พระอาจารย์สุรพงค์นำกำหนดรู้กาย เวทนา จิต ธรรม แล้วนำเข้าสู่บริกรรมภาวนาสัมมาอะระหังพร้อมบริกรรมนิมิตเป็นองค์พระธรรมกายแก้ว ด้วยเทคนิคสวมความรู้สึกว่าเราเป็นองค์พระ องค์พระเป็นตัวเรา ก่อนจะรวมใจหยุดนิ่งตามอย่างที่องค์พระเจริญนิโรธสมาบัติ พร้อมอ้างคำสอนของหลวงพ่อที่ว่า การเข้าถึงองค์พระจะว่าง่ายก็ง่าย จะว่ายากก็ยาก ขึ้นอยู่กับความเข้าใจว่าใจเป็นธาตุสำเร็จ ปิดท้ายด้วยการแผ่เมตตาเต็มรูปแบบและอุทิศส่วนบุญPhra Ajarn Suraphong guides determination of body, feeling, mind, and Dhamma, then leads the recitation of Sammā Arahaṃ together with the visualization of the crystal Dhammakāya Buddha image, teaching practitioners to wear the feeling of being the Buddha image itself before settling into stillness the way the Buddha image rests in cessation attainment. He cites Luang Phor's teaching that seeing the crystal Buddha image is easy if easy, hard if hard, depending on one's understanding that the mind is an accomplishing element, closing with a full radiation of loving-kindness and dedication of merit.
Why We Practice, and the Foundation of Knowing Body, Feeling, Mind, and Dhamma
Phra Ajarn Suraphong opened by noting that practice is essential for every life, because we live under the control of three natures. Only system gives what is right and good, understanding, peace, and progress. The Buddha therefore taught: "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."
Determining Is Paying Attention: Wherever the Mind Is, Mindfulness Arises There
To determine is to mark, to point precisely, in order to go and know. Wherever we point, the mind is placed there — this is called "putting in attention." We rely on the mind's consciousness element to perceive, and this consciousness element works together with the nervous system at whatever location we determine, all for one purpose: to establish the sphere of knowing.
Consciousness and the Nervous System: A Signal That Must Be Clear and Continuous
What the sphere of knowing needs is a clear, continuous signal from the nervous system. Once established continuously, the sphere of knowing draws in the pure energy called merit, flowing continuously into the brightness at the center of the sphere of . All states, wholesome or unwholesome, arise only at the mind — if arises, it draws in the energy of defilement, sin; if the wholesome arises, it draws in the energy of merit. But the sphere of mindfulness must always be established first, because mindfulness leads in the other qualities, such as wisdom, in due order.
The Human Body's Role Versus the Role of Mindfulness and Merit
The human body's role is only to determine and stay watchful, keeping the sphere of knowing established continuously without lapse. The sphere of knowing — mindfulness — has the role of drawing in pure energy, and that pure energy has the role of removing defilement, because and defilement are natural enemies. But a little water cannot overcome a great fire — if we don't draw in enough energy, sin cannot be fully purified. We must therefore learn to keep this sphere of knowing established continuously.
Feeling: The Difference Between Pleasure, Suffering, Neutrality, and Equanimity
As for feeling: if the nature possessing the mind is wholesome, we feel at ease; if unwholesome, we feel suffering — a state that must be endured and is hard to bear. If it is the neutral nature, we feel a strange blankness, neither pleasure nor suffering. This differs from the neutrality of equanimity, which still perceives pleasure and suffering but holds the mind in balance, without liking or disliking. When the mind rests in balance, the wholesome of even-mindedness (tatramajjhattatā) arises bright and clear, drawing in pure energy to purify the defilement that had unbalanced the mind.
Mind: When the Ruling Nature's Thoughts Overlay Our Own
Determining the mind means observing whatever thoughts arise. Every thought is the thought of a mental factor drawn in and overlaid onto the human mind. If the ruling nature is unwholesome, it overlays thoughts distorted from the truth, meant to pull us down, channeling in the thinking of wandering spirits, hungry ghosts, animals, and hell-beings — bringing in greed, hatred, and delusion. If the ruling nature is wholesome, it overlays thoughts that are correct, intelligent, and good, guiding us in ways that feel like our own ideas.
The Body's Center and the Crystal Buddha Image: Sammā Arahaṃ
Phra Ajarn Suraphong guided attention to , an important location, to be practiced repeatedly until two lines appear crossing like an X at the body's center, two finger-widths above the navel — a Buddha image seated within a crystal sphere, filling the lap. This is . He instructed practitioners to recite, with deep, subtle awareness, "Sammā Arahaṃ, Sammā Arahaṃ." When we utter the name, the image appears within the crystal sphere. "Sammā Arahaṃ" is the descriptive name of the Arahant Dhamma body, meaning one who practices well, rightly, in a way that leads far from all defilement.
Form and Name Are a Pair: The Meaning of Sammā Arahaṃ
Luang Phor taught that form and name are always paired. When we utter the name, the form — the Buddha image — appears at the center of our mind. Once it appears, it expands and merges as one with us. It does not appear for nothing: it takes the elements of seeing, memory, thought, knowing — earth, water, wind, fire, space, and consciousness — and refines them into purity, dissolving defilement. Its wish is for us to merge into one unity with it, because it is our true self.
Wearing the Feeling of Being the Buddha Image: A Technique for Merging as One
We can merge with the image easily by wearing the feeling that we are the Buddha image, and the Buddha image is us — letting our entire body become the crystal , shining, cool, clean, and pure, from the crown of the head with its bright lotus-bud finial, the serene face, forehead, cheeks, nose, mouth, chin, both arms to the fingertips, chest, abdomen, back, hips, thighs, knees, shins, calves, and soles — all becoming the refined, soft, gentle crystal Dhammakāya.
Luang Phor's Teaching: "Easy If Easy, Hard If Hard" — and Cultivating Cessation Attainment
Luang Phor once said that reaching the crystal Buddha image is easy if easy, hard if hard — easy because one knows and understands the mind is an accomplishing element: however you determine it, so it becomes; and one understands that the image is one's true self, not something to be created but something already present. When we recollect it, it appears bright at our center — accept whatever degree of clarity you perceive, and even if you cannot see it, simply feel that it is there. Once we've merged our body with the image's body as one, we merge our mind with its mind as well. The Dhamma body dwells at our center, cultivating ceson attainment (nirodha-samāpatti) — gathering the mind to stillness in order to refine the elements to purity. Whatever the image does, we do the same: still within stillness, calm within calm, soft, relaxed, and at ease, going deeper and deeper toward the center of the center.
The Stream of Merit Flows When We Stay Continuously, Unfailingly Aware
Phra Ajarn Suraphong emphasized: stay continuously aware, never absent-minded, resting with the crystal image, with whatever we give our attention to — the stream of merit will flow ceaselessly through our mind. When we practice, cultivating and doing good for ourselves by determining and staying continuously aware, the sphere of knowing draws in pure energy together with refined treasures and the blueprint of accomplishment, flowing in to purify defilement completely. Once the defilement binding us to the coarse dimension is gone, we are liberated into a subtler dimension, and our status keeps improving.
Radiating Loving-Kindness to the Boundless Universe
Having done good for ourselves, we go on to benefit all beings and people through , setting the wish that all beings who share the suffering of birth, aging, sickness, and death be free from suffering and find everywhere. We expand this mind filled with loving-kindness to cover our home, village, sub-district, district, province, the whole country, neighboring countries, and finally the entire world, turning it into a shining crystal orb, cool, clean, and pure. May earth-bound devas, sky devas, celestial beings of every heavenly realm, Brahmas, formless Brahmas, and even hell-beings, hungry ghosts, and animals be free from suffering and find happiness everywhere. We then expand further into the atmosphere of the cosmos, covering countless stars, out to ten thousand world-systems and the boundless universe.
Dedicating Merit to Karmic Counterparts and Family, Merging with the Triple Gem
Phra Ajarn Suraphong dedicated this merit to all people and beings, our ancestors, parents, siblings, grandparents, teachers and benefactors, the devas who help us, our caretakers, and all the beings we have ever wronged, our karmic counterparts (คู่กรรมคู่เวร), asking forgiveness on both sides and that they too receive a share of this merit. We then gathered the mind to stillness within the pure merit-element, settling into the Triple Gem — the Buddha Jewel, the Dhamma Jewel, the Sangha Jewel — and into the center of the Great Preceptor and the refined Dhamma bodies of Luang Pu and Luang Phor.
Setting the Blueprint of Success and the Closing Chant
When we recollect them, we and they appear bright at the center of Nibbāna. For any being established in universal goodness — regardless of religion, or none at all, so long as their heart is good — the stream of merit likewise flows through their heart at that moment. Nibbāna takes this flowing merit-element and refines and helps us further. Phra Ajarn Suraphong then led the setting of a within this bright sphere of merit, asking that all merit combine into a sacred, powerful force, freeing us from calamity and the effects of past kamma, granting the Dhamma-eye and full penetration of the of Dhammakāya, good health, and prosperity in whatever business or work we undertake, 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. Sādhu."