

The Exam-Score Analogy: Grades from 10% to 100%, Depending on Effort and Defilement

He offers this comparison: it's like being a first-grade student facing an exam. Some score 10%, some 20%, 30%, 40%, 50%, 60%, 70%, 80%, 90%, all the way to 100% — many possible levels, depending on how much or how little we studied during that period, how lazy or diligent we were, and how much or how little defilement we carried. Less defilement means more diligence; more defilement means less diligence, and the exam results differ accordingly. Practice works the same way — each session's result falls somewhere on this range.

Leveling Up From One Grade to the Next: Why It Takes a 3-, 5-, or 7-Day Retreat

But if we want to level up — moving from grade one to a higher grade, say from first grade to second grade — we need to travel for practice beyond our usual routine: going on a continuous 3-, 5-, or 7-day retreat to train intensively. Wanting to shift dimension requires a suitable environment and continuity in reciting "Samma Arahang" while cultivating right mindfulness. The specific techniques are for our teachers to advise as they see fit for each person, but we also need to know the principle the Buddha himself taught.

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

He cites the recorded teaching in the Tipitaka: "Bhikkhus, you should clearly determine body, feeling, mind, and dhamma, in order to eliminate the world's covetousness and grief." In every era this was taught to monks, not to laypeople — the message being that the monks must determine. If we do not determine, some other nature will step in to direct us instead. Whatever we want, we must determine it; making an aspiration is itself a form of determining. But this determining is meant to be put into practice — what do we determine? We determine to know. Knowing is mindfulness (sati); knowing is clear comprehension (sampajañña).

Knowing Is Mindfulness, Knowing Is Clear Comprehension: Word by Word, Never Rushing

Mindfulness is the recollection that comes before the mind settles with the body; from there we recollect what we intend to know — knowing the body, feeling, mind, and dhamma, which is simply knowing body and heart: the physical sensations, the breath, the posture, pleasure, pain, or neutral feeling, or whatever thoughts arise, including staying with the recitation. This bare mindfulness cannot yet reach the details of the state, because the obscuring elements of ignorance still cover it. We need to determine and know so that our sphere of knowing draws in the pure energy called merit to purify the obscuring defilement. Once it thins to a certain degree, the subtle dhamma state appears on its own, and mindfulness shifts into clear comprehension to fully perceive that refined state.

He teaches us to recite "Samma Arahang" with full interest, attention, and focus. Applied thought (vitakka) is raising the recitation and holding it in mind; sustained thought (vicāra) is reflecting on it. When we apply and sustain thought with continuous effort, rapture arises naturally in due course. Recite word by word, with a relaxed mind — open, spacious, light, and at ease — never rushing, never pushing.

Poor Experience Is a Sign That Defilement Remains: Resting the Mind in Balance

This sphere of knowing — mindfulness — continuously draws in the pure energy called merit, flowing into the center of its brightness. This pure energy purifies the defilement that causes problems and obstacles in the many forms of hindrance. Even in practice itself, defilement remains, and it does its job of creating hardship and difficulty. When we experience hardship, let us understand that defilement is still present. Our role is only to determine and know, letting the sphere of knowing draw in pure energy to purify it on its own — so there is no need to feel sad about it or take pleasure or displeasure in it. Keep the mind neutral. A poor experience is simply an indicator that defilement is present, and purity alone can purify it, until it thins. As defilement thins, problems and obstacles thin too, and hardship eases; ease and comfort gradually appear on their own.

The Stream of Merit Carries Subtle Treasures: Drawing In Old Merit to Purify Defilement

As we stay continuously aware without lapsing, besides the stream of merit flowing in to purify our defiling stains, each sphere of merit also contains subtle treasures — treasures of form, of wealth, of virtue, of retinue, of fortune, fame, praise, and happiness, of the path and fruit of nibbana, and of the knowledge of the Dhamma body — all complete within each sphere of merit. When merit flows through us, these subtle treasures flow through us too, and it is these subtle treasures that draw the coarser treasures of the world toward us. New merit also draws in and attracts old merit, together purifying our defiling stains, our karmic results, and life's many obstacles, including illness — merit helps correct them all.

"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, our true self — one who practices well and rightly, far from all defilements. When we utter his name, he appears at the center of our heart — not in vain, for he expands, overlaying and becoming one with us, so that our whole body becomes the radiant, cool, clean, pure crystal Dhamma body. This Dhamma body is our true self; we merge with him as one unity. We are the noble image; the noble image is us.

Even while things remain dim and murky, what helps is wearing the feeling of being the noble image, the way an actor takes on a role. Simply determining that state, its mental factors appear in the heart — the heart is our instrument of knowing; whatever it knows, that is what we know. He guides perception through the whole body — 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.

Perceive as Much as You Can: From 1% to 100%

As the Great Teacher used to say, reaching the Dhamma body can be hard or easy — hard because we don't know or understand, easy because we do, since the mind is an element that accomplishes whatever is determined. Access ranges from 1% to 100%; whatever we can perceive, take that for now as a starting capital, and let it gradually grow through repeated determining, from 1% to 2%, to 5%, 10%, 20%, 30%, all the way to 100%.

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

Once our bodies are merged as one, we merge our minds with his as well. 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.

Stop within stopping, still within stillness, into the center of the center. Every time we gather the mind to stop and still, an openness expands — not tight or cramped, but light, cool, clean, and pure. This is the middle path leading straight to nibbana. This seventh-base center is the same center shared by every body — coarse, refined, celestial, Brahma, formless-Brahma, and the Dhamma bodies of stream-enterer, once-returner, non-returner, and arahant — all the way to nibbana. When we stop and still into the center of the center, aimed straight at the path to nibbana, we appear radiant within nibbana, within the countless knowers of boundless power.

Dedicating Merit to Ancestors and Karmic Counterparties

Throughout the time our sphere of knowing is established, the stream of merit is continuously drawn into the center of its brightness. As this stream of merit flows through us without pause, 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 for the benefit of the world and all beings. The Great Teacher advised that every time we cultivate loving-kindness, we should draw on a mother's heart of love and goodwill toward her beloved child, establishing it within our own heart. Then we make the aspiration: 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.