The Benefit of Sitting: The Stream of Merit and Treasure, and Ever-Subtler Dimensions

What we gain from this practice is the stream of merit and treasure, and liberation into dimensions that grow ever more subtle. Whether we're aware of it or not, whether we see it or not, we can still sense a more refined state than before. Our feeling before sitting and after sitting will be different — different because the state we've entered is different.

What we must hold onto is the teaching the Lord Buddha gave more than 2,500 years ago: "Monks, you should clearly know body, feeling, mind, and mental objects, in order to remove covetousness and grief regarding the world." In other words, he taught the monks of his time that they must direct their own attention. If they don't, some other force will direct it for them, and that brings no benefit at all — if that force is unwholesome, it brings only suffering. When we follow an unwholesome direction, we accumulate a great deal of suffering.

The Foundation of Right Mindfulness: Knowing Body, Feeling, Mind, and Dhamma

He taught us to know clearly — knowing is mindfulness, clarity is comprehension. At first, mindfulness simply receives — it makes us present, aware, able to direct attention to this or that. But once we go into the details, mindfulness gives way to clear comprehension, which knows those details. He taught mindfulness and clear comprehension applied to body, feeling, mind, and mental objects. Knowing the body clearly means being present to it — knowing the breath, knowing our posture. This is knowing tied to the body.

The Three Kinds of Feeling, and How to Face Suffering

What's tied to the mind begins with feeling. Feeling has three kinds: pleasant, unpleasant, and neither-pleasant-nor-unpleasant. Whenever a wholesome state enters the mind, we feel happiness or ease — this happiness appears because a wholesome mind has taken up residence, and it reveals its own quality, which the feeling-aspect of the mind then registers. But whenever an unwholesome state enters, it reveals its quality as suffering — a state that must be endured, and endured with difficulty. Whenever we feel that hard-to-endure quality, we know an unwholesome state has taken up residence in our heart — and there's no need to be alarmed by that.

The Buddha taught that suffering only needs to be known clearly — that's enough; we don't need to thrash about over it. Suffering is its own thing; we are our own thing. When suffering arises, we simply note it clearly, and as we do, a sphere of knowing forms right over the sphere of suffering. That sphere of suffering may feel prolonged and intense, but whatever practice we're using, the suffering can still be worn away. Simply knowing the hard-to-endure state clearly is enough — because suffering is a very distinct state, it's actually easy to note clearly. Still, we may need to endure a little at first; patience (khanti) helps us bear it, and inner resolve (tapa) helps us endure suffering without being tormented by it, keeping us within a bearable range.

Most people flee from suffering when they meet it. The noble ones, however, face suffering directly, going all the way to the very end of that mass of suffering. As we face suffering by clearly knowing it, a sphere of knowing — mindfulness — forms, and once established, it draws in energy to cleanse the defilement at the root, gradually thinning it out. Since defilement exists in a finite quantity, the more we cleanse it, the less remains, until eventually it's gone. If there's a lot, it may take longer; if there's little, it takes less time — so we can't say exactly how long it will take, but one thing is certain: as we cleanse it, it steadily diminishes. If we never cleanse our suffering, once it accumulates fully it will cause real trouble — manifesting as illness or misfortune, which becomes very hard to control once it shows up in the outer world. We lose time, money, health, emotional balance, work, and so much more. So we go and face it directly, eye to eye, tooth for tooth — clearing the defilement, simply enduring a bit, by clearly knowing the suffering.

How Neutral Feeling Differs from Equanimity

The other kind of feeling is the neutral, indeterminate feeling (abyākata) — a flat, blank sense of "neither." This is different from the neutrality of equanimity (upekkhā). Equanimity's neutrality is one that neither favors nor resists — the mind stays balanced and steady, because equanimity is a bright, wholesome state. They differ at the root: equanimity's nature has a foundation of ease and comfort, while the flat neutrality of abyākata feels strangely blank — that's the key difference. When this blank, indeterminate feeling arises, we need to actively take up some object of meditation — the recitation, the visualized image, or the breath. That covers the aspect of feeling.

Mind, Initial and Sustained Thought, and the Arising of Rapture and One-Pointedness

The Buddha taught us to know the mind clearly — the mind being thought itself, thinking that can wander off into all sorts of things during meditation. There are 40 meditation subjects; we can bring one to reflect on, establishing it as initial thought (vitakka), and then sustained thought (vicāra) is the ongoing reflection and examination of it. As we take up an object, reflect and examine it, and know it clearly, the sphere of knowing draws in pure energy called merit to cleanse every defilement while we're engaged with the practice. As defilement thins out, the mind grows cleaner and purer, and as the mind senses that purity, rapture (pīti) arises. Rapture is the fruit of that sensed purity, and rapture in turn develops into happiness and one-pointedness (ekaggatā) — a state of unified, settled stillness.

Mental Objects, and the Ultimate Goal: Removing Covetousness and Grief Through Tatramajjhattatā

The fourth foundation, mental objects, covers the mental factors of wholesome states — the various conditions, wholesome and unwholesome, that arise in the mind. The Buddha had us clearly know whatever dhamma-states arise. This is the whole of body, feeling, mind, and mental objects — and what is it all for? To remove the world's covetousness and grief — the world's delight and sorrow. Delight breeds endless craving for more of the same; sorrow breeds aversion and unwanted resistance. So the Buddha taught us to let go of the world's delight and sorrow — the world meaning sights, tastes, smells, sounds, and touch, the five strands of sensuality — by resting in equanimity, a mental factor called tatramajjhattatā.

When we take up a meditation object, we must hold the mind neutral. As we do, tatramajjhattatā — a wholesome mental factor that arises together with wholesome consciousness already present — naturally reveals itself, and we simply recognize that neutral, equanimous nature. This is the whole content of Right Mindfulness — necessary to know and understand so that we can practice correctly. From there, we apply it appropriately to our recitation and visualization practice, making it easy to put into action.

Finding the Seventh Base, the Body's Center, Using Two Threads

Simply bring to mind the clear Buddha image or crystal sphere resting at the body's seventh base. Imagine two threads: one stretched taut vertically, running up through the navel; the other stretched taut horizontally, from right to left. Where the two threads cross forms a cross. Place your index and middle fingers together over that crossing point, then move up two finger-widths — that is called the center of the body. In truth, we simply rest the mind there. Even if we're not entirely sure of the exact location of the seventh base, the mind already knows it, because arising and passing away naturally happens there already. We simply direct the mind to settle at the seventh base, and it arrives there automatically.

This seventh base is the center-point shared by every body — the human body, the celestial body, the form-Brahma body — all share this same center. When we rest our attention at the seventh base, we are, in effect, attending to the sphere of Dhamma of every body at once, layered together at this single center — the very place where the sphere of merit of each body resides. As we settle here, the merit-spheres of every body align as one, and the stream of merit flows through the sphere of Dhamma of every body — from the subtlest, the Dhamma-body, flowing onward from the refined Dhamma-body to the Arahant Dhamma-body, from there into the sphere of Dhamma of the Non-Returner-fruition body, onward to the Non-Returner-path body, then to the Once-Returner, the Stream-Enterer, the form-Brahma and formless-Brahma bodies in sequence, down to the celestial body — all flowing through, one refinement after another.

Simply by knowing a single body as the basis, the stream of merit flows continuously through every body at once. Merit is stored within the sphere of Dhamma of each and every body. As we settle at the seventh base, we rest within the sphere of merit, within the sphere of Dhamma of every body, layered bright, one after another. The subtlest sphere of merit belongs to the Arahant Dhamma-body — every body, clean and pure. Rest the mind, still, at the seventh base, at the center of the sphere of Dhamma of every body, while reciting Samma-Arahang, counting: one, two, three — so that we can gauge how far our concentration has developed, and how long we're able to sustain it.

The Stream of Merit Flows Through Every Body, from the Human Body to the Arahant Dhamma-Body

This awareness helps us keep improving — otherwise, three, four, five, even ten years might pass, and when we check in, we may find we still can't sustain the practice for very long. So it's necessary to check in and track our progress, so we can keep developing. Recite with a mind that's open, spacious, light, cool, and at ease — no rushing, taking it slowly, relaxed and unhurried, enjoying it. Sit and continuously receive the stream of merit and treasure. Stay continuously aware, without lapsing — know what you know, staying with your practice continuously.

This act of directing attention is the essential task of the human body. We train it until it becomes second nature, because we must keep directing our attention whether our eyes are open or closed. Directing attention means establishing mindfulness, and as mindfulness is established, the drawing-in of pure energy happens continuously. We set our attention and then guard it from lapsing — doing so with a relaxed, open, easy mind, simply and comfortably.

Radiating Loving-Kindness to All Beings Across Every Realm, and the Story of the Bodhisattva

Once the mind is soft, still, and at ease, let loving-kindness arise at the center of the body. Loving-kindness is established — a bright, round, wholesome sphere — and it reveals its own quality as a feeling of goodwill, goodwill toward ourselves and toward all beings. Gradually learn to recognize this feeling of goodwill. As we soak in this love and goodwill more and more, we come to fully sense this complete quality of goodwill, until the heart expands, and we extend this loving-kindness-filled mind out to our fellow practitioners. May every one of our fellow practitioners find happiness, free from all suffering.

Then extend this loving-kindness-filled mind wider still, covering this place of practice, continuing on to cover every mountain, extending to the district, the province, and onward to neighboring countries and every nation, until it covers the world as 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. May all beings 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, extend this mind out into the vastness of the universe, covering countless stars across boundless world-systems, letting our loving-kindness extend without limit, benefiting every being, thing, and element, making them bright, cool, clean, and pure. The special quality of loving-kindness is its ability to dissolve resentment in the heart entirely. Once wholesomeness is firmly established in the hearts of beings, the drawing-in of pure energy naturally follows, bringing immense benefit to them all, without limit. Light from the moon or sun still casts a shadow, because it cannot pass fully through solid things — but the light of this Dhamma, the light of loving-kindness, can shine through every particle of every being and thing, making them bright, cool, and clean, without casting any shadow at all.

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: when he was born into the human world, he cultivated loving-kindness that greatly benefited the world and all beings. He cultivated it continuously until he could attain the jhāna states. When he closed his eyes and left that life behind, he was reborn in the Brahma realm, attaining the status of a Great Brahma, enjoying long-lasting happiness there. When that life ended, he was reborn once more in the human world, and this time attained the status of a Universal Monarch, able to use the treasures of the world and universe to greatly benefit all beings. People lived happily together, free from strife and bloodshed, as happy as the devas — all owing to the one who had cultivated loving-kindness. This is why we, too, cultivate loving-kindness together in this way.

The Dedication of Merit

Rest the mind, still, in the brightness of loving-kindness. The stream of merit pours continuously within this bright loving-kindness. May this pure element of merit shine and benefit all beings, things, and elements without limit. Rest the mind in the center of this stream of merit, in the happiness and purity at its center. Rest in the center of the Triple Gem, in the center of our great teachers — 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. Rest the mind, still, at the center of Nibbāna, throughout every element and every dhamma.

Nibbāna naturally holds all beings within it, protecting, watching over, and helping them continuously. Whatever beings stand in universal goodness, the element of brightness shines within their center too, just as it does for us 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 — 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, pure, and warm. 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.