คำสอน · พระอาจารย์สุรพงค์Teaching · Pra Ajarn Suraphong
กุศลธรรมนำเราไปเก็บซ่อนไว้ในที่ปลอดภัย: รู้ดีรู้ชั่วอย่างเดียวไม่พอThe Wholesome System Tucks Us Away Somewhere Safe: Why Knowing Right From Wrong Alone Isn't Enough
พระอาจารย์สุรพงค์สอนว่าการรู้ดีรู้ชั่วเพียงอย่างเดียวไม่อาจปกป้องเราจากอกุศลได้ มีแต่การดำรงอยู่ในระบบกุศลธรรมเท่านั้นที่จะนำเราไปเก็บซ่อนไว้ในที่ปลอดภัย ท่านอธิบายพระพุทธพจน์ว่าด้วยการกำหนดรู้กายเวทนาจิตธรรม การเลือกกรรมฐานที่มีสัญญาณชัดเจน และแบบอย่างของพระโพธิสัตว์ผู้เจริญเมตตาธรรมจนได้เป็นท้าวมหาพรหมและพระเจ้าจักรพรรดิ ก่อนนำเข้าสู่การแผ่เมตตาและอธิษฐานจิตปิดท้ายPhra Ajarn Suraphong teaches that merely knowing right from wrong cannot protect us from the unwholesome nature -- only dwelling within the wholesome system can carry us off and tuck us away somewhere truly safe. He unpacks the Buddha's teaching on determining to know body, feeling, mind, and Dhamma, explains how to choose a meditation object with a clear signal, and recounts how the Bodhisatta's cultivation of loving-kindness carried him to the Brahma realm and then to the throne of a Universal Monarch, before leading into the radiation of loving-kindness and the closing aspiration.
Practicing Dhamma: As Necessary as Food, as Medicine
Phra Ajarn Suraphong opened the sitting by explaining that practicing is necessary and essential for every life. It is like food, like medicine that cures illness, like wealth and money, like the path that brings wealth and money, the path to a good and comfortable living, the path to strong health, the path to , success, and the fulfillment of one's wishes. Being all of this, how could it not be called essential? To practice Dhamma is to dwell within system. We must depend on this wholesome system, because people who do not know this natural system are wrongly led by and the neutral natures into doing things that bring them no benefit at all -- and worse, bring them harm, if that system happens to be the unwholesome one. It creates a great deal of suffering and danger, and we cannot reach happiness and prosperity through it. So we need to learn and understand the wholesome system, and practice in a way that accords with it.
Knowing Right From Wrong Still Doesn't Save You -- Only the Wholesome System Can Tuck You Away Somewhere Safe
The Fully Enlightened Buddha taught about the importance of this natural system: even if we already know everything about right and wrong, we still cannot escape the unwholesome nature's pressure and coercion to act wrongly -- even knowing it is wrong, we still find ourselves forced to do it. That is why we must be mindful and train ourselves to dwell within the wholesome system, to become pure and free from the defilements that cloud the heart, entering ever subtler dimensions. The farther we get from what is defiled, the more we get tucked away, protected, cared for, and looked after by the wholesome system.
He stressed: simply knowing what is good and what is bad does not save us, because that alone is not what the wholesome system uses to carry us off and hide us somewhere safe. It is dwelling within the wholesome system itself that causes the wholesome system to carry us off and tuck us away in a safe place -- this is the very heart of the matter. Otherwise, we may know good, we may know bad, and still end up walking straight into the traps that the defilements have laid for us, because we haven't let the wholesome system's own hands carry us clear of them. But if we train ourselves to dwell within the wholesome system, that system will take us and tuck us away somewhere safe, and will also help us in our right livelihood and in caring for our family so that it lives in comfort and peace. Such a suitable dwelling place does exist, and we need to keep doing what brings us there -- namely, dwelling within body and mind together with , a truly supportive tool.
The Buddha's Core Teaching: Determine to Know Clearly Body, Feeling, Mind, and Dhamma
The essence of this practice lies in a single sentence: "Monks, you should determine to know clearly the body, feelings, mind, and mental objects, in order to eliminate covetousness and grief regarding the world." Phra Ajarn must repeat this sentence again and again every time, so that we become familiar with these essential words -- words that can turn an ordinary person into a virtuous one, a virtuous person into a good and admirable one, and a good and admirable person into a noble one. All from this one single sentence.
To "determine" means to mark, to specify, to pinpoint. Wherever in the body we pinpoint, we go there to know it, to be aware of it, staying aware there continuously without lapsing. Wherever we determine, the heart goes there; the quality of mindfulness () arises exactly there, appearing as a clear, round, radiant sphere.
Knowing Is Mindfulness, and It Can Arise in Only One Place -- the Heart
Once mindfulness is established, the induction of pure energy happens right there, flowing through the center of the heart, the center of the wholesome sphere called sati. All 84,000 sections of the wholesome Dhamma, once established, draw in that pure energy called merit -- but sati must arise first, because sati is what remembers first; only after remembering does knowing follow. Whatever Dhamma we wish to know, sati leads us to it and brings it for us to perceive. Sati is therefore a quality of great support to us.
Whatever meditation object we are familiar with, once sati is established, it brings that object to us, letting us recall and know it, and we maintain our hold so that sati can anchor and rest upon it. We must therefore choose a meditation object with a clear and continuous signal, so sati can anchor, rest, and perceive. Once sati is established, it causes -- a dark sphere -- to fall away, because the nature and quality of sati is a bright, clear sphere; once established, it makes our heart bright and clear as well. As the energy of merit flows in through the brightness of that sphere of sati, this pure merit-element drives the wholesome system to refine the elements of Dhamma within us, making them radiant, cool, clean, and pure, freeing us from one dimension into another. This is something of great importance we need to know and understand -- that the practice of Dhamma releases us into ever newer, subtler dimensions, tucked away deeper and deeper within.
The Proof of Practice: Anger Becomes Harder to Provoke, Defilements Lose Their Grip
Once we practice, we begin to notice that anger becomes harder to provoke. Before, if someone irritated us even slightly, we might have grown angry; but after practicing, when someone irritates us, we simply stay calm. Lust may be present, and we stay calm; hatred may arise, and we stay calm. Unwholesome states of mind find it harder to do anything to us. In the period following sincere, dedicated practice, negative emotions find it harder to eat away at our heart, to surround and enslave us completely -- it is no longer so easy. This is one proof that practicing Dhamma helps keep us far from defilement. Negative feelings and thoughts find it hard to influence us, while good, wholesome feelings and thoughts can influence us easily. All this comes from simply establishing the sphere of knowing -- sati -- which needs a clear and continuous signal for it to anchor upon.
Choosing a Meditation Object With a Clear, Continuous Signal
We each need our own meditation object, one we train in and grow familiar with until we can rely on it, until it becomes something we truly have, truly are. "Bhavana" means to make something come into being, to develop it into reality -- we practice na to bring a state of Dhamma into being, something solid we can hold onto, lean on, and depend upon. Phra Ajarn does not lead this sitting session by session; he only points the way, and we carry on with our own meditation object, because each of us needs to have our own. Choose one with a clear and continuous signal -- we only discover how clear it truly is once we have tried using it. Once we can rely on it, we train further, and the more we train, the more we can rely on it, and the further it carries us toward success.
As our heart focuses on the meditation object, the heart becomes tightly bound, becoming one with it; the state of Dhamma becomes ever more tightly unified. We come to understand it, and we come to enjoy it. If we are not yet enjoying it, we need to train ourselves toward that closeness -- first by clearing away : delight in sensual pleasures of form, taste, smell, and sound; irritation over unresolved matters; restless wandering through idle thoughts; and drowsiness. If the meditation object we are used to has no clear or continuous signal, we should switch objects -- there are as many as forty methods to choose from, each person working with what suits them.
Sitting to Receive the Stream of Merit, Freed Into Ever Subtler Dimensions
As we bring about this wholesome cause within ourselves, by determining to know so that the sphere of sati draws in pure energy to continuously drive the wholesome system, refining the elements of Dhamma within us into and liberation, we are carried and tucked away into a safe dimension -- that alone is what happens. In dimensions that go deeper and subtler still, there are subtle treasures of even greater value; the merit-element there is purer still; the treasures that come with it carry even greater worth; the life-plan set there is even finer and more exquisite; and the knowing beings of authority in that dimension are wiser and more capable, better able to guide and help us.
Practicing Dhamma is good in exactly this way -- our status changes, because our inner status is our true status, the very thing that transforms our outer status. We come to bring benefit to people and beings, and to ourselves as well, all at once, by means of .
Benefiting All Beings Through Loving-Kindness
All it takes is genuinely wishing well for people and beings, with sincere and warm-hearted goodwill, setting the wish: may all beings and all people be free from suffering and share happiness everywhere; for those who suffer much, may their suffering lessen; for those who suffer little, may it end entirely; for those with little happiness, may it grow; and for those already abundant in happiness, may it grow further still. Once we set this wish for goodness, we come to feel this state of love and goodwill. Once loving-kindness (metta) is established, our inner state changes along with it, filled with pure, sincere goodwill.
If we are not yet certain we can feel it, our late revered teacher advised us to draw upon the heart of a mother -- full of love and goodwill toward her own small child -- and let that quality of mind arise in our heart. Because we think of a mother's love for her child, we come to understand the love she has for us too; it is a goodwill brimming with sincerity. We take up this feeling and extend it to all the people and beings of the world.
Radiating Loving-Kindness From Ourselves to the Boundless Universe
We extend this heart, brimming with loving-kindness, to encompass our home and dwelling; loving-kindness shines forth, cleansing the defilement of resentment and irritation present in people, beings, and things. It shines across the earth, water, air, and sky, the trees and grass, our belongings, buildings and houses, mountains, land, oceans, and every stretch of water and sand, and then extends onward across the whole village, the sub-district, the district, the province, the country, neighboring countries, and all nations, until it encompasses the entire world -- making this world a crystal world, bright, cool, clean, and pure. May the people of the world and all beings be free from suffering and share happiness everywhere -- earthbound devas, sky-dwelling devas, celestial beings of every heavenly realm, the formless Brahma gods, as well as beings in hell, hungry ghosts, and animals -- may all beings be free from suffering and share happiness everywhere.
We then extend this loving heart out to the atmosphere of the cosmos, encompassing tens, hundreds, thousands, millions of stars, extending onward to the ten thousand world-systems, the hundred thousand koti of universes, the infinite universe -- letting our loving-kindness shine and benefit the world, all beings, all things, and every element of Dhamma. That light of loving-kindness shines into the very center of the hearts of people and beings, dissolving away the defilement of irritation entirely. The wholesome nature then gets the chance to take its seat and draw in the pure energy called merit to flow into the brightness of the heart; this merit-element drives the wholesome system to refine the elements of Dhamma, making them radiant, clean, and pure, freeing us continuously from one dimension into another.
Loving-Kindness Casts No Shadow, and Sustains the World
He explained that moonlight and sunlight, however they shine, still cast a shadow -- but the light of loving-kindness shines both inward and outward at once, and so casts no shadow at all. Loving-kindness is therefore a vital sphere used to benefit people, beings, and things, making this world worth living in; one might say that loving-kindness itself sustains the world. Whoever benefits the world and the cosmos can, in turn, make use of the treasures of the world and cosmos -- just as the Bodhisatta did in ages past. When he was born as a human being, he performed many wholesome deeds, one of which was cultivating loving-kindness -- a tool that benefits people and beings, making them bright and clear, and helping concentration settle easily. He cultivated loving-kindness continuously until the end of his life, benefiting a great many people and beings, until he attained the absorptions (jhana). When he closed his eyes and left the world, he was reborn in the Brahma realm, reaching the status of the Great Brahma, enjoying happiness there for an immensely long time. When he returned once more to the human world, he attained the status of a Universal Monarch, able to use the treasures of the world and the cosmos to benefit the people of the world, letting them live in comfort and peace, with lives like those of heavenly beings -- people upheld moral , their hearts generous and helpful toward one another, and there was no war at all. This is the fruit of benefiting the world; it enabled him to go on benefiting the world even more greatly still. So let us cultivate loving-kindness often.
Resting in the Triple Gem and Our Teachers, Setting Our Aspiration
We gather our hearts to stillness within this bright, cool, clean, and pure loving-kindness, shining and spreading boundlessly around us. Because of this loving-kindness, we ourselves become a center of brightness within our own heart. We gather our hearts to stillness within loving-kindness, and the stream of merit pours in continuously into the brightness of that loving-kindness; we then extend this pure merit-element to benefit people and beings, wishing that all beings and people be free from suffering and share happiness everywhere.
We gather our hearts to stillness within the Triple Gem -- within the Buddha Jewel, the Dhamma Jewel, the Sangha Jewel. We need to come rest within the Triple Gem so that we may become one with them; this closeness between us and them must be brought into being. We simply determine it first -- the heart is a wish-fulfilling element; whatever we determine, so it becomes. As we learn to determine this again and again, we gradually come to perceive the true existence of the Triple Gem, and we begin to grow close, intimate, and unified with them, because they are the one true, supreme refuge that can benefit us.
We rest within the Buddha Jewel, brimming with boundless wisdom, purity, and great compassion. We rest within the Dhamma Jewel, immersing ourselves in the true existence of the Dhamma Jewel. We rest within the Sangha Jewel, and then rest within our teachers -- the utterly refined Dhamma body of our late revered teacher Luang Pu, the utterly refined Dhamma body of Luang Phor, the utterly refined Dhamma body of Khun Yai, along with our own utterly refined Dhamma body -- all of them beings of great merit who care for and help us every single moment without ever pausing. As we bring them to mind, we appear bright and clear within them, and they appear bright and clear within us; both we and they appear luminous within Nibbana, within the boundless, countless knowing beings of authority.
Setting the Aspiration and Asking Forgiveness for Past Wrongs
While we abide within Nibbana, they take our elements of Dhamma -- seeing, remembering, thinking, knowing, the elements of earth, water, wind, fire, space, and consciousness -- and refine them to be clear and clean, clearing away every defilement, connecting us to the stream of merit and treasure, and adjusting the key to our path ahead, so that our life may harvest its successes with ease. Life need not be difficult if we dwell with the Triple Gem, with Nibbana watching over us from behind; we are never alone -- we live amid these boundless, countless knowing beings of authority.
We take this auspicious occasion to pay respect and ask for their blessing, setting our aspiration and life-plan into the center of this radiant sphere of merit, along our entire path of building perfections, from the present into the boundless future through countless lifetimes, so that our life may be filled with wisdom, happiness, and purity, together with the fulfillment of every rightful and wholesome wish. We ask for the merit, radiance, power, might, and unequivocal authority of Nibbana throughout all elements and all Dhamma, together with the blessing of our revered teachers, Luang Pu, Luang Phor, and Khun Yai. May all this merit combine with the merit we ourselves have sincerely accumulated since our very first existence, through countless lifetimes, up to this present moment, refining our body, speech, mind, and elements of Dhamma -- seeing, remembering, thinking, knowing, earth, water, wind, fire, space, and consciousness -- making them bright, cool, clean, and pure. May we be freed from sacred misfortune, from karmic results, from Mara's obstruction, and from every obstacle in life; may greed, hatred, delusion, lust, ignorance, wrong view, craving, and clinging dissolve entirely, leaving no trace.
May we gain the eye that sees the Dhamma, reaching and penetrating the knowledge of the Dhammakaya, achieving the three knowledges, the eight knowledges, the six higher powers, the four kinds of analytical , the eight liberations, and the fifteen conducts, complete in every respect. May we also have strong and complete health, a long lifespan, and the ability to accumulate merit and perfections throughout our entire life, safely to the very end, with an unceasing, elevated spirit in building perfections, heading straight along the path to Nibbana. Wherever we travel, may we meet only good fortune and safety, may we be loved by both humans and devas, may we possess bright wisdom that penetrates the Dhamma of the Fully Enlightened Buddha, and whatever work we undertake, may it flourish and yield results beyond what we could imagine, gaining treasures as vast as those of a Universal Monarch -- inexhaustible, always sufficient, used to build great generosity endlessly, given freely without .
When the time comes to close our eyes and leave this world, may we be reborn in the Tusita heaven, in the special merit sphere reserved for great Bodhisattas, and when we return to build perfections in the human world, may we be born into a family of right view, a crystal family, a Dhammakaya family, a model family for the world, a warm family, complete with the utmost treasures of form, wealth, virtue, retinue, gain, honor, praise and happiness, the paths and fruits of liberation, and the knowledge of the Dhammakaya. May we have a vast and sacred sphere of merit, able to recall our past lives from birth, born together with a clear and radiant inner Dhammakaya, able to study the knowledge of the Dhammakaya correctly and faithfully with Luang Pu, Luang Phor, and Khun Yai from childhood until the end of our life. Whatever unwholesome deed we may have committed by mistake in the past, through countless lifetimes, may that unwholesome karma be unable to catch up with us, and may it become forgiven karma forever; may we commit no new unwholesome deed through body, speech, or mind. May all the merit we have sincerely accumulated combine together and yield its sacred, wondrous result, continuously from this moment onward, until the very end of Dhamma.
Closing Chant
Phra Ajarn Suraphong closed the sitting by leading the chant of homage to the Triple Gem: Sabbe Buddha balappatta, paccekana nca yam balam, arahantananca tejena, rakkham bandhami sabbaso. Sabba-Buddhanubhavena, sabba-Dhammanubhavena, sabba-Sanghanubhavena, sadda-sotthi bhavantu te.