พระอาจารย์สุรพงค์อธิบายการเจริญสัมมาสติกำหนดรู้กายเวทนาจิตธรรม ทั้งสายเจโตวิมุตติและปัญญาวิมุตติที่ต้องฝึกควบคู่กัน ก่อนนำเข้าสู่การวางใจที่ศูนย์กลางกายฐานที่ 7 และเปรียบพระรัตนตรัยภายในตัวทุกคนว่าเป็นดังสถานีย่อยที่เชื่อมต่อกับสถานีใหญ่ซึ่งอยู่ที่พระนิพพาน ปิดท้ายด้วยการแผ่เมตตาธรรมและอธิษฐานจิตPhra Ajarn Suraphong teaches right mindfulness through discerning body, feeling, mind, and mental objects — covering both the path of cetovimutti and the path of paññāvimutti, which must be trained together. He then guides settling the mind at the seventh base, and offers a striking image: the inner Triple Gem within every person is like a local relay station, connected to one great main station located at Nirvana. He closes with radiating loving-kindness and dedicating merit.
Phra Ajarn opens by explaining that practice is essential for every life, because our lives are driven by energy — sometimes wholesome, sometimes unwholesome, sometimes neutral — and we live constantly under the influence of these forces. Only force truly benefits us: giving , understanding, rightness, goodness, peace, and prosperity. No other force offers any real benefit; they only bring suffering and harm. If we dwell within , it will direct us to speak and act wrongly, drawing in the energy of defilement that presses our inner elements down. This is why we must learn to understand and train ourselves to abide firmly within the wholesome system.
Developing Right Mindfulness: Discerning Body, Feeling, Mind, and Mental Objects
The Buddha taught: "Monks, you should clearly discern body, feeling, mind, and mental objects, in order to dispel covetousness and displeasure toward the world." To focus the mind is to fix and specify a point — wherever we place our attention, the mind settles there. Focusing on the breath, we know a short in-breath as short, a long out-breath as long. Focusing on the rising and falling of the abdomen, we know it rises, we know it falls. Once the area of focus becomes sufficiently pure, we enter the inner dimension, and full extends to every particle of that inner space; merit then flows into the bright center of the sphere of .
When Each Natural Force Takes Hold of the Heart
He explains that when we focus on feeling, we become aware of pleasure, pain, or neither — a direct result of whichever force has taken hold of the heart at that moment. If wholesomeness has taken hold, we feel at ease and happy. If unwholesomeness has taken hold, we feel a state that is hard to bear. And if the neutral force has taken hold, we feel a peculiar kind of blankness — neither pleasure nor pain in the ordinary sense. Focusing on the mind, we become aware of the voice of thought arising — the workings of the s belonging to whichever force is present.
Covetousness, Displeasure, and the Two Paths: Cetovimutti and Paññāvimutti
The Buddha taught discernment in order to dispel covetousness and displeasure. Covetousness is greed and delight, which the unwholesome uses as an opening to lead us toward wanting. Displeasure is aversion and dissfaction, which the unwholesome uses as an opening to stir up anger. He therefore taught us to hold the mind in balance — knowing gladness as gladness, sorrow as sorrow, delight as delight, aversion as aversion — without being swept along by any of it, relying on the mental factor of tatramajjhattatā that keeps the mind steady, unswayed.
He points out that this practice of , beyond leading to peace, seclusion, dispassion, liberation, and culminating in Nirvana, also branches into two paths. If we discern in order to understand — through the inner voice and inner feeling — this leads toward "paññāvimutti," liberation through wisdom, the path of (vipassanā). If we discern in order to arrive at peace, this belongs to "," liberation through the power of mind, the path of calm (). Though distinct, the two paths depend on each other, and we must train in both. Both begin, at root, with this very practice of right mindfulness, discerning body, feeling, mind, and mental objects.
He emphasizes that the human body's role is solely to maintain awareness without ever losing it; refining our inner elements, purifying them, and bringing about liberation all belong entirely to the wholesome system within — an automatic system we cannot interfere with.
Why We Focus at the Seventh Base
His own teachers advised focusing at at in order to reach the Triple Gem within, because this is the first gateway leading straight to the path of Nirvana. We do not know where Nirvana lies — in what universe, in what direction — but his teachers tell us it lies within the center of our own body, not outside, not on the moon or sun or in any other universe, but at the center of the body itself. We must go inward into the center of center, gently lowering the eyelids so just enough light gets through — because whether seeing within or without, light is always required. If our inner light has not yet appeared, we can rely somewhat on outer light to help.
The Recitation and the Mental Image
He teaches us to rely on the recitation ", Samma Arahang," said with a deep, subtle awareness — the mind is a wishing gem, becoming whatever we set it upon. This phrase is a name born of the qualities of the Arahant -body, our true self. When we speak his name, form follows the name, since form and name are always paired throughout the boundless universe — there is nothing but form and name. Form is the container; name is the state contained within it. We speak the name according to the qualities of that inner state.
He explains that all s, wholesome or unwholesome, share a similar round shape, but wholesome ones are bright and clear while unwholesome ones are dark. What differs is the name given, chosen according to the quality contained within each sphere. As we speak "Samma Arahang," the One Who Has Practiced Well appears, one after another, drawing in pure energy — merit — flowing continuously into the bright center of the sphere of awareness, together with a continuous stream of merit. He takes our elements of seeing, remembering, thinking, and knowing, along with earth, water, wind, fire, space, and consciousness, and refines them to be clear and pure, easing away the defilements that weigh on us.
Merging Into One With the Crystal Dhammakaya
Because he is our true self, what he wishes is for us to become one unity with him, so he can protect and care for us with the greatest effectiveness. We merge with him by taking on the feeling that we are the Buddha-image, and the Buddha-image is us, the way an actor takes on a role — letting our whole body become a radiant, clear, cool, clean, pure crystal Dhammakaya: the head a clear crystal crowned with a lotus bud, the face gently smiling, the eyes clear and radiant, the forehead, nose, mouth, chin, and neck; the shoulders, arms to the fingertips; the chest, abdomen, and back; the hips, thighs, knees, calves, and soles of the feet — all soft, tender, radiant.
Stillness Within Stillness, Into the Center of Center
Once our body has merged with his, we merge our mind with his too. He enters cessation-attainment within, gathering his mind, stopping, and stilling it, to refine and correct our inner elements toward purity; we gather our mind, stop, and still it too, at the center of the Buddha-image, at the center of our body. Stillness within stillness, softly, at ease, cool and clear, going into the center of center — not left, right, forward, back, up, or down. As the center expands, a small sphere appears within it, meaning our mind has become subtler, able to perceive an even finer state. Our mind grows finer and finer still, passing through layer after layer of increasingly refined spheres within.
Sending the mind straight toward the path to Nirvana, at the center of the Buddha-image, the center of our heart, it appears radiant at the center of Nirvana — the realm of the all-knowing, of boundless power, uncountable as the grains beyond reckoning: every Buddha, every Solitary Buddha, and every Arahant.
The Local Relay Station Within, the Main Station at Nirvana
At one point in the sit, he offers a striking image: the Triple Gem is like what is called, in the language of stations, a local relay station — a small station present within every person, every being. But there exists one great main station, located at Nirvana. When we abide with the Triple Gem, and the Triple Gem shines radiantly within us, we appear radiant within them, they appear radiant within us, and both we and they appear radiant at the center of Nirvana — the realm of the all-knowing, of boundless power, who continually watch over, correct, and help us. This image shows that the Triple Gem within each of us is never isolated — every person's inner station is linked into a single system, with Nirvana as its one great central hub.
Merit Flowing In, Defilement Cleared Away
Daily practice of right mindfulness makes us appear radiant at the center of the Triple Gem and Nirvana. They take us in hand to refine and correct us, dissolving every defilement, connecting us to the stream of merit and resources. Whatever mistakes we have made, knowingly or unknowingly, they help us correct, gradually lightening and clearing them away entirely.
Radiating Loving-Kindness
He then leads us in radiating to benefit others and all beings, having the sphere of loving-kindness arise in our heart. Once established, this Dhamma reveals its own quality — radiance — dissolving irritation and defilement, cooling the heart. We then expand this loving-kindness outward, covering our home, village, district, province, country, and neighboring countries, until it covers the whole world, making it a radiant crystal world, clear, cool, clean, and pure. May the people of the world and all beings be free from suffering and find — earthbound devas, sky devas, every heavenly realm, Brahma and formless-Brahma worlds, as well as hell-beings, hungry ghosts, and animals.
He notes that whoever brings benefit to the world and the cosmos may in turn draw upon the resources of the world and cosmos — since those shared resources belong, by right, only to those who have done good and brought benefit.
The Dedication of Merit
He leads us to pay homage and make our aspiration, setting the seal of success into this radiant sphere of merit — that the merit, glory, power, and authority of Nirvana, together with the merit of his revered teachers, combine with everything we have sincerely accumulated since our first existence, becoming sacred, powerful merit that refines our body, speech, and mind, freeing us from calamity, extinguishing greed, hatred, delusion, lust, , wrong view, craving, and clinging without a trace; granting us the eye of Dhamma, strong health, long life, and a family of right view, a crystal family, a Dhammakaya family.
He dedicates this merit to our ancestors, parents, siblings, grandparents, revered teachers, and all our karmic counterparts whom we may have wronged, asking mutual forgiveness for one another. Whatever unwholesome deeds we have committed knowingly or unknowingly in the past, may they be forgiven and never bear fruit; may we never commit new wrongdoing in body, speech, or mind. He closes with the Pali verses "Sabbe buddhānubhāvena, sabbe dhammānubhāvena, sabbe saṅghānubhāvena," and the word "Sādhu," bringing the sit to a close.