Why Practice Matters for All of Us

Phra Ajarn opens by explaining that practice is essential for every life, because our lives depend on the energy called merit to sustain our human form and to carry us through every area of life — health, safety, family relationships, and livelihood. Merit lies behind all knowledge, understanding, rightness, goodness, happiness, and success. Only the system of wholesome nature can draw this pure energy into the brightness at the center of our mind.

The Buddha's Teaching and the Meaning of "Determining"

The Buddha taught: "Monks, you should clearly determine the body, feeling, mind, and mental objects, in order to remove covetousness and grief regarding the world." Determining is the starting point for abiding with wholesome nature. Every time the wholesome side manages to seize the helm, mindfulness arises automatically. Mindfulness is recollection and recognition; once established, it continuously draws pure merit-energy into its own brightness, driving the wholesome system to refine and purify us. A human being's only task is simply to keep determining and knowing without lapsing.

How to Note Different Points of the Body

Determining means marking or specifying — wherever we point, the mind is placed there, which is called "putting the mind in." If we determine at the foot, the mind settles at the foot and registers warmth, coolness, softness, or firmness in the ground. If we determine at fingers touching, we feel their softness. If we determine at the abdomen, we know it rising and falling. If we determine at the breath, the mind settles at the nostrils, knowing the in-breath, the out-breath, long or short. Wherever the orb of mindfulness is established becomes a gateway into the inner dimension.

Feeling as an Anchor for Mindfulness

When one of the natures seizes the helm, its quality shows up at the layer of feeling. Wholesomeness appears as happiness and ease, giving mindfulness something pleasant to rest on. Unwholesomeness appears as dukkha — a state that must be endured and is hard to bear. Even while working with another meditation object, when suffering arises strongly and persistently, the mind is drawn toward it more easily. This is why the Buddha taught that when suffering arises, simply determining it is enough — there is no need to struggle against it.

Patience and Fortitude: The Benefit of Facing Suffering

Noting suffering requires a measure of endurance, since dukkha must be borne. Patience (khanti) comes together with fortitude (tapa), a kind of armor that shields us from the anguish suffering brings. If we do not give up and manage to endure, that fortitude forges a new, stronger armor we can carry into the next challenge. Facing suffering thus yields two benefits: patience itself, a clear radiant sphere, and a fresh, tougher armor of fortitude.

How Merit and Demerit Spheres Take Their Turn

When it is demerit's turn to bear fruit, the sphere of demerit releases its current and envelops the sphere of merit, producing sustained suffering. But if wholesomeness manages to seize the helm at that moment, patience and fortitude step in to lighten the burden — heavy becomes light, light disappears. Conversely, when merit's turn comes to bear fruit, the sphere of merit envelops the sphere of demerit, keeping it from exerting any power, so that only good things arise — and if wholesomeness holds the helm at that time, merit works all the more smoothly and compounds further. This is why cultivating right mindfulness matters so much: whatever karma brings, heavy turns light and light disappears.

The Seventh Base at the Center of the Body

Teachers instruct us to note at the seventh base at the center of the body: picture two lines crossing like an X, one stretched from the navel to the spine, the other from the right side to the left, and two finger-widths above that crossing point lies the permanent seat of the mind — unlike temporary seats created by determining elsewhere, such as the nose. With repeated practice at this seventh base, the crossing point gradually brightens. Phra Ajarn advises keeping the eyes very slightly open so outside light helps illuminate the inner image, since seeing — whether the inner or outer world — always depends on light.

The Sammā Arahaṃ Chant

We are taught to chant with a deep, subtle inner awareness: "Sammā Arahaṃ." This sound is transmitted from that deep, refined inner awareness, resonating within the abdomen and the mind. "Sammā Arahaṃ" is a name given according to quality — denoting the one who practices well, rightly, in a way that leads away from all defilements. When we utter this name, the crystal Dhammakaya image appears, since form and name always arise together — emerging from a small clear point at the center of the body, filling the lap in radiant clarity within the dhamma sphere.

Merging into Oneness with the Crystal Buddha Image

Once the crystal image appears, it draws in the elements of our seeing, remembering, thinking, and knowing — earth, water, wind, fire, space, and consciousness — refining them to clarity and purity. Its sole wish is that we become one with it, so we adopt the feeling that we are the crystal image, and the crystal image is us — every part of our body is this radiant, clear, cool, pure crystal Dhammakaya. We then rest the mind still at its center, gently relaxed and at ease, holding the mind in balance without delight or aversion.

"The Body and Mind Fit for Work" — A Subtler Layer of the Body Within the Body

As the mind settles into equanimity, the neutral mental factor (tatramajjhattatā) appears bright and clear, and the stream of merit flows in to purify subtler mental factors that arise together with wholesomeness — lightness of body and mind, refined gentleness of both, and, in particular, "the mind fit for work and the body fit for work." This body is the body within the body: a subtler body that arrives together with its own finer mental factors, such as the mind of a refined human body, a celestial body, or a Brahma body. When these subtler bodies superimpose themselves, they produce a distinct lightness — a sensation of floating. This is the lightness of the body within the body, not the ordinary human body, and as it develops further into the body and mind fit for work, it makes reaching still deeper concentration far easier.

Wholesomeness Appears in Every Heart, Regardless of Religion

Phra Ajarn explains that any being who abides in universal goodness has the stream of merit shining radiantly within them — meaning they abide in the wholesome system without even realizing it. The Triple Gem shines bright within them, even if they have never known or followed Buddhism at all, whatever religion they hold or none at all. As long as goodness is present, Nibbana draws the merit-element flowing through them to refine their mind toward purity, just as it does for us.

Cultivating Loving-Kindness

Our next role is to benefit the world and all beings through loving-kindness. We draw upon the heart of a mother who loves and wishes well for her young child, since the quality of loving-kindness depends on sincerity and resolve as its foundation. As loving-kindness shines bright and clear within us, we extend it to cover our home, our village, our district, province, the whole country, neighboring countries, and finally the entire world and universe: may the world and all beings be free from suffering and find happiness everywhere. Whoever benefits the world and the universe may in turn draw upon its resources.

Dedication of Merit and the Closing Chant

We rest the mind still in the stream of merit, in the Triple Gem, and in the utterly refined dhamma bodies of Luang Pu, Luang Phor, and Khun Yai Ajarn, then resolve in prayer to Nibbana for blessing. May we attain the knowledge of the Dhammakaya, enjoy good health, and build merit and perfections throughout this life. May all karmic counterparts forgive one another, and the session closes with the traditional Pali chant of dedication.