Determined Awareness: Where the Wholesome System Begins

Determined awareness (kamnod-ru) means setting up the apparatus of wholesomeness that draws in the pure energy called merit, together with refined qualities and the blueprint of success, letting it flow through the center of the sphere of awareness -- the sphere of mindfulness. If we don't practice this determined awareness, the channel cannot be established, and the stream of merit, refined qualities, and blueprint of success cannot flow into us. This determined awareness is the starting point of the whole wholesome system. This is why the Buddha reminded the monks to determine and know the sphere of awareness, the sphere of mindfulness -- once it arises, the sphere of not-knowing, the sphere of ignorance, falls away. Once this sphere of mindfulness is established, it continuously draws the pure energy, together with refined qualities and the blueprint of success, streaming through its center. This pure energy is what drives the wholesome system, refining and purifying the elements of our being, clearing away the defilements that create life's problems and obstacles.

When merit flows through us, it purifies defilement -- because merit is purity itself, and purity is the direct opposite of defilement. As defilement lightens, problems and obstacles lighten with it. What was difficult gradually becomes easy; what was hard gradually becomes comfortable; suffering gradually becomes happiness; darkness gradually turns to light; murkiness gradually turns to clarity. All of this is the fruit of the causes we ourselves create -- for good experiences and happiness to appear instantly is rare; mostly it happens gradually.

Determined awareness works in two domains: the body and the mind. In the body, we choose any point that gives a clear, continuous signal, letting the sphere of mindfulness settle there. In the mind, we simply observe whether, right now, we feel happy, suffering, or neither. If we feel at ease, a wholesome state has taken residence in our mind. But if an unwholesome state has taken hold, we experience a condition that must be endured and is hard to endure -- this is what we call suffering (dukkha).

Facing the Truth of Suffering Directly

When this state of suffering appears, the Buddha taught that it is enough simply to determine and know it -- to recognize that what is present now is a state that must be endured and is hard to endure. In that very moment of recognizing it, the sphere of mindfulness arises and continuously draws the purity of merit streaming into the center of its brightness. That pure energy then purifies the defilement that causes suffering, lightening it gradually -- not all at once. We must be patient and keep recognizing the suffering. This determined recognition of suffering is what it means to cultivate the truth of suffering (dukkha-sacca).

Cultivating the truth of suffering is a discipline the noble ones must train in, but ordinary people usually turn away from it -- no one wants suffering, no one wants to acknowledge this state that must be endured. We tend to be led by the neutral, undetermined nature (abyakata) toward distractions that mask and help us flee from suffering. Because of this, ordinary people cannot come to know these truths. But the noble ones face the mass of suffering directly, in order to learn the truth of life. Suffering is not something terrible -- if we learn to understand it and dare to face it. At first it may require some endurance, but determined recognition of suffering is never wasted.

Patience and Fortitude: Armor Against Torment

In the very act of recognizing suffering, patience (khanti) arrives together with fortitude (tapa) to help us. Fortitude becomes armor that protects against torment -- even as we recognize the state of suffering, we are not tormented by it, because fortitude shields us. But if the strength of this fortitude is not yet mature enough, the process of patience itself builds new fortitude -- new armor against torment -- making it stronger. While we continue to recognize this state that must be endured and is hard to endure, a more mature fortitude is being built alongside it, one we will need in the future.

From Suffering to Ease: Merit Gradually Purifies Defilement

As we recognize this state that must be endured, merit continues to stream forth into the brightness of the sphere of mindfulness, purifying the defilement that causes suffering, lightening it. What had to be endured becomes bearable; what became bearable gradually improves and returns to normal. Even though suffering is hard to endure, it has one advantage: it is a clear, continuous signal. This makes recognizing it easy, because the sphere of mindfulness has something clear and continuous to hold onto and rely on.

When we practice this determined awareness and establish the sphere of mindfulness, drawing in pure energy together with refined qualities and the blueprint of success, it brings genuine benefit -- leading toward purity and liberation, reaching subtler dimensions, refining the elements of our being, and elevating our mind and heart. From there we go on to benefit other people and all beings, through the tool that the wholesome nature uses to sustain the world: loving-kindness (metta).

Radiating Loving-Kindness to All Beings

We simply set the sincere wish that all beings be free from suffering and find happiness everywhere. Our revered Luang Pu advised drawing on the mind of a mother who loves and wishes well for her young child, because this mind of loving-kindness is utterly sincere and carries great power. When we bring this mind to mind, it appears bright and radiant at the center of our being. The pure stream of merit continues to pour forth, making our loving-kindness shine throughout our whole body and mind.

We then expand this heart filled with loving-kindness outward, covering the place of practice, then the village, the sub-district, the district, the province, the whole country, neighboring countries, until it covers the entire world -- turning this world into a crystal world, bright, cool, clean, and pure. May the people of the world and all beings be free from suffering and find happiness everywhere -- earth-dwelling devas, tree-dwelling devas, sky devas, the heavenly beings of every realm, the brahmas and formless brahmas, as well as beings in hell, hungry ghosts, and animals. May those with much suffering have little; may those with little suffering be free of it; may those with little happiness have more; may those with much happiness have ever more. We then extend this loving-kindness further, out into the atmosphere of the cosmos, covering countless stars, extending to ten thousand world-systems and countless universes, without limit.

Dedicating Merit to All Beings

Resting in this boundless, radiant loving-kindness, the pure stream of merit continues to pour forth in its brightness. We then dedicate this merit to arise for all people and beings -- may all beings share in the merit we have sincerely made, and be free from suffering, finding happiness everywhere.

Merging with the Triple Gem and the Great Teachers

We gather our minds, stopping and stilling, into the center of this pure stream of merit-substance -- into the center of happiness, the center of purity, the center of the radiant brightness that continues pouring forth. We gather and settle at the center of the Triple Gem: the center of the Buddha jewel, the Dhamma jewel, and the Sangha jewel. As we recall the Triple Gem, it appears bright and clear at our center. We then merge ourselves with the Triple Gem into a single unity -- we are the Buddha-image, the Buddha-image is us -- until our whole body becomes the crystal Dhamma body, radiant, cool, clean, and pure. This is because that Buddha-image is our true self, and what that true self wishes for is for us to become one with it, so that it may benefit us with the fullest effectiveness.

We continue, settling into the center of the Buddha jewel, the Dhamma jewel, the Sangha jewel, into the center of our great teachers -- stilling into the refined Dhamma body of our revered Luang Pu, then of our revered Luang Phor, and then of Khun Yai Achan.

Stilling at the Center of Nibbana

As we still ourselves at the center of these teachers, we appear bright and radiant at the center of nibbana -- the center of the knowers, of boundless power, uncountable as the grains of sand across incalculable aeons. Nibbana is every Buddha, every Paccekabuddha, and every Arahant. Though they passed into final nibbana long ago, they still abide within the realm of nibbana, holding all beings at their center, continuing to protect and support them. Any being who abides in universal goodness -- even one who does not follow Buddhism, or has no religion at all -- will have the pure stream of merit pouring continuously into the brightness of their being. Nibbana takes this flowing pure merit-substance and uses it to refine the elements of that being, clearing away defilement, so that their life meets with happiness and goodness.

Closing Aspiration and Setting the Blueprint of Success

As nibbana is refining and helping us in this very moment, we make our aspiration, setting the blueprint of success to remain fixed within this radiant sphere of merit, throughout our entire path of building perfections -- that our lives change, carrying knowledge together with happiness and purity, and success in everything right and good. We pay homage and ask for the blessing, the merit, the radiance, the power, and the absolute authority of nibbana throughout all elements and all dhamma, together with the blessing of our revered Luang Pu, Luang Phor, and Khun Yai Achan -- may all this merit combine with the merit we have sincerely accumulated since our very first life, through countless existences up to the present, becoming sacred merit of boundless power. May it purify our body, speech, mind, the elements of being -- seeing, remembering, thinking, knowing -- earth, water, wind, fire, space, and consciousness -- making them bright, cool, clean, and pure. May we be freed from calamity, misfortune, karmic results, obstacles of every kind in life, and may greed, hatred, delusion, lust, ignorance, wrong view, craving, and clinging be utterly extinguished without remainder. May we gain the Dhamma-eye, reaching through and penetrating the Dhammakaya knowledge completely -- the threefold and eightfold knowledge, the six higher powers, the four analytic insights, the eight liberations, and the fifteen conducts, in full. May we have strong health and long life to build merit and perfections throughout our lives, with unfailing resolve on the path toward nibbana, the end of Dhamma. Wherever we travel, may we meet only good fortune and safety, being loved by both humans and devas. When the time comes to leave this world, may we be born in Tusita heaven, in the realm of the great bodhisattvas of the special merit lineage, and when we return to build perfections on earth, may we be born into a family of right view -- a crystal family, a Dhammakaya family -- complete with the finest form, wealth, virtue, honor, and ultimately the path and fruit of nibbana and the Dhammakaya knowledge. May whatever unwholesome deeds we have committed in the past be forgiven and never bear fruit again; may we commit no new unwholesome deed in body, speech, or mind; and may all the merit we have sincerely accumulated combine into sacred, powerful, wondrous results, continuing without end until the very end of Dhamma, by the boundless power of the Lord Buddha, every Buddha. May all these good wishes come true.

*By the power attained by all Buddhas, by the power of the Paccekabuddhas,* *and by the power of the Arahants, I bind this protection entirely.* *By the power of all the Buddhas, by the power of all the Dhamma, by the power of all the Sangha,* *may you always be well and at peace.*