พระอาจารย์สุรพงค์อธิบายว่าภายในตัวเรามีดวงธรรมห้าดวง คือ ศีล สมาธิ ปัญญา วิมุตติ และวิมุตติญาณทัศนะ โดยดวงวิมุตติทำหน้าที่ปลดปล่อยเราจากมลทินอย่างความขี้เกียจ ขี้กลัว ขี้หงุดหงิด ส่วนดวงวิมุตติญาณทัศนะพาเราเข้าถึงชีวิตที่ประเสริฐกว่า พร้อมนำแผ่เมตตาเต็มรูปแบบตั้งแต่ตัวเราไปจนถึงจักรวาลอนันต์ และเล่าเรื่องพระโพธิสัตว์ผู้เจริญเมตตาธรรมจนได้เป็นท้าวมหาพรหมและพระเจ้าจักรพรรดิPhra Ajarn Suraphong explains the five spheres of Dhamma within us — morality, concentration, wisdom, liberation, and the vision of liberation — showing how the sphere of liberation frees us from defilements like laziness, fear, and irritability, while the sphere of the vision of liberation opens the way to a more excellent life. The talk closes with a full radiation of loving-kindness out to the boundless universe and the story of the Bodhisattva who became a Great Brahma and then a Universal Monarch through sustained mettā.
Phra Ajarn Suraphong opened by noting that practice is essential for every life, because we are always under the control of three natures — no one escapes even for a fraction of a second. Only system ever benefits us, giving what is right, good, and conducive to and progress. The unwholesome system squanders our time on indulgence and idle pursuits, wasting our precious resources for nothing; and when we slip under its control, it pressures us into wrong thought, speech, and action — even when we try to resist, we often cannot. We therefore need to learn how to abide within the wholesome system.
The Buddha's Teaching: Know Body, Feeling, Mind, and Dhamma Clearly
The Buddha taught, over two thousand years ago: "Monks, you should clearly determine and know the body, feelings, mind, and mental phenomena, in order to remove covetousness and grief in regard to the world." He stressed that we must memorize this sentence and understand every word within it, because each carries significant meaning.
What "Determining" Means, and How Mindfulness Arises
To determine is to mark, to specify, to point precisely, in order to go and know. Wherever we mark, the mind is placed there. Wherever the mind is, — the act of determining and knowing — is there too, because mindfulness is a that arises only within the mind. When a wholesome mental state arises, the mental factors that accompany it arise as well. Mindfulness is a of great supportive value.
Merit Flowing Through Mindfulness Purifies Defilement, Opens Subtler Dimensions, and Grows the Proportion of Wholesomeness
Once mindfulness is established in the mind, the pure energy called merit flows continuously into the brightness at its center. This merit drives the wholesome system, purifying defilement — because merit is , and purity and defilement are natural enemies that cleanse each other automatically. Defilement exists at every level: dense in coarse dimensions, sparse in subtle ones, and it is the root cause of confusion and every obstacle in life. Once defilement in one dimension is fully purified, we are liberated into a subtler dimension with purer merit-elements, more valuable subtle treasures, and a finer blueprint of accomplishment. More important still, the proportion of wholesomeness within us grows, making life easier to live — the greater that proportion, the easier life becomes. As Luang Pu said, we must press on to the very limit of our own capacity to bring about this purification and liberation.
Feeling, Mind: The Difference Between Pleasure, Suffering, Neutrality, and Equanimity
Feeling is our awareness of whatever nature has taken possession of the mind. If it is wholesome, we feel ease and comfort; if unwholesome, we feel suffering — a state that must be endured and is hard to bear. If it is the neutral nature that has taken hold, we feel neither pleasure nor suffering, but this is not equanimity — the neutral nature's blankness is a strange feeling, neither quite pleasant nor unpleasant. Equanimity, by contrast, still recognizes pleasure as pleasure and suffering as suffering, but holds the mind in balance, not falling into liking or disliking, remaining aware of things exactly as they are.
Mind Within Mind: How Different Levels of Nature Overlay Our Thoughts
The thoughts that appear in our mind arise from whichever nature has taken possession and overlaid its own mind and mental factors onto ours. If is in charge, unwholesome mental factors are overlaid. If the wholesome is in charge, it overlays the mind and mental factors of the refined human body, the celestial body, the refined celestial body, the Brahma body, the refined Brahma body, the formless-Brahma body, and the refined formless-Brahma body — to upgrade, guide, and teach us, helping the human mind rise in intelligence, goodness, and purity according to the level of the mind overlaying it.
Morality, Concentration, Wisdom, Liberation, the Vision of Liberation: Five Spheres of Dhamma Within Us
Phra Ajarn Suraphong explained that within us are five spheres of Dhamma: morality, concentration, wisdom, liberation, and the vision of liberation. Learning to understand morality, concentration, and wisdom, and training to use them even before we can see them directly, gives us essential tools for practice.
How the Sphere of Liberation Differs from the Sphere of the Vision of Liberation
The sphere of liberation frees us from the defilements that dominate and imprison human life — laziness, fear, irritability, and countless others. The sphere of the vision of liberation, meanwhile, opens the way to something better: a more excellent life. He was careful to note that neither sphere makes us a noble one (an ariya) — they only free us from what defiles.
The Subtle Treasures Within Merit Draw In the Coarse Treasures of the World
Within each sphere of merit is a pure, sacred, and powerful Dhamma-element capable of removing defilement and the effects of past kamma. Beyond that, each sphere of merit holds refined treasures — of form, of wealth, of , of retinue, of gain, honor, praise, happiness, the path, fruit, Nibbāna, and the of — all complete within it. When merit flows through us, these refined treasures flow through us too, and they are what draw the coarse treasures of the world into our lives. All this simply from staying continuously, unfailingly aware.
Radiating Loving-Kindness to the Boundless Universe
After benefiting ourselves, Phra Ajarn Suraphong led a radiation of for the benefit of all people and beings, setting the wish that all beings be free from suffering and find happiness everywhere. Loving-kindness — a bright, clear sphere — appears at the center of the mind, with the special power to dissolve resentment and ill will. It begins with ourselves and our surroundings, then expands to cover our home, village, sub-district, district, province, the whole country, neighboring countries, and finally the entire world, making it a shining crystal orb, cool, clean, and pure. May all beings — earth-bound devas, sky devas, celestial beings of every heavenly realm, Brahmas, formless Brahmas, and even beings in hell, hungry ghosts, and animals — be free from suffering and find happiness. The radiation then expands out into the atmosphere of the cosmos, covering countless stars and extending to ten thousand world-systems, a hundred thousand koṭi universes, the boundless universe.
The Story: From Bodhisattva to Great Brahma to Universal Monarch
He explained that whoever brings great benefit to the world and the cosmos can in turn draw upon the treasures of the world and cosmos — as the Bodhisattva did in a past life. When he was born into the world, he too radiated loving-kindness, just as we do now, but he sustained it continuously for his entire lifespan until he attained . Upon death he was reborn in the Brahma realm as the Great Brahma, enjoying a very long span of bliss. When that lifespan ended, he was reborn once more as a human, this time attaining the status of a Universal Monarch, able to use the treasures of the world and cosmos to benefit himself and countless beings, who lived as happily as celestial beings — with no killing, no war, everyone treating one another with generosity and care.
Dedicating Merit and Forgiveness to Karmic Counterparts, Merging with the Triple Gem
Phra Ajarn Suraphong dedicated this merit to all beings, including parents, siblings, grandparents, teachers and benefactors, the devas who help and support us, our caretakers and guardians, and all our karmic counterparts (คู่กรรมคู่เวร) — those we have wronged or been wronged by — asking that we forgive one another and that they too receive a share of this merit. We then gathered the mind to stillness at the center of the radiant purity of the merit-element, settling into the Triple Gem — the Buddha Jewel, the Dhamma Jewel, and the Sangha Jewel — merging ourselves with the Triple Gem as one, for the Triple Gem is our true self. We settled further into the refined Dhamma bodies of the Great Revered Luang Pu, Luang Phor, and the Great Preceptor.
Setting the Blueprint of Success and the Closing Chant
When we recollect them, we and they appear bright at the center of Nibbāna, the center of the boundless, countless knowing beings of infinite power. For any being established in universal goodness, the stream of merit from Nibbāna flows into their heart in just the same way. Nibbāna takes that flowing merit-element and multiplies its purity, connecting our stream of merit and treasure, resolving obstacles in advance, so that our lives may reap success with ease, even as they refine and help us. Phra Ajarn Suraphong then led the setting of a within the bright sphere of merit — asking that all accumulated merit and blessing combine into a sacred, powerful force, freeing us from calamity, sin, and the effects of past kamma; granting the Dhamma-eye and full penetration of the knowledge of Dhammakāya; good health and strength; unfailing resolve to build perfections; and, when the time comes to leave this world, rebirth into a family of right view. The sit closed with the chant: "Sabbe Buddhānubhāvena... Sabbe Dhammānubhāvena... Sabbe Saṅghānubhāvena... Saddhā sotthī ntu te."