คำสอน · พระอาจารย์สุรพงค์Teaching · Pra Ajarn Suraphong
บุญกิริยาวัตถุ 10: คุณงามความดีที่ธรรมชาติฝ่ายกุศลชี้นำให้เราทำThe Ten Bases of Merit-Making: The Goodness That Wholesome Nature Quietly Points Us Toward
พระอาจารย์สุรพงค์อธิบายว่าเมื่อเราดำรงอยู่ในระบบกุศลธรรม ธรรมชาติฝ่ายกุศลจะชี้นำให้เราทำความดีสิบประการโดยที่เราคล้ายคิดไปเอง แล้วไล่เรียงบุญกิริยาวัตถุ 10 ทีละข้อ พร้อมอธิบายกาย เวทนา จิต ธรรม อุเบกขา และนิวรณ์ ก่อนนำเข้าสู่การเจริญสมถะที่ศูนย์กลางกาย น้อมนึกภาพองค์พระธรรมกายแก้วPhra Ajarn Suraphong explains that once we abide in the wholesome system, wholesome nature quietly guides us toward ten kinds of goodness that feel like our own idea. He recites the full traditional list of the ten bases of merit-making, then unpacks body, feeling, mind, dhamma, equanimity and the hindrances, before leading a samatha practice centered on the crystal Buddha image at the body's center.
Meditation practice is necessary and vitally important for every life, because we live under the control of three kinds of nature, and only nature can give us , understanding, correctness and goodness, , , and success in what we hope for. Every other nature gives us no benefit whatsoever, and if it is unwholesome it brings us a great deal of suffering and harm besides. This is why we must learn to understand how to abide within the wholesome system.
The Buddha's Teaching on Determined Knowing
The Buddha taught, in the passage on : "Monks, you should clearly determine and know the body, feelings, mind, and mental objects, in order to remove covetousness and grief regarding the world." To determine is to mark something, to specify and point at it — wherever we point, the mind is placed; this is called attention. Once we pay attention and go in to know, the sphere of knowing — — arises in the center of the mind at that very point; this is called setting the intention. This arising mindfulness draws in pure energy — merit — together with refined treasures and completed blueprints, flowing through wherever we have placed our attention, whether at the rising and falling of the abdomen, at the breath (), at , or simply in bodily awareness.
Merit Purifies Defilement and Carries Us to Subtler Dimensions
The pure energy that flows in purifies the elements obscured by , lightening and eventually clearing them. As the obscuring elements lighten, a subtler dimension opens up; continuing this practice brings forth brightness at that very point. A subtler dimension means a more refined one: its defilements are fewer, its resources more refined, the treasure within our sphere of merit more valuable, its completed blueprint more exquisite, and the wise, capable beings who dwell there more knowledgeable guides for us. All of this is simply the fruit — the reward — of liberation. The more we become liberated, the more refined the dimension we can reach, and the greater the proportion of wholesomeness within us grows as the proportion of unwholesomeness declines.
The Ten Bases of Merit-Making: The Goodness Wholesome Nature Quietly Points Us Toward
Abiding in the wholesome system brings many other forms of goodness besides. Wholesome nature quietly guides us to perform good deeds that feel like our own idea — namely **giving (dāna)**, **observing precepts ()**, **cultivating meditation (bhāvanā)**, **being humble and respectful (apacāyana)**, **being of service in others' affairs (veyyāvacca)**, **rejoicing in others' merit (pattānumodanā)**, **sharing one's own merit (pattidāna)**, along with **listening to the (ssavana)**, **discussing the Dhamma (dhammasākacchā)**, and **straightening one's views to accord with reality (diṭṭhijukamma)**. These, and many acts like them, are the goodness that wholesome nature guides us to do.
Determined Knowing in Four Grounds: Body, Feeling, Mind, Dhamma
Abiding within the wholesome system, we can practice determined knowing in the four grounds the Buddha taught: body, feeling, mind, and mental objects. The body is whatever pertains to the physical form, resting on the nervous system across the skin. Feeling pertains to the mind and takes three forms — pleasure, pain, and neither-pleasure-nor-pain. When a wholesome nature manages to take the house, its quality manifests as ease and comfort; when an unwholesome nature takes the house, its quality manifests as suffering — a state that must be endured, and is hard to endure. When a neutral nature takes the house, we simply feel blank — neither pleasure nor pain.
The Difference Between Neutral Blankness and Genuine Equanimity
This blankness differs from the wholesome quality of equanimity (upekkha). Equanimity is the capacity to know both pleasure and pain, liking and disliking, as they arise — it perceives them, but that perception does not sway with whatever stimulus arises. Equanimity keeps the mind balanced, settled in the middle, unshaken by provocation. The mind, meanwhile, is the domain of thought and conceptual proliferation — an inner voice. Mental objects (dhamma) are what appear in the mind as the result of s, the emotional coloring of the mind. Whenever some nature manages to possess the mind, we take on its consciousness and mental factors as an overlay; its thoughts and feelings appear in our mind, which is simply our instrument of knowing — whatever it knows, we know. None of it is truly our own thinking; this is why it is said: mind within mind, dhamma within dhamma, feeling within feeling.
The Purpose of Determined Knowing: Removing Covetousness and Grief
Determined, continuous awareness has a clear purpose: the Buddha wanted us to remove covetousness (abhijjhā) and grief (domanassa) regarding the world. Covetousness is gladness accompanied by greed; grief is resentment — the suffering that produces irritation, dissfaction, anger, and varying degrees of ill-will. To remove covetousness and grief, we must settle the mind in neutrality — that is, equanimity — through the mental factor called tatramajjhattatā, which establishes equanimity of its own accord. Simply by maintaining determined, unbroken awareness, the wholesome system continues to operate, bringing about purification and liberation automatically.
Tranquility and Insight: The Hindrances Must Be Cleared First
Practicing determined knowing of body, feeling, mind, and dhamma can aim either at calm free from the defilement of , or at wisdom — understanding, according to reality, how the natures that vie to possess us actually operate. But so long as the hindrances remain, it is difficult to perceive the mechanism that governs all beings, so we must first clear the hindrances to some degree. Cultivating basic meditation () is therefore necessary as a foundation, though we may study the fundamentals of () alongside it — relying at first on an external guide, our teacher, until we can connect with the wisdom within.
Cultivating Tranquility at the Center of the Body: Samma-Arahang
Our teachers instruct us to settle the mind at the center of the body. As we do, an image appears: two lines crossing at the level of the navel — one stretched from the navel to the spine, the other from the right side of the waist to the left — meeting two finger-widths above that point, the seat of the mind. We place our attention there, and as we settle into determined knowing, a bright, clear, round sphere of mindfulness arises. We then silently recite, with a relaxed and light heart, from deep and subtle awareness: "Samma-Arahang." This is the epithet of the Dhammakaya — the one who practices well and rightly, whose practice leads away from every defilement.
The Crystal Buddha Image Appears: Merging Into One Unity
As we utter this name, the figure appears in the center of our mind — a crystal-clear, pure, radiant Buddha image, crowned with an unopened lotus bud, bright and gleaming, its entire form a crystalline, pure figure. When it appears, it brings with it the elements of seeing, remembering, thinking, and knowing, along with earth, water, wind, fire, space, and consciousness, purifying them and clearing away defilement, then expands to overlay and become one with our human body. Our Grand Teacher once said that the clarity of this vision ranges anywhere from 1% to 100% — whatever we can perceive is enough to work with. This figure already dwells within us; it belongs to each of us individually — the Triple Gem is our own, always with us. Its wish is for us to merge into one unity with it, by adopting the felt sense that we are the Buddha-image and the Buddha-image is us, so that our whole body — head, face, shoulders, arms, torso, down to the feet — becomes the crystal Dhammakaya, bright, clear, cool, clean, and pure.
Still Within Still, Silent Within Silence: Aiming Straight Toward Nibbana
Once body merges with body into one unity, let mind merge with mind as well. As the figure enters absorption, settling into stillness, we settle into stillness too — still within still, silent within silence, soft, light, and at ease, clear, cool, clean, and pure, in the very center of the center, the center of the Buddha-image, the center of the sphere of knowing, aiming straight toward the path of Nibbana. This is our goal: resting with the Triple Gem, settling the mind into stillness, directing our consciousness straight toward Nibbana — something we must reinforce again and again, training ourselves to abide in the center of the Triple Gem, the center of Nibbana, so that we receive guidance and correction from the boundless, wise, and powerful beings — every Buddha, every Paccekabuddha, and every arahant.
Radiating Loving-Kindness to All Beings and the Universe
Abiding in the center of the Triple Gem, we use this good occasion to benefit others through . We set the wish that all beings — our companions in birth, aging, sickness, and death — be free from suffering and find happiness everywhere; that we cause no harm to one another and hold no enmity toward each other. Loving-kindness then appears bright in the center of our being, dispelling resentment and ill-will wherever it shines. We let it expand to cover our home, 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 all beings — earthbound devas, tree devas, sky devas, every realm of heaven, brahmas, formless brahmas, and even beings in hell, the asura realm, and the animal realm — be free from suffering and find happiness. We let it expand further, across countless stars, out to boundless world-systems, without limit.
Dedicating Merit and Making an Aspiration
The stream of merit continues pouring in through the bright center of loving-kindness. We dedicate this merit to the world and all beings, to our ancestors, parents, siblings, 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 whole path of building perfections may be filled with knowledge, 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.