พระอาจารย์สุรพงค์อธิบายว่าเหตุใดจึงต้องขจัดนิวรณ์ธรรมก่อนจะเจริญวิปัสสนาได้อย่างราบรื่น พร้อมไล่เรียงนิวรณ์ทั้ง 5 อย่างละเอียด ตั้งแต่กามฉันทะไปจนถึงวิจิกิจฉา แล้วนำเข้าสู่การเจริญสมถะที่ศูนย์กลางกาย ด้วยบริกรรมภาวนาสัมมาอะระหัง และการน้อมนึกภาพองค์พระธรรมกายแก้วทั้งตัวPhra Ajarn Suraphong explains why the five hindrances must be cleared before insight can develop smoothly, walking through each of them in turn — from sensual desire to doubt — as "the defilement of ignorance that feeds ignorance." He then leads a full samatha practice: settling at the center of the body, reciting "Samma-Arahang," and visualizing the crystal Buddha image merging with the whole body.
Meditation practice is necessary and vitally important for every life, because we live under the control of three kinds of nature. Only system can give us benefit, understanding, correctness and goodness, and success in life, along with peace, seclusion, dispassion, liberation, , and Nibbana. Every good thing arises from the wholesome system alone. Other natures, especially , give us no benefit at all — and if we foolishly place our trust in that system, they bring us a great deal of suffering and harm instead. This is why we must learn to understand, and train ourselves to remain correctly within the wholesome system.
The Buddha's Teaching: Determine and Know Body, Feeling, Mind, and Dhamma
The Buddha taught: "Monks, you should clearly determine and know the body, feelings, mind, and mental objects, in order to remove covetousness and grief regarding the world." Even though this may sound like familiar ground, we must keep training in it, because it is the single most important matter in life — not easy, yet not impossibly hard either; it simply requires understanding and practice. "You should determine" means to determine often, continually. To determine is to mark something, to specify and point at it in order to know it. Wherever we point, our attention goes there, and the mind is placed there. When we go in to know it, the sphere of knowing — — arises in the center of the mind; this is called setting the intention.
Mindfulness Draws In Merit to Purify the Defilements
When mindfulness settles in the center of the mind, it continuously draws pure energy, together with refined treasures and completed blueprints, into the bright center of that sphere of knowing. This sphere of mindfulness is a bright, clear, round light that can only arise in one place — the mind. Every kind of , whether wholesome, unwholesome, or neutral, can only arise there; the mind receives them one at a time. When the pure energy of merit flows in, it drives the wholesome system to refine the elements and remove the defilements that create problems and obstacles. As they lighten, life's difficulties lighten too. We must therefore keep determining and knowing continuously, without lapsing, so that the wholesome system can use merit to refine away the defilements completely. Once the defilements belonging to a dimension are exhausted, liberation occurs, and we move into a subtler dimension.
Defilement's Job Is to Bind Us to the Old System
Defilement's function is to bind and hold us within its system. If it can drag us down, it will; if it cannot, it will hold us in place and stir up trouble through (nivarana), making it hard for us to abide well, while bringing in greed, hatred, delusion, and lust to pull us down further. This is exactly why we must remain only within the wholesome system, to draw in merit that clears away defilement and brings purity and liberation. If we live under the wrong system, life is never safe, progress becomes invisible, and it becomes difficult to establish ourselves in any goodness — whether in practice, in our livelihood, or in society generally. The principle is the same everywhere: stay within the correct framework.
How Body, Feeling, Mind, and Dhamma Differ From the Five Aggregates
The Buddha taught us to determine and know in four grounds — body, feeling, mind, and mental objects. He did not simply teach us to observe the five aggregates (khandha) in the abstract. Body-feeling-mind-dhamma is one framework; the five aggregates are another, though practice necessarily happens upon the aggregates. Within this framework there is a () aspect and an () aspect. The samatha aspect works toward calming and settling away from the hindrances. If hindrances are still present, we must clear them first; once they are absent, we cultivate samatha further so they do not return.
The Five Hindrances: The Defilement of Ignorance, the Food of Ignorance
The hindrances are the defilement of — they are ignorance's food, and they constantly disturb our progress in the Dhamma. They disturb us through sensual desire (kāmacchanda) — being drawn into tastes, smells, sounds, touches, and mental objects. They disturb us through restlessness and agitation (uddhacca). They disturb us through ill-will and resentment, dissfaction of every kind (byāpāda). They disturb us through drowsiness and sleepiness (). And they disturb us through doubt and hesitation (vicikicchā). When these disturb us, progress in the Dhamma becomes difficult, so we must clear the hindrances until they lighten and finally disappear. As we practice determined knowing of body, feeling, mind, and dhamma, we come to recognize these hindrances directly — an unwholesome nature takes the house and stirs them up to disturb us. All we can do is keep determining and knowing, staying constantly aware without lapsing, putting in as many hours of practice as we possibly can, so that the pure energy of merit is drawn in to cleanse them until the hindrances are gone. This requires diligence and — keep determining and knowing steadily; do not try to force them away quickly, because that only creates tension and stress, and we will never overcome them that way.
The Human Body's Only Role: Stay Aware, Never Lapse
The human body's role is simply to determine and know, staying continually aware without lapsing — nothing more is asked of it. It does not matter what we know, so long as we know something: body, feeling, mind, and dhamma, or a familiar meditation object — any is fine, so long as awareness is unbroken. We must never overreach our role; the real problem is that humans habitually try to do more than their role allows. The sphere of mindfulness itself will draw in the pure energy that clears defilement and drives the wholesome system — we do not need to force anything beyond staying aware.
Cultivating Tranquility at the Seventh Base, the Center of the Body
Our teachers instruct us in cultivating tranquility (samatha) by placing the mind at , . As we settle the mind there, an image appears: two lines crossing to form an X — one running from the navel to the spine, the other from the right side of the waist to the left — meeting at a point two finger-widths above the navel. This is where the mind resides. We place our attention there and silently recite, from deep, subtle awareness, "Samma-Arahang, Samma-Arahang." Samma-Arahang is the epithet of the Dhammakaya of the arahant — the one who practices rightly and well, whose practice leads away from every defilement.
The Crystal Buddha Image Appears in the Center of the Body
As we utter this name, the Dhammakaya appears in the center of our mind, in the center of our body, at the seventh base. When this figure appears, it does not appear empty-handed — it brings the elements of seeing, remembering, thinking, and knowing, along with the elements of earth, water, wind, fire, space, and consciousness, purifying them and clearing away defilement. It also expands and overlays, becoming one with our own body, so that our whole body — head, face, cheeks, shoulders, arms, torso, down to the feet — becomes the crystal Dhammakaya, bright, clear, cool, clean, and pure. Let us merge ourselves with this figure into one unity: we are the Buddha-image, the Buddha-image is us.
Building the Image Part by Part: The Mind Is a Servant of What It Determines
If picturing the whole body as the crystal image is not clear, build it up gradually, part by part — the knees, the shins, the shoulders, the crown, the face, the eyes, the ears — starting from whichever part comes easiest. Whether the image is clear or vague does not matter; even if we cannot see it, simply feeling that it is present is enough. The mind is a servant of what we determine — whatever we set our intention on, that is what becomes. Once body merges with body as one, let the mind also merge with the figure's mind as one. Whatever the figure does, we do the same — as the figure settles into stillness, we settle into stillness too, still within still, silent within silence, in the very center of the center, staying continually aware without lapsing, letting the sphere of mindfulness draw in pure merit-energy to cleanse the defilement that is the hindrances, until they steadily lighten.
The Result of Merging With the Buddha Image: Purification Unfolds on Its Own
When we establish this good cause by cultivating , resting in our true nature — the crystal Buddha image — the sphere of mindfulness continuously draws in pure energy, together with refined treasures and completed blueprints, driving the wholesome system to refine the elements and remove the defilements. Purification and liberation follow, moving continuously from one sphere to the next, even while we may still feel dim or unclear. This automatic process of the wholesome system brings purification every single day. If we fail to clear the defilement daily, it resurfaces in tomorrow's, the next day's, and the day-after's affairs, creating trouble — costing us money, time, effort, and health. We should therefore use every hour of practice to clear things thoroughly and completely.
Radiating Loving-Kindness to All Beings and the Universe
Having established this good cause, we go on to cultivate , bringing benefit to the world and all beings, so that goodness may arise throughout the world and the universe. We simply set the wholesome wish that all beings be free from suffering and find happiness everywhere, and radiate love, kindness, and genuine goodwill. Loving-kindness appears bright and clear in the center of our being, then expands to cover our home, our village, district, province, country, neighboring countries, and finally the whole world, until the world becomes a crystal sphere, bright, clear, cool, clean, and pure. May the world and all beings be free from suffering and find happiness. We let it expand further still, out across the galaxy, covering countless stars, out to boundless world-systems, without limit.
Dedicating Merit and Making an Aspiration
Resting still in the center of loving-kindness, the stream of merit continues pouring in without interruption. We dedicate this merit to the world and all beings, to our ancestors, parents, siblings, aunts, uncles, grandparents, and to the teachers who have shown us kindness, to the devas who help and protect all beings, and to our karmic counterparties (คู่กรรมคู่เวร) whom we may have wronged, asking mutual forgiveness. We then settle the mind still in this stream of merit, in the pure sphere of merit, in the center of the Triple Gem — the Buddha, Dhamma, and Sangha jewels — in the subtlest Dhamma-body of our Grand Teachers, and pray for their blessing to fix a completed blueprint in the center of our sphere of merit, so that our life from this point forward may be filled with , happiness, and purity. We ask that all this accumulated merit combine into sacred power that dissolves misfortune, karmic consequences, and every obstacle; that greed, hatred, delusion, lust, ignorance, wrong view, craving, and clinging be exhausted without residue; that we gain the eye of Dhamma, attain the knowledge of the Dhammakaya, enjoy strong health and long life to keep building perfections, and progress steadily toward the path of Nibbana. The sit closes with the traditional dedication chant beginning with the Sabbe Buddha verses and the word Sadhu.