Why We Must Determine Our Own Life

Phra Ajarn Suraphong opens by stressing that practicing the Dharma is of the utmost importance and necessity for every life, because we all live under a system of three natures, each competing to become master of the house, pressuring and steering us to act for its own benefit alone. We must therefore train ourselves to stand firm within the wholesome system. If we simply let things happen as they may — letting whichever nature seizes control guide us — our life becomes like driftwood floating on water, like a bird, like a crow, carried wherever the current takes it.

He teaches that this should not be so. We must become the one who directs and determines our own life, because since we can choose, we should choose what is best for our life.

Choosing the System That Will Care for Our Life

The first thing we must choose is the system that will support and care for our life — and we all already know that the wholesome system is the best system there is.

The Principle from the Tipitaka: Determining Awareness of Body, Feeling, Mind, and Dharma

To stand within the wholesome system, the Buddha taught: "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 sentence every time, so that it becomes etched into our hearts for life, because it is a sentence capable of turning ordinary people into wondrous beings.

Its essence: the Buddha taught that we must determine our own awareness. If we don't, some other nature will step in and determine it for us instead.

What Does It Mean to Determine? The Difference Between Mindfulness and Clear Comprehension

Determine what? To determine is to know — knowing is mindfulness (sati), knowing clearly is clear comprehension (sampajañña). The two differ in role, though both are states of knowing. Mindfulness knows only the bare point, nothing in detail; its purpose is simply to draw pure energy in to purify the defilement that keeps the coarser elements dim. Once that dimming lightens, the subtler nature of the wholesome can appear, and mindfulness automatically shifts into clear comprehension to perceive that subtler state.

To determine awareness is to recollect. When the wholesome arises, wholesome mind arises; when wholesome mind arises, self-awareness arises, and the heart merges with the body automatically, letting the stream of merit flow continuously. Once we can recollect self-awareness, we can go on to recollect anything at all — which is why our teachers instruct us to begin by reciting "Samma Arahang," to build our familiarity with determining awareness.

Reciting "Samma Arahang" with a Focused, Contemplative Heart

Determining awareness requires focus and contemplation, and can be refined further still — focusing and contemplating with a relaxed, light, open heart, reciting "Samma Arahang, Samma Arahang" syllable by syllable without lapsing. This is not parroting like a bird that knows nothing of itself; it is staying continuously aware, syllable by syllable, because we want the sphere of knowing to form. Even during a pause between words, we must know we are pausing — staying continuously aware, without lapsing.

He warns that if we are unaware during such a gap, the unwholesome will seize the opening we left unwatched, or the neutral nature (avyakata) will slip in instead. So we must stay continuously aware, training until it becomes second nature — reciting Samma Arahang syllable by syllable, again and again, until fluent.

Samma Arahang, the Descriptive Name of the Dhamma Body: The Buddha Image Appears in the Heart

"Samma Arahang" is a nemittika-nama — a name given according to a quality — belonging to the Dhamma body, describing one who practices rightly and well, far from every defilement. When we utter his name, he appears together with both form and quality: the form is the pure, radiant crystal Buddha image; the quality is the sphere of Dhamma dedicated to eliminating every defilement.

When we utter his name, he appears at the center of our body and heart. Once he appears, he does not appear in vain — he expands and settles as one with us, making our whole body bright, clear, and pure. Every syllable of recitation is another appearance of the Buddha image, layering deeper into oneness with our human body, merging us into a bright crystal Buddha image, because he is our true self — the Dhamma body.

Merging Body and Mind as One with the Buddha Image

He asks us to merge ourselves with him into a single unity, even if we cannot see him — by putting on the feeling that we are the Buddha image, that the Buddha image is us, just as an actor takes on a role: thinking of a certain type of person calls up that person's mental qualities, which then appear and express themselves at the heart. The heart knows whatever it knows, and once known, we can put on that feeling and the role naturally follows.

He leads us section by section: the head becomes pure, radiant crystal of the Dhamma body, crowned with a bright lotus-bud crest; the face becomes a serenely smiling countenance; the eyes become his eyes, closed gently; the neck, shoulders, both arms, belly, lower belly, back, hips, thighs, knees, shins, calves, and soles all become the radiant crystal Dhamma body — fine, soft, tender, clear, cool, clean, and pure.

Phra Dej Phra Khun Luang Phor taught that reaching the Buddha image can be as easy or as hard as one makes it: hard because of not knowing or understanding, easy because of knowing that the heart is an accomplishing element — however we determine it, so it becomes. We can determine anything, from the highest, the Buddha himself, to the lowest, unspoken. Whatever we can perceive — 1%, 2%, 5%, 10%, 20% — we take as our starting point, then gradually build it up, from 20% to 30, 40, 50, until it reaches the full hundred. The Buddha image is always ready to help us; it depends only on whether we give our full attention to merging into oneness with him.

Gathering the Mind to Stop and Be Still at the Body's Seventh Base

Once we have merged our body with his body into a single unity, we merge our heart with his heart the same way, by gathering the mind to stop, gathering it to be still. Whatever he does, we do the same: he gathers his mind to stop and be still, so we gather ours to stop and be still at the center of him, the center of the Buddha image, at the position of the body's seventh base. Even if we're unfamiliar with this position, that's fine — simply determine that it is at the center of the belly, and the mind settles there automatically, since the heart already knows this spot, having passed through it every time we are born, die, sleep, and wake.

This seventh base is the imperial center, where every body converges — the coarse and subtle human bodies, the celestial body, the Brahma and formless-Brahma bodies, the Gotrabhu, Sotapanna, Sakadagami, Anagami, and Arahat Dhamma bodies, coarse and subtle, path and fruit alike — all converging at this one position.

Sinking Deeper into the Sphere of Nibbana

He leads us to stop within stopping, be still within stillness, going ever deeper into the center of the center — not left, not right, not forward, not back, not up, not down — into the center of the center, to the finest point of all: the sphere of Nibbana (ayatana nibbana), the abode of countless Buddhas beyond calculation. Simply by gathering the mind to stop and be still at this finest center, brightness appears at the center of Nibbana, the center of the knower of boundless power.

We appear bright at his center; he appears bright at ours. When he appears bright within us, he refines our elements of seeing, remembering, thinking, knowing — earth, water, wind, fire, space, and consciousness — making them clear, clean, and pure, clearing away defilement and karmic obstruction, easing suffering, grief, and misfortune. He continues to smooth the path ahead so that our livelihood succeeds easily and yields its full reward, so that we may travel toward success with ease. He links us to a stream of merit and a stream of treasure: the stream of merit to dissolve problems and obstacles, the stream of treasure to draw the world's material wealth to us.

Dedicating Merit to Ancestors and Karmic Counterparts

As the stream of merit flows continuously through the center of our body and heart, 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 generate goodwill for the world and all beings, drawing on the heart of a mother's love for her own child. May all beings who share in birth, aging, sickness, and death be free from suffering and find happiness together: 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 then expand this heart, brimming with loving-kindness, to cover our home, then village, subdistrict, district, province, all of Thailand and its neighbors, until it becomes a radiant, clean, pure crystal sphere covering the whole world — further still 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.

Whoever benefits the world and the cosmos may in turn make use of its treasures, as the Bodhisatta of old did: born into this world, he practiced loving-kindness continuously until he attained jhana, and developed his meditative attainment until the end of his life, becoming a radiant Brahma enjoying immense happiness for an age, and when that life ended, he was reborn again as a human — this time attaining the status of a universal monarch, ruling the four continents with the world's treasures, so that his people lived by virtue, free from harming one another, with no wars fought over gain.

Closing Aspiration

In closing, Phra Ajarn leads an aspiration for success now and in all lives to come. 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, 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.