พระอาจารย์สุรพงค์นำนั่งสมาธิ อธิบายว่าองค์พระธรรมกายแก้วที่ปรากฏขึ้นกลางใจเมื่อเราภาวนา "สัมมาอะระหัง" นั้นไม่ใช่เพียงภาพนิ่งที่เราจินตนาการขึ้น แต่มีชีวิตจิตใจจริง ยิ้มได้ พูดได้ คุยได้ เช่นเดียวกับเรา ก่อนนำผู้ปฏิบัติหลอมรวมกายใจเป็นหนึ่งเดียวกับท่าน แผ่เมตตา และอุทิศส่วนบุญIn this guided sit, Phra Ajarn Suraphong teaches that the crystal Buddha image (Dhammakaya) that appears at the center of the heart when we recite "Samma Arahang" is not a static picture we merely imagine — it has genuine life and consciousness, able to smile, speak, and converse with us. He then leads practitioners through merging body and mind with the image, radiating loving-kindness, and dedicating the merit.
Meditation practice is vital for every life, because our lives depend on the pure energy of merit to sustain our humanity, drive us past suffering, and bring . From the moment we wake until we sleep, energy is constantly flowing through us — some wholesome (), some unwholesome (), and some neutral (abyakata) — alternating endlessly. Whichever nature is subtler manages to seize the "host" position in our heart first.
When a wholesome nature is the host, it draws pure merit energy in to run system, refining our elements until life is met with happiness, prosperity, rightness, and fulfillment. When an unwholesome nature takes hold, it draws in sinful energy — defilement — that degrades our elements, bringing suffering and danger. And when the neutral nature dominates, life becomes aimless, the mind drifting without any anchor.
Cultivating Right Mindfulness: Knowing Body, Feeling, Mind, and Dhamma
The Buddha taught the way to abide with the wholesome nature: "Monks, you should clearly know the body, feelings, mind, and -objects, in order to eliminate craving and aversion toward the world." To "determine" means to mark, to specify — and there are only these four places the Buddha emphasized, because whenever a nature possesses us, it overlays its own s onto our heart, controlling body, feeling, mind, and dhamma under its influence. By determining awareness at these four places, we can learn and verify the truth of whatever nature has entered our heart.
Wherever we direct our attention, the mind settles there. Mark the feet, and the mind rests at the feet, sensing cold, heat, softness, hardness immediately. Mark the abdomen, and as it rises and falls with the breath, arises. Or mark the breath striking the nostrils — knowing the in-breath, knowing the out-breath — and the sphere of mindfulness, itself a wholesome dhamma-sphere, arises just the same. Once mindfulness is established, it continuously draws pure merit energy into the center of its own brightness.
Merit Is the Cleanser of Defilement
The merit that flows in drives the wholesome system, refining our elements and clearing away all defilement (มลทิน) until it vanishes. This defilement is what causes problems and obstacles, making life and practice difficult. Only merit can clear it away — nothing else can cleanse the heart's impurities. And crucially, we ourselves are not the one doing the cleansing — merit, which is itself, is the cleanser. Purity and defilement are natural enemies. But purity-as-merit can only arise through determined awareness, with mindfulness as the channel that draws it in, while we are simply the one who determines.
Once mindfulness arises it needs a clear, continuous signal to anchor to — like a buoy floating on water. Our teachers therefore recommend using a mantra (บริกรรมภาวนา) together with a mental image (บริกรรมนิมิต). The mantra should be recited from a deep, subtle level of consciousness — because the mind is a "element of accomplishment": however you set it, so it becomes. Setting it with deep, subtle awareness connects it to an equally deep, subtle background.
"Samma Arahang": Uttering the Name Brings the Form
"" is a nemittaka-nama — a name derived from qualities. It means "the One who has practiced well, practiced rightly, practiced the path away from all defilements." The moment we utter his name, he appears in the heart — because dhamma can arise nowhere else but the heart, the one vessel that receives dhamma whether wholesome, unwholesome, or neutral. Wholesome dhamma always takes the form of a clear, bright sphere — a kind of container holding its own unique quality within, which is why we name each one according to what it holds: (metta), compassion (karuna), each a bright sphere carrying its own current of that quality.
The Buddha-Image Is Truly Alive — Smiling, Speaking, In Conversation
Samma Arahang works the same way. When we utter his name, a stream of light appears at the center of our heart — a crystal Buddha image, clear and pure, seated within a bright dhamma-sphere. **He has genuine life and consciousness, just as we do — able to smile, speak, and converse with us.** He is endowed with the qualities of Perfect Wisdom, Perfect Purity, and Great Compassion, the defining attributes of the Body. When he appears, he does not appear for nothing — he takes our seeing, remembering, thinking, knowing, and our elements of earth, water, wind, fire, and space, and refines them until they are pure, clearing all defilement to nothing.
Not only that — he also expands and overlays himself, becoming one with our physical body, protecting, guarding, and caring for our human existence. The Dhamma Body is the Triple Gem residing within every human being — he is our true self. His wish is for us to become one unity with him, because that unity allows him to help and support us with maximum efficiency and the greatest possible result.
Merging Into One With the Buddha Image
To merge with him into one unity, we take on the feeling that we are the Buddha-image, and the Buddha-image is us — the way an actor, playing a role, fully takes on the feeling of that character; the mental factors of that character then arise at the center of the heart and display their qualities, which the heart perceives as its own experience: whatever the heart knows, that is what we know. Using this same principle, we take on the feeling that we are the One who has practiced well, practiced rightly, practiced the path away from all defilements, reciting "Samma Arahang" repeatedly with a relaxed, open, light, clear, cool, pure heart.
Visualizing the Whole Body as the Crystal Dhamma Body
Let our entire body become the radiant crystal Dhamma Body — clear, cool, pure — from the crown of the head, radiant as crystal with a lotus-bud crown gleaming with light; the face as the Buddha's countenance; the forehead clear crystal; the eyes as the Buddha's eyes, radiant, clear, and cool, eyelids gently closed with the faintest smile; the nose, cheeks, mouth, chin, and throat all part of the crystal Dhamma Body, delicate, soft, and gentle. The shoulders and both arms down to the fingertips, the chest, abdomen, and back, the hips, thighs, knees, shins, and the soles and backs of the feet — all of it, entirely, the radiant, clear, cool, pure crystal Dhamma Body.
Stopping Within Stopping, Stilling Within Stillness — Toward the Center of Center
Once body and his body are merged into one, merge mind and his mind as well. The Dhamma Body abiding within us cultivates the attainment of ceson, refining our elements to purity by stopping the mind and stilling the mind — so we do the same. Stop within stopping, still within stillness, soft, relaxed, light, clear, cool, pure — at the center of the Buddha-image, the center of our heart, the center of our body. Stay continuously aware, never distracted — whatever you determine, know that. Stop within stopping, still within stillness, moving into the center of the center, again and again, directing the mind straight toward the path to Nibbana — not left, not right, not forward, not back, not up, not down — straight into the center of the center, on and on.
Appearing at the Center of Nibbana
As we settle continuously into the center of the center, we appear radiant within the center of Nibbana — the center of every Buddha, every Silent Buddha, and every Arahant, countless beyond number. Nibbana holds all beings within its own center. Any being who abides in universal goodness — regardless of religion or belief — will likewise find the Triple Gem shining brightly within them, and the stream of merit will continuously well up in their heart.
Radiating Loving-Kindness Across the World and the Universe
While we shine at the center of Nibbana, we bring great benefit to the world and all beings by cultivating loving-kindness (metta). We draw upon the heart of a mother who loves and wishes only good for her young child — a heart of pure metta so profound it would give even its own life. Setting this heart within us, radiant loving-kindness arises and expands to cover our home, then our village, sub-district, district, province, country, neighboring countries, and finally the entire world — making it a crystal world, radiant, clear, cool, and pure — reaching earth-bound devas, sky devas, brahma and formless-brahma beings, as well as hell-beings, asuras, and animals. May all beings be free from suffering and find happiness.
We then extend it further still, covering countless stars and worlds, out across ten-thousand world-systems and uncountable universes. This loving-kindness also purifies the environment itself — earth, water, trees, mountains, buildings, homes, and belongings — making everything a fit place for beings to dwell. Whoever brings benefit to the world and universe may in turn draw upon the shared resources of that world and universe.
Dedicating Merit and Forgiving Karmic Debts
As we stop and still the mind within the continuously welling stream of merit, we dedicate this merit to all beings, our ancestors, relatives, parents, siblings, grandparents, and benefactor teachers, the devas who help and protect us, and all our **karmic counterparts** (คู่กรรมคู่เวร) whom we may have wronged — asking for mutual forgiveness and inviting them to share fully in this merit. We then settle, immersed, in the center of happiness, the center of purity, the center of the radiant merit-element, the center of the Triple Gem, and the center of the exceptionally refined Dhamma Body of our revered teachers — Luang Pu, Luang Phor, and Khun Yai Acharn.
The Closing Aspiration
In this most auspicious moment, we pay respects and ask for blessings, setting an intention that anchors deep within this radiant sphere of merit — that our entire path of building perfections be filled with , happiness, and purity, that all the merit accumulated since our very first life converge into sacred, powerful merit clearing away all misfortune, karmic obstacles, and difficulties, granting the eye of Dhamma and full penetration into the Vijja Dhammakaya, sound health, long life, and unwavering resolve to build perfections all the way to Nibbana. And when this life ends, may we be reborn in the Dusita heaven's special merit circle in the realm of the Bodhisattvas, and when we return to build perfections as humans, may we be born into a family of right view, complete and warm, whole in every kind of wealth and — closing with the traditional chant of homage to all Buddhas.