พระอาจารย์สุรพงค์อธิบายสีของดวงธรรมแต่ละประเภทที่ตั้งขึ้นในใจ ดวงกุศลเป็นดวงกลมใสสว่าง ดวงอกุศลเป็นดวงดำมืดมิด ส่วนดวงอัพยากตะนั้นไม่ใสไม่สว่างไม่ดำ แต่เป็นสีเทาอย่างสีตะกั่ว ซึ่งบางครั้งยังพอสะท้อนแสงได้บ้าง ต่างจากอีกแบบที่ทึบจนไม่สะท้อนแสงเลย ท่านสอนหลักการกำหนดรู้ตามพระไตรปิฎก ก่อนนำเข้าสู่การนั่งสมาธิ หลอมรวมกับองค์พระ อุทิศส่วนบุญ และแผ่เมตตาทั่วโลกและจักรวาลPhra Ajarn Suraphong describes the color of each kind of sphere that arises in the heart: the wholesome sphere is a clear, bright, round orb; the unwholesome sphere is a dark, black orb; the neutral (avyakata) sphere is neither clear, bright, nor black, but gray like lead — one shade of which still faintly reflects light, unlike the duller shade that reflects none at all. He teaches the principle of determining awareness from the Tipitaka, before leading the full sitting: merging with the Buddha image, dedicating merit, and radiating loving-kindness across the world and cosmos.
Phra Ajarn Suraphong opens by explaining that practice is of the utmost importance for every life, because it connects us to system, letting something sacred take up residence as the ruler of our heart, so that it can guide and help us. Not every thought is truly our own — all are guided by one of the three natures. Practice connects us to the wholesome system so that pure energy, together with subtle treasure, can flow through us, which is necessary for refining our elements toward ever subtler dimensions. This inner standing is our true standing; outer standing is merely its result.
The Principle from the Tipitaka: Determine Clear Awareness of Body, Feeling, Mind, and Dharma
The Buddha taught the practice of remaining in the wholesome system through cultivating : "Monks, you should determine clear awareness of body, feeling, mind, and dharma, in order to eliminate covetousness and grief toward the world." Phra Ajarn says he must repeat this teaching again and again until it is fixed in our hearts, because the more we repeat it, the more we come to realize it — and the stream of merit flows in to purify the defilement, the obscuring element, thinning it out.
Every Step Requires Determining
The Buddha taught that monks must determine — it cannot happen on its own. Every step of practice requires determining: from determining awareness until self-awareness arises, then determining the meditation object, determining that we pay attention, focus, and contemplate, determining that we recite with a relaxed heart. Every step depends on determining. The more wisdom we have, the more finely we can determine, making each process flow easily. Each act of determining unlocks one process and leads into the next, until we reach the automatic workings of the wholesome system.
Consciousness Is the Heart, the Heart Is Consciousness: Wherever Knowing Is, There the Heart Is
He explains that determining means determining to know: knowing is , knowing clearly is . Mindfulness is recollection — we must recollect first before we can know what to know. Once we place the recitation into the heart and focus on it, we enter the dimension of the heart. The dimension of knowing is the dimension of the heart — wherever knowing is, there the heart is. Consciousness is the knowing element; consciousness is the heart, the heart is consciousness. Feeling, perception, mental formations, and consciousness together are called the heart. Consciousness can only perceive through the sense bases — eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, mind.
The Foundational Equanimity: The Tatramajjhattata Factor
He warns that whoever pressures us to hurry during recitation is , trying to unbalance us. We need not stay attached to approval or disapproval, delight or distress. The heart balances through a born together with a wholesome mind, resembling equanimity but not yet true equanimity — the tatramajjhattata — which later connects to and develops into true equanimity.
Lead-Gray: The Neutral Sphere and the Two Shades of Reflection
Phra Ajarn explains that "" is the descriptive name of the Arahat body. When we utter his name, he appears; every dharma appears at the heart, because the inner world is the world of dharma — wholesome, unwholesome, and neutral all arise only at the heart, nowhere else. He describes the appearance of each: the wholesome dharma is a clear, bright, round orb; the unwholesome dharma is a dark, black orb; but the sphere that is the neutral (avyakata) dharma is neither clear, nor bright, nor black — it is gray, like the color of lead. On the surface it can sometimes still faintly reflect light, but there is another kind that is so dull it reflects no light at all, with no shine whatsoever. When the wholesome sphere arises in the heart, the heart itself becomes correspondingly clear and bright.
The Automatic Process That Purifies Defilement Like Sun Burning Off a Cloud
When the wholesome dharma arises, an automatic inner process draws in merit to purify and eliminate all defilement, lightening it — like a black cloud in the sky burned away by sunlight until it thins and vanishes. The unwholesome sphere, dark and black, can arise only when the unwholesome nature possesses the mind. When it does, the heart is sealed shut, sinking to the depths, drawing in the energy of demerit — a state of suffering and misfortune — into the center of that dark sphere. This presses the inner dimension down; the heart becomes coarse, hardened, and clouded, and our thoughts, words, and deeds follow the guidance of the unwholesome.
Life's Resources Should Serve the Accumulation of Merit
He explains that the neutral nature guides us toward idle pleasure-seeking, finding no real substance in life, spending our precious time and resources carelessly on things that bring no benefit. Even if such things cause no direct harm, they still waste our wealth. A virtuous, cultured person understands that time, wealth, and the strength and freshness of body and mind exist for the accumulation of merit — because merit alone serves as the true currency for living through the cycle of birth and death.
The Buddha Image Appears at the Center of the Heart: Merging Through the Actor's Technique
When we determine "Samma Arahang," the Buddha image within the sphere of dharma, together with his qualities, appears at the center of our body and heart. Once he appears, he does not appear in vain — he continues to expand, layering as one with us. We use the actor's technique to merge with him, even while things remain dim and hazy. When we recall a certain kind of person, the mental factors of that person appear at the heart and display their qualities; the heart knows what it knows, and so we can put on the feeling that we are the Buddha image, that the Buddha image is us.
Merging Body and Mind as One with the Buddha Image
Let our entire body — head, face, cheeks, shoulders, arms, torso — become the radiant, pure, clear crystal Dhamma body. The head becomes bright, pure crystal, crowned with a radiant lotus-bud crest; the face becomes his face, eyes closed gently, with a serenely smiling countenance. Phra Dej Phra Khun Luang Phor taught that reaching ranges from easy to hard — easy for those who know and understand, hard for those who don't, because the heart is already an accomplishing element: however we think, so it becomes. Reaching it ranges from 1% to 100%; whatever we reach, we take as our starting point, a foundation to develop and build upon further.
Gathering the Mind to Stop and Be Still at the Body's Seventh Base
Once our body has merged as one with his, merge the heart as well — whatever he does, we do the same. He gathers his mind to stop, to be still, cultivating ceson-attainment; we gather our mind to stop, to be still, at the center of the Buddha image, the center of our body, at — the meeting point of every body: the coarse and subtle human bodies, the celestial body, the Brahma and formless-Brahma bodies, and the Gotrabhu, Sotapanna, Sakadagami, Anagami, and Arahat Dhamma bodies — all sharing this one center, each a different "version" of our true self. As we gather the mind to stop and be still, moving directly toward Nibbana, we appear bright and clear at the center of every Buddha, every Silent Buddha, and every Arahant.
Dedicating Merit to Ancestors and Karmic Counterparts
As we abide at the center of Nibbana, the stream of merit and treasure flows continuously. Let us dedicate this merit to our ancestors — recalling our parents, siblings, 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 counterparts (khu kam khu wen) — asking that we forgive one another and share equally in this merit.
Radiating Loving-Kindness Across the World and the Cosmos
Once merit is dedicated, we set our heart on for the world and all beings: may they be free of suffering and find ; may those with much suffering have less, those with little suffering have none, those with little happiness have more, and those with much happiness have ever more. We expand this loving heart to cover our home, village, subdistrict, district, province, and neighboring countries, until it covers the whole world as a radiant, clean, pure crystal sphere — then further, to earthbound devas, tree devas, sky devas, the heavenly beings of every level, Brahma and formless Brahma realms, even beings in hell, as hungry ghosts, and as animals — and further still, across the countless stars and galaxies of the boundless cosmos, as the Bodhisatta of old did, practicing loving-kindness until the end of his life, becoming a companion of Great Brahma, then a universal monarch ruling the four continents, whose people lived by , free of harm and war.
Closing Aspiration
Phra Ajarn leads an aspiration for success, that our path of building perfections be complete with , happiness, and . May the merit of our teachers and our own accumulated goodness combine into sacred, potent merit; may we be freed from misfortune, karmic results, demonic obstruction, and every obstacle; may greed, hatred, delusion, lust, , 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.