The Foundation of Right Mindfulness: From Ordinary Person to Noble One

Right Mindfulness, which leads to the development of Right Concentration, is this: "Monks, you should clearly know body, feeling, mind, and mental objects, in order to remove covetousness and grief regarding the world." This is the key sentence that turns an ordinary person into a good person, and a good person into a noble one — leading to liberation from every defilement and into a truly wondrous life. This single teaching carries immense benefit.

Monks, you must direct your attention. If you don't, some other force will direct it for you, and that brings no benefit at all — worse, it brings suffering, if that force happens to be unwholesome; and when we follow an unwholesome direction, a great deal of suffering results. So we direct our attention toward knowing clearly — knowing is mindfulness, knowing is clear comprehension — applied to body, feeling, mind, and mental objects, for the purpose of removing the world's covetousness and grief.

Covetousness and Grief Arise Through Contact at the Sense Doors

Covetousness (abhijjhā) is delight; grief (domanassa) is sorrow. We aim to remove the world's delight and sorrow — delight and sorrow tied to sights, tastes, smells, sounds, and touches. Whenever we perceive a form, we perceive it through eye, ear, nose, tongue, and body, reaching out to sights, tastes, smells, sounds, and touch — and all of this together makes up "the world." When delight or aversion arises in response, we need to stay grounded in equanimity.

Tatramajjhattatā: The Nature of a Balanced Mind

Equanimity here is a mental factor that arises together with wholesome consciousness, called tatramajjhattatā — a factor that sustains a state of equanimity, keeping the mind balanced and steady, unmoved by whatever stimulates it from within or without.

As Mindfulness Is Established, Ignorance Falls Away

When we practice clear, direct knowing — mindfulness together with clear comprehension — this takes the form of a bright, round, wholesome sphere. Once mindfulness is established, we become present to ourselves, staying with whatever we've set our attention on. If we're attending to the recitation and the visualized image, mindfulness comes to know these clearly. As mindfulness arises, the sphere of not-knowing — ignorance — falls away. Once established, mindfulness draws pure energy called merit to flow into the brightness at its center. This pure energy works together with the wholesome system to dissolve defilement — the root of every hindrance — gradually thinning it out.

As we stay with the visualized image, resting the mind at the center of the sphere or the Buddha image, we recite Samma-Arahang, counting: one, two, three, while the mind rests still at the center. Recite with a relaxed mind, open, easy, and at rest. The human body's only task here is simply to keep knowing — to stay aware without lapsing; everything else is handled by the wholesome system itself. We sit and receive the continuous stream of merit and treasure pouring in, whether we're aware of it or not — this stream of merit, treasure, and accomplishment flows in constantly, at every moment.

The Stream of Merit Seeps Into All Eighteen Bodies

All of this energy is stored in the sphere of Dhamma belonging to each of our bodies — from the human body, to the refined human body, the celestial body, the refined celestial body, the form-Brahma body, the refined form-Brahma body, the formless-Brahma body, the refined formless-Brahma body, and the Dhamma-bodies of the Stream-Enterer, Once-Returner, and Non-Returner, both coarse and refined. The stream of merit shines bright within the sphere of Dhamma of each and every body. Notice: cultivating this from the human body alone is enough to establish wholesome conditions that draw the stream of merit inward, so that all eighteen bodies shine bright with this stream at once. This merit is stored in the sphere of Dhamma of each body, and we simply sit and receive this stream, at ease, with a heart full of quiet joy.

Recite with a Joyful, Fulfilled Heart — Resting in Life's True Purpose

Recite with a relaxed mind, open and at ease — no rushing, no pushing yourself. Recite with a heart full of contentment and joy, because if we're doing this — receiving the stream of merit together with treasure — we have already reached the purpose of being born: to accumulate merit and build perfections. Right now, the stream of merit pours continuously through the center of our body and mind. Having reached this essential purpose of life, we now simply learn to rest within this state, with a relaxed and easy mind.

This pure element clears away the defilement that creates obstacles in practice. The subtle treasure carried within it is managed and directed by the universal-monarch principle at work in us, which draws worldly, tangible treasure toward our lives. In this period of ordination, let us gather as much merit as we can — using this subtle treasure to draw worldly treasure into our lives. Do this with a relaxed, easy heart; don't try too hard, or you'll end up strained, tense, and sore. Recite as if at play — light, easy, and continuously absorbed in the recitation of Samma-Arahang.

Radiating Loving-Kindness to Fellow Beings Across Every Realm of Birth, Aging, Sickness, and Death

Bring to mind love, loving-kindness, goodwill. Loving-kindness arises at the center of our heart — a bright mental factor filled with goodwill and love. Once established, it reveals its quality as goodwill, and we come to feel that goodwill toward ourselves and toward every being. This may feel unfamiliar at first, so we deliberately notice it, letting the love and goodwill of loving-kindness gradually soak in more and more, until the heart begins to expand — and we extend this goodwill to every fellow practitioner in this room.

Then we extend this loving-kindness-filled mind out to cover this whole place of practice, continuing outward to cover every mountain, extending to the district, the province, and neighboring provinces, continuing across the whole of Thailand — may the Thai people and all beings be free from suffering and share happiness together. Then we extend this mind further, to neighboring countries and every nation, until it covers the whole world, making it a crystal world, bright, cool, clean, and pure — for earth-dwelling devas, sky-dwelling devas, celestial beings of every heavenly realm, the Brahma gods, and also beings in hell, hungry ghosts, demons, and animals — every being who shares with us the condition of birth, aging, sickness, and death — may they all be free from suffering and share happiness together. Those with much suffering, may it lessen; those with little, may it end; those with little happiness, may it grow; those with much happiness already, may it grow even more.

Having made this wish, we extend this mind out into the vastness of the universe, covering countless stars across boundless world-systems, letting our loving-kindness shine and nourish every being, thing, and element without limit. Light from fire, moon, or sun casts a shadow — but the light of loving-kindness passes through every particle, inside and out, without casting any shadow at all, so that every particle everywhere becomes bright.

The Story of the Bodhisattva Who Cultivated Loving-Kindness and Became a Universal Monarch

Whoever benefits the world and the universe can, in turn, make use of the treasures of the world and the universe. This was true of the Bodhisattva in ages past: whenever he was born into the world, he diligently cultivated loving-kindness, just as we do now — cultivating it until he could attain the jhāna states. At the end of that life, he was reborn in the Brahma realm as a Great Brahma, enjoying long-lasting happiness there. When that life ended too, he was reborn once more in the human world, and this time attained the status of a Universal Monarch, using the treasures of the world and universe to benefit all beings. In that age, people were free from hardship in their livelihoods; no wars broke out; no one fought or competed viciously with one another.

So let us cultivate loving-kindness, resting still, for the benefit of all beings and all things. When we radiate loving-kindness, the beautiful brightness of that loving-kindness arising in the hearts of all beings dissolves the resentment and irritation within them. Wholesome states can then arise in their hearts, and once wholesome, those hearts naturally draw in pure energy for their own benefit.

The Dedication of Merit

Rest the mind, still, in the brightness of loving-kindness. The stream of merit pours in continuously within the sphere of loving-kindness. Rest the mind in the center of this bright, flowing stream, in the happiness and purity of this element. Rest in the center of the Buddha, Dhamma, and Sangha jewels; rest, still, in the finest, subtlest body of Dhamma of our Grand Masters and our Great Teacher. The mind is a wish-fulfilling element; however we set it, so it becomes. We appear bright at their center; they appear bright at ours; and both we and they appear bright at the center of Nibbāna, the center of the all-knowing, of boundless power.

It's no surprise that we shine along with them, since Nibbāna naturally holds all beings within it. Whatever beings stand in universal goodness, the stream of merit shines bright within their hearts too, and they appear bright at the center of Nibbāna, just as we do now. So let us use this auspicious moment to ask for blessings, setting our intention so that it may be fulfilled throughout our path of building perfections, both now and in every life to come — that our path be filled with wisdom, happiness, and purity, and every wholesome wish fulfilled.

We humbly ask for blessings — for the radiance, power, and unlimited authority of Nibbāna throughout every element and every dhamma, and for the blessings of our Grand Masters and teachers. May all this merit combine with the merit we ourselves have diligently accumulated since beginningless lifetimes up to the present, converging into sacred merit of boundless power — purifying our body, speech, and mind, and every element within us, until they shine bright, cool, clean, and pure. May we be freed from every misfortune and karmic obstruction in this life; may greed, hatred, delusion, lust, ignorance, wrong view, craving, and clinging be extinguished without remainder. May we gain the eye that sees the Dhamma, penetrating fully into the Dhammakaya teaching, complete with the Three Knowledges, the Eight Knowledges, the Six Higher Powers, the Four Analytical Insights, the Eight Liberations, and the Fifteen Conducts. May we enjoy strong health and long life, building merit and perfections throughout our lives, moving steadily toward the path to Nibbāna.

Wherever we travel, may we meet only good fortune and safety, loved by humans and devas alike, our wisdom shining bright with full understanding of the Buddha's teaching and the Dhammakaya knowledge. In whatever work we take up, may it flourish beyond expectation, granting us treasure fit for a universal monarch, inexhaustible, to be used in building great generosity without limit. When the time comes to leave this world, may we be born in the special merit realm of the Dusita heaven reserved for future Buddhas-to-be, and when we return to build perfections in the human world, may we be born into a family of right view, complete with the finest treasures, virtue, honor, and the path to Nibbāna, possessed of sacred merit able to recall past lives from birth, studying the Dhammakaya teaching faithfully alongside our Grand Masters from childhood until the end of this life.

May whatever unwholesome deeds we have committed by mistake across countless past lives never catch up with us, and be forgiven forever; may we commit no new unwholesome deeds of body, speech, or mind going forward. May all the merit we have accumulated combine and bear sacred, wondrous fruit continuously from this moment until the end of the Dhamma. May every one of these good wishes be fulfilled for all of us, from this moment onward, in every life, until we reach the end of the Dhamma, by the boundless power of the Lord Buddha in every one of his lifetimes. Sādhu.