Why We Practice

Meditation practice is vital for every life, because our lives need pure merit energy to sustain our humanity and carry us toward happiness and prosperity. When that pure energy runs low, life suffers in every direction — health, family relationships, relationships with others, and even one's economic livelihood — all of it depends on merit to resolve problems and obstacles. Day and night, energy flows through us without pause, both merit and sin alike, which is why we must learn to abide with the wholesome system, so it draws pure energy in to power our lives.

Knowledge, Happiness, and Purity Together

The Buddha taught us to cultivate right mindfulness — clearly knowing body, feeling, mind, and dhamma — to eliminate craving and aversion toward the world. Knowing the truth of the three natures brightens our wisdom, letting us manage life correctly and clearly, giving rise to vision and the inspiration to change our lives toward what is right and good. A well-lived life needs knowledge paired with happiness *and* purity — knowledge and happiness alone are not enough, because that yields only counterfeit happiness that scatters the mind, a happiness we must keep paying for. True happiness costs nothing, has no limit, and deepens endlessly — it comes paired with purity, leading toward dispassion, liberation, purity, and Nibbana — and this we can only reach by abiding within the wholesome system.

Choosing Where to Anchor: Breath, Abdomen, or Fingertips

To abide with the wholesome system we must determine awareness at body, feeling, mind, and dhamma — beginning with the breath, marking the nostrils, knowing the in-breath, the out-breath, the short breath, the long breath. Or we may mark the rising and falling abdomen, or the touch of thumb and index finger. What matters is the sphere of awareness itself, which needs a clear and continuous signal. For those unaccustomed to the breath, a mantra together with a mental image works better, since it can be set more readily than relying on the rhythm of breathing.

The Seventh Center: A Position Unique to the Special Merit Circle

The position our teachers recommend is the seventh center of the body — the gateway straight toward the path to Nibbana. **This position may rightly be called exclusive to the special merit circle, because only those within it truly grasp how important this position is. Across the countless world-systems and infinite universes, this is the single most important position — so vast in significance that even knowing nothing else, knowing this position and how to enter its inner dimension would be enough.** It is the one position capable of bringing us the greatest benefit — connected to all eighteen bodies of our being, the seat of the Triple Gem and of Nibbana itself.

The Path from Base One to Base Six: Doubling Back Through the Body

The seventh base is not something anyone can reach easily, because reaching it requires tracing back through bases one through six first. **Base one sits at the tip of the nostrils; base two at the inner corner of the eye; base three at the center of the skull; base four doubles back to the roof of the mouth; base five sits above the Adam's apple; base six sits at the center of the body, level with the throat opening; and upon reaching base seven, one must double back another two finger-widths.** Only then does one reach the position from which the inner dhamma-sphere can be accessed. Even though the path from base five to base six passes directly through this location, it does not appear there — because it is hidden, requiring that extra doubling-back of two finger-widths to be found.

The Moment Luang Pu First Discovered the Seventh Base

**When our revered teacher Luang Pu first attained the Dhamma, at the very moment he had to double back those two finger-widths, he cried out in astonishment — because it showed him why people could not reach this so easily.** This position is hidden — it does not present itself directly along the straightforward path of the first six bases; only by doubling back that extra two finger-widths can it be found.

Half-Closing the Eyes: Two Key Reasons

Luang Phor advised that resting the mind at this position requires keeping the eyes half-closed, for two important reasons. First, half-closing the eyes lets outer light assist our vision, since while the inner light has not yet appeared, outer light can help a little — allowing us to see two lines crossing in an X, two finger-widths up, with a crystal sphere and a tiny clear point at its center. Second, half-closing the eyes keeps us positioned between the outer and inner dimensions, not yet fully inside — which keeps us from falling into the trap the unwholesome nature sets, using hindrances such as drowsiness to lie in wait. Once we push fully inside, we feel dazed, confused, foggy, drowsy — a feeling that vanishes the moment we step back out to the outer world.

Familiarity Is the Key

Everything depends on familiarity — like making a friend: without familiarity there is no affection; familiarity comes first, then liking, which brings satisfaction, which in turn brings happiness, and happiness brings love. Meditation works the same way. Whichever method we grow familiar with will bring greater satisfaction than the others. As we determine awareness and establish the sphere of mindfulness, it draws in pure energy to cleanse away the defilements until they lighten and finally clear, and we can gradually enter the inner dimension — even if, at first, it remains dim and hazy, that is nothing to worry about.

"Samma Arahang": A Name Derived From Purity

Once inside the inner dimension, recite "Samma Arahang" from a deep, subtle level of consciousness — because the mind is an element of accomplishment, and setting that deep, subtle intention connects it with an equally deep, subtle inner background. "Samma Arahang" is a name derived from qualities, meaning "the One who has practiced well, practiced rightly, practiced the path away from all defilements." Uttering this name brings him forth, because form and name are always paired. Wholesome dhamma always takes the form of a clear, bright sphere — a container holding its quality within — and once that dhamma settles at the heart, its inner state displays its qualities; the heart is our organ of knowing, and whatever it knows, we know.

He Appears to Refine Our Elements

When we utter his name, he appears at the center of the dhamma-sphere that fills his seated form. He does not appear for nothing — he brings our seeing, remembering, thinking, and knowing, and our elements of earth, water, wind, fire, and space, and refines them to clarity and purity, clearing away every defilement. He is thus of the greatest benefit to our lives. Not only that — he expands and overlays himself as one with our human body, protecting and caring for us, because his wish is for us to become one unity with him — for he is our true self.

Merging Into One With the Buddha Image

To merge with him into one unity, we take on the feeling — as an actor inhabits a role — that we are the Buddha-image, and the Buddha-image is us: the One who has practiced well, practiced rightly, practiced the path away from all defilements. Let our entire body become the radiant crystal Dhamma Body, crowned with a gleaming lotus bud — the head, the face, the gently closed eyes with their faint smile, the nose, cheeks, mouth, chin, throat, shoulders, both arms to the fingertips, chest, abdomen, back, hips, thighs, down to the feet — all of it radiant, clear, cool, pure, delicate and gentle.

Stopping Within Stopping, Stilling Within Stillness — Toward the Center of Nibbana

Once the body is merged, merge the mind with his mind as well. The Dhamma Body cultivates the attainment of form-cessation, stopping and stilling the mind at the center of the body — 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 body, the center of our heart — not left, not right, not forward, not back, not up, not down — into the center of the center. As we enter, the sphere expands, the body expands, and Buddha-images well through one after another, continuously, directing us straight along the middle path within, toward Nibbana. We appear radiant at the center of every Buddha, every Silent Buddha, and every Arahant. Though they attained final Nibbana long ago, they continue to bring great benefit to the world and all beings, holding all beings within their own center, protecting and guarding them from falling into the realms of hell-beings and asuras.

Radiating Loving-Kindness to Benefit the World and Universe

Having built goodness and benefit for ourselves, we now bring benefit to the world and all beings through loving-kindness. Luang Pu advised drawing on the heart of a mother, full of love and goodwill toward her young child, and setting it within us. A sphere of loving-kindness, clear and radiant, then appears, clearing away irritation and resentment. We expand it to cover our home, village, sub-district, district, province, country, and neighboring countries, until it covers the whole world as a crystal world, radiant and pure. May the world and all beings be free from suffering and find happiness. We extend it further still, across countless stars and worlds, spanning ten-thousand world-systems and uncountable universes. This loving-kindness also purifies the environment — earth, air, mountains, oceans, trees, buildings, and homes — making it fit for beings to dwell in peace.

Dedicating the Merit and the Closing Aspiration

As we stop and still the mind within the continuously welling stream of merit, we dedicate it to the world and all beings, our ancestors, relatives, parents, siblings, grandparents, aunts, uncles, friends and companions, benefactor teachers, protective devas, and all our **karmic counterparts** (คู่กรรมคู่เวร) whom we may have wronged, asking mutual forgiveness. We then settle into the center of happiness, purity, the Triple Gem, and the exceptionally refined Dhamma Body of our revered teachers — Luang Pu, Luang Phor, and both Khun Yai Acharn. We pay respects and set an intention anchored within this radiant sphere of merit — that our lives be filled with knowledge, happiness, and purity, that all accumulated merit converge to clear away misfortune and karmic obstacles, granting the eye of Dhamma, penetration into the Vijja Dhammakaya, sound health, long life — and when this life ends, rebirth in the Dusita heaven's special merit circle, and upon returning to build perfections as humans, birth into a family of right view, a crystal family, a Dhammakaya family — closing with the traditional chant of homage to all Buddhas.