พระอาจารย์สุรพงค์ให้ผู้ปฏิบัติลองสัมผัสความรู้สึกที่เท้าแตะพื้นเป็นตัวอย่างสด แล้วอธิบายว่าหากชีวิตไม่มีฐานที่ตั้งของใจที่ชัดเจน ใจจะล่องลอยเลื่อนลอยไปมาดั่ง "สัมภเวสี" และเมื่อตายไปก็มีแนวโน้มไปเกิดในภพภูมิที่ไม่มีที่พึ่งเช่นเดียวกัน ต่างจากผู้ที่มีฐานที่ตั้งของใจชัดเจนซึ่งจะเหนี่ยวนำพลังงานบริสุทธิ์เข้าสู่ระบบกุศลธรรมPhra Ajarn Suraphong has practitioners feel their feet touching the floor as a live example, then explains that a life without a clear seat for the mind drifts aimlessly — like a "sambhavesi," a spirit wandering between lives — and tends toward an unanchored rebirth. A mind with a clear, fixed base, by contrast, draws in pure energy and stays anchored within the wholesome system.
Phra Ajarn opens by saying every life is driven by the pure energy called merit. Continuously drawing merit inward is what it means to dwell within system. All our lives are under the control of three natural systems. Only the wholesome one can bring us benefit, , prosperity, and rightness. Apart from that system, no other can offer any benefit at all — it only brings suffering and harm.
The Buddha's Teaching: Note Body, Feeling, Mind, and Mental Objects
The Buddha taught over 2,000 years ago: monks should clearly note the body, feelings, mind, and mental objects, so as to remove covetousness and grief regarding the world. This is a key principle that can turn any life into a noble, wondrous one. The Buddha taught that in living our lives, we must fix a seat for the mind somewhere — in the body or in the mind itself. Wherever we note, the mind settles there, and , a wholesome mental quality, arises.
A Live Example: Notice How Your Feet Touch the Floor
Phra Ajarn gives a live example during the teaching, asking practitioners: right now, how do your feet feel against the floor? The moment we bring attention to the feet to sense that feeling, we've placed our attention there, and mindfulness — a wholesome mental quality — arises to register it truthfully. Once mindfulness arises, being a wholesome , it immediately and continuously draws in the pure energy called merit. Knowing and not-knowing are different things: knowing is wholesome mindfulness; not-knowing is unwholesome. The sphere of knowing draws in pure energy, while the sphere of not-knowing — — draws in defilement that obscures the truth.
A Mind Without an Anchor Drifts Like a Wandering Spirit
Phra Ajarn points out that in daily life, if we never fix our attention on any particular point of body or mind, the mind drifts — finding no anchor, floating this way and that, like a "sambhavesi," a spirit wandering before finding its next birth. A life lived adrift like this tends, upon death, toward the same drifting existence, or even toward rebirth as a hell-being or hungry ghost. By contrast, a life with a clear, fixed seat for the mind, continuously drawing in pure energy, tends toward the life of a celestial or Brahma being — a life whose seat of mind rests within the wholesome system, guided toward what is right and good. We therefore need to learn and understand how to properly dwell in the wholesome system.
Consciousness Leads the Mind Through the Six Sense Doors
We can fix the mind's seat at the nostrils, to note the breath — the nerve-cells there register the contact, and consciousness registers it too. Consciousness is what leads the mind to arise at each of the six sense doors: eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, and mind. As we note, a wholesome mind arises to register at that point, drawing in pure energy that purifies the , one part of the mind. The mind consists of feeling, memory, mental formations, and consciousness — seeing, remembering, thinking, knowing. When a wholesome mind arises, wholesome mental factors arise with it; when it ceases, they cease together.
Eighty-Nine Minds: Whoever Takes Over Guides Us Toward Their Realm
The revered Luang Pu explained clearly: settling stillness within the mind, we find the sphere of feeling; settling within that, the sphere of memory; settling within that, the sphere of mental formations — and the sphere of mind rests within that sphere of formations, numbering as many as eighty-nine. The mind of the human body is only one of these eighty-nine. When a wholesome force seizes the role of host, it draws in a subtler mind — of a celestial, Brahma, or formless-Brahma being, according to that realm — and guides the human body to rise toward that realm's level. But when an unwholesome force is host, it draws in a lower-level mind — of a hell-being, hungry ghost, animal, or wandering spirit — to dictate our thoughts, words, and deeds, generating karmic results and a "sphere of demerit" that clings to us, one we can hardly resist because its voice sounds just like our own thinking.
Removing Covetousness and Grief: The Root of Liking and Disliking
Beyond noting body, feeling, mind, and mental objects, the essential purpose is to remove covetousness and grief regarding the world. Covetousness is the delight that gives rise to greed or elation, scattering the mind. Grief is aversion — displeasure, sorrow — giving rise to resentment, anger, ill will, and harm, with delusion, wrong view, lurking behind it all, directing the show. This liking and disliking are the fruit of viewing the world through eye, ear, nose, tongue, and body toward form, taste, smell, sound, and touch — the external world — while the mind is the internal world. Mindfulness and are therefore of the greatest help: mindfulness is recollection, being fully present; clear comprehension is clear understanding.
The Three-Colored Fan: How the Three Natures Take Turns as Host
Phra Ajarn compares it to a fast-spinning electric fan. Stick a colored strip on each blade, and as it spins you'll see all three colors flashing in the blur, taking turns, because the three natural forces each have their own automatic momentum. Whichever one we assist gets more opportunity to become host of body and mind. Cultivating serves exactly this purpose: giving wholesomeness more opportunity to become host. When wholesomeness is host, an inner knower guides us with a voice like our own thoughts, toward what is right and good — and the pure energy called merit flows in continuously.
Merit Flows in with Refined Qualities; Inner Status Changes Outer Status
This pure energy called merit flows in together with refined qualities and templates of accomplishment, driving the wholesome system to refine our elements until we are purified and released into subtler dimensions, gaining access to better resources. Our status changes, because inner status is the root cause of outer status. Countless good things arise when the wholesome system is host, overseen by the Triple Gem, watched over by Nirvana at every moment. The more refined our mindfulness becomes, the purer the energy, the greater the proportion of wholesomeness, and the more correct guidance we receive.
Rejoicing in Others' Merit: A Shared Channel for the Stream of Merit
Phra Ajarn adds that when we see someone enjoying the fruits of good deeds in this life, we should recall the good they did in the past and rejoice in their merit. This act of rejoicing makes them, too, recall the good they once did — and the stream of merit they had accumulated flows through both of us, making us a shared channel for that stream. Without rejoicing, they simply bask in the result without tracing it back to its cause.
Loving-Kindness: Beginning from a Mother's Loving Mind
Having cultivated good causes for our own life, we turn to benefit the world and all beings through . Simply set a wish of goodwill for people and beings, and the sphere of loving-kindness appears bright within us — but we must set that wish with sincerity and a pure heart. Luang Pu therefore advises recalling the loving mind of a mother toward her infant child, letting it arise within us, and only then extending that love and goodwill to benefit the world and all beings. May all beings who share with us the suffering of birth, aging, sickness, and death be free from suffering and find happiness everywhere.
Radiating Loving-Kindness Across the World and Universe
Expand that heart of loving-kindness to cover our home, the village, the district, the province, the whole country, neighboring countries, and the entire world, until the world becomes a radiant, cool, clean crystal orb. May earthbound spirits, wandering spirits, sky spirits, celestial beings of every heaven, Brahma gods, formless Brahma gods, and beings in hell or as animals be free from suffering and find happiness. Extend it further still, covering countless stars, out to the boundless universe. Gather the mind to stop and be still within the boundless brightness of loving-kindness, and dedicate this merit to all people and beings.
Settling in the Triple Gem and the Teachers, with the Closing Dedication
Gather the mind to stop and be still within the Triple Gem, who oversee the wholesome system and remain with us always, helping us whether we stand, walk, sit, or lie down. Then settle the mind in the utterly refined body of the great preceptor, Luang Pu, and Luang Phor. As we recall them, both we and they appear radiant within Nirvana. Phra Ajarn leads a dedication prayer, asking that the blessings of Nirvana, Luang Pu, Luang Phor, and the great preceptor combine with whatever merit we have accumulated since our first life, refining our body, speech, and mind to be radiant and pure, freeing us from karmic obstacles, granting the three s, the eight higher knowledges, the six supernormal powers, the four kinds of analytical , the eight liberations, and the fifteen conducts in full, together with strong health and inexhaustible resolve to build perfections toward Nirvana. The session closes with the Pali chant "Sabbe Buddha..." invoking the protective power of the Buddha, Dhamma, and Sangha.