Merit Is What Lies Behind Every Happiness and Success in Life

Practicing meditation is essential and important for every life, because we need merit simply to sustain our human existence. Merit also lies behind happiness, success, and the fulfilment of every right and good wish, and it lets us understand the Buddha's teaching easily — without merit, understanding is very hard to come by.

The truth of life is something present in every moment; it belongs to the inner dimension and cannot be seen with the physical eye, only known and reached through the mind — which requires merit to thin the elements of ignorance that conceal it. Apart from the wholesome nature that can draw in merit, every other nature gives no benefit at all and only breeds suffering, if that nature is unwholesome. This is why we need to learn, understand, and train ourselves to dwell with the wholesome nature, so that a continuous stream of merit can flow through our hearts.

Fixing Attention on Body, Feeling, Mind, and Dhamma at the Seventh Base

The Buddha taught: "Monks, you should clearly determine the body, feelings, mind, and mental phenomena, in order to remove covetousness and grief regarding the world." To dwell with the wholesome nature we must determine, in order to go in and know. Determining means marking, specifying, pointing to, focusing — on the body, feelings, mind, and Dhamma, these four grounds only.

Wherever we specify, the mind is placed there. If we mark the abdomen, the mind is placed at the abdomen; breathing in, the belly rises, we know it; breathing out, it falls, we know it. Once the sphere of awareness arises, it draws pure energy — merit — continuously into the brightness of that sphere, thinning the covering elements of ignorance, until we can enter the inner dimension. Once inside, mindfulness turns into clear comprehension, perceiving every particle of that dimension's atmosphere, and merit flows continuously into the sphere of clear comprehension, clearing away every defilement.

Our teachers instruct us to fix attention at the body's center, the seventh base, because this position is exceedingly important — a position long concealed, since the unwholesome does not want anyone to know of it. Knowing many other things brings no benefit comparable to knowing this seventh base, which is the very gateway of the middle path leading to nibbāna.

Softly Parting the Eyelids: Between the Inner World and the Outer

In cultivating meditation with the mind resting at the seventh base, our teachers instruct us to part the eyelids softly — closing them gently, just enough for the eyelashes to touch, letting a little light through. This has great benefit: first, closing the eyes this way avoids total darkness, letting us perceive the body's center to some degree.

We also remain at the gateway of the inner world, between the inner and the outer — the inner world being the mind, the outer being the body. We do not yet enter the dark inner world where the unwholesome lies in wait with the hindrance of sloth and torpor — that blurry, groggy, drowsy state. We stay at the threshold, and chant "Samma Arahang" from a deep, subtle level of awareness. Our teachers instruct us to chant with a subtle mind; the more subtly we set our awareness, the subtler the mind becomes, connecting us with the deep inner knower behind the scenes.

Samma Arahang: The Nemittaka-nāma of the One Who Practices Well and Rightly

"Samma Arahang" is a nemittaka-nāma, meaning a name called according to its qualities. The quality of "Samma Arahang" is the one who practices well, rightly, in a way that leads far from all defilements. When we utter this name — calling him by name — he appears at once, in the middle of our heart, in the form of a clear crystal Buddha image, pure and radiant, sparkling bright, crowned with a lotus-bud finial, refined, soft, gentle, clear, and cool.

When he appears, he does not appear empty-handed. He appears bringing the elements of seeing, remembering, thinking, and knowing — earth, water, wind, fire, space, and consciousness — refining them to clarity, cleanliness, and purity. Not only that, he expands and merges as one with our human body, because he is our true self, and so he must help and support us in every possible way.

Merging as One Through the Actor's Technique

His wish is for us and him to become one, so that he can help us with the fullest efficiency and effect. The way we merge with him is to use the technique of an actor: whenever an actor plays a certain character, they adopt the feeling of that character, because recalling that character brings the corresponding mental factors to mind, becoming their means of knowing — whatever the mind knows, they know. Once they know the qualities of that character, they can adopt the feeling and perform the role convincingly.

We rely on this same principle to adopt the feeling of being the Buddha image — adopting the feeling that we are the one who practices well and rightly, far from all defilements. Simply recalling the one who is far from defilements automatically elevates our own mind. As we merge as one with him, our mind becomes clear, clean, pure, and radiant — because he is clear, and touching him, our mind becomes clear too; because he is radiant, touching him, our mind becomes radiant too.

The Simile of the Moon: The Brighter It Shines, the More at Ease We Feel

However bright he shines, we never feel dazzled — just as gazing at the moon, the more we look, the more at ease we feel. We gaze at the full moon on a clear, bright night, and our hearts grow calm and cool and radiant along with it — unlike gazing at the sun, which stings the eyes. Our entire body becomes the radiant crystal Dhammakaya, clear, cool, clean, and pure — from the crown of the head, the face, forehead, nose, cheeks, mouth, chin, throat, shoulders, both arms to the fingertips, chest, abdomen, back, hips, thighs, knees, shins, calves, and soles of the feet, all of it the radiant crystal Dhammakaya, clear, cool, clean, and pure. Our mind is a substance of accomplishment: whatever we determine, that is what arises.

Cessation-Attainment: Stopping Within Stopping, Stilling Within Stillness, at the Center of the Buddha Image

Having merged our body with his as one, we now merge our mind with his mind as one too. To do so, we need to know what he is doing within the center of our body and mind. He is dwelling in cessation-attainment, gathering the mind to stop, gathering it to be still, drawing in pure energy to sweep away every defilement. We do as he does: gathering the mind to stop, gathering it to be still — stopping within stopping, stilling within stillness, soft, relaxed, at ease, clear, cool, clean, and pure — at the center of the Buddha image, the center of our mind, the center of our body.

Buddha images arise continuously, one after another, merging as one with our body, expanding from a tiny clear point at the center outward — not left, not right, not forward, not back, not up, not down, but into the very center of the center. Whenever we enter that center, the sphere expands; whenever we still into the Buddha image, the image itself grows larger. We then send our heart and mind straight along the path to nibbāna.

The Triple Gem Beyond Religion, and the Stream of Merit from Nibbāna

Even though he has long since passed into final nibbāna, having gone, he has not truly gone — he still continues to benefit all beings, holding them within his own center, protecting and caring for them, so that sin and unwholesomeness cannot seize the body and drag it into confinement in the lower realms — hell, the realm of asuras, the animal realm. Whatever being abides in goodness, the Triple Gem shines bright within them, and a continuous stream of merit from nibbāna flows in — regardless of whether that being follows Buddhism, so long as they abide in goodness of a universal kind.

This Triple Gem is the true self of every single being — one's own, belonging to oneself, whether one is aware of it or not — just as people in the ancient, primordial past, long before Buddhism appeared in the world, already carried the Triple Gem within them. When the Buddha arose in the world, he simply pointed out this true self that everyone already possesses.

From Seven Years to Seven Days: The Buddha's Timeframe for Awakening

As we dwell with the Triple Gem, the stream of merit pours in continuously. The merit that flows in drives the wholesome system to refine our inner elements to cleanliness and purity. Once fully purified, we are liberated from one dimension into the next continuously; the proportion of wholesomeness grows while unwholesomeness is steadily pressed down. Entering ever subtler dimensions continues this way, so long as we dwell with the wholesome nature, until we reach nibbāna itself — meaning wholesomeness reaches a full 100% and unwholesomeness and neutral states reach 0%. This ordinarily requires an extremely long span of time to purify away all such defilements — except for those whose merit and perfections are already full.

Once one's merit and perfections are full, one gains the strength of heart and mind to cultivate the noble path, abiding in the factors of enlightenment, purifying and liberating continuously — **at the slowest seven years, at a middling pace seven months, at the fastest seven days** — and can attain the path, the fruit, and nibbāna. This means such a person must have a strong proportion of wholesomeness and only a light proportion of unwholesomeness, enabling them to abide continuously in the four foundations of mindfulness and cultivate the Four Noble Truths without interruption. For an ordinary person this is difficult, because the proportion of unwholesomeness remains heavy — lust, aversion, and delusion keep tempting, the hindrances keep stirring things up — so practice happens only intermittently: some sits succeed, some don't, without continuity.

The Value of Cultivating Right Mindfulness Every Evening

When we join together in this good deed of cultivating right mindfulness every single evening — after our duties are done, washing up and coming to practice — we determine the mind so the sphere of mindfulness arises, drawing in pure energy to drive the wholesome system, refining our inner elements to brightness, clarity, cleanliness, purity, and liberation from one dimension into the next continuously. Many good things await in the subtler dimensions. The merit generated when we perform good deeds is itself purer, more sacred, and more powerful, refined qualities and blueprints of success appearing within that sphere of merit carry ever greater value. Every day we come to practice, we develop and refine ourselves further, continuously dwelling within the Triple Gem and within nibbāna.

Radiating Loving-Kindness Across the Universe

Having brought benefit to ourselves, we now bring benefit to people and all beings by cultivating loving-kindness. This is a tool of the wholesome nature, for those with abundant merit to support those with less, requiring only the setting of a genuine wish for others' well-being. Because this tool carries many qualities, our revered teacher advised us to draw on the heart of a mother, full of love and goodwill for her small child, and set that radiant sphere of loving-kindness at our own heart.

We then wish: may the world and all beings be free from suffering and find happiness everywhere; may those greatly suffering suffer less; may those with little suffering be entirely free of it; may those with little happiness have more; may those already happy be happier still. We expand this loving mind to cover our home, our neighborhood, sub-district, district, province, country, neighboring countries, the whole world, turning it into a crystal world, bright, cool, clean, and pure. May the people of the world and all beings — earthbound devas, tree devas, sky devas, celestial beings of every heaven, form-realm and formless-realm brahmas, as well as beings in hell, asuras, and animals — be free from suffering and find happiness. We expand further into the atmosphere of the universe, across countless stars, and onward through the ten-thousand world-systems and the boundless universes.

Loving-kindness also refines every particle of the environment — earth, water, air, sky, clouds, mountains, seas and oceans, forests, plants, and crops, buildings, homes, and belongings — making them bright, clear, clean, and pure, creating an environment suited to the well-being of people and all beings. Whoever brings benefit into being for the world and the universe may in turn draw upon the treasures of the world and the universe.

Dedicating Merit to Benefactors and Karmic Counterparts

Gathering the mind to stop, to be still, within the radiant, cool, clean, pure sphere of loving-kindness — the stream of merit still pours continuously into its brightness. We dedicate this merit to all beings and to our ancestors and relatives. May the people of the world and all beings share in the merit we have intended and accomplished — including our parents, siblings, grandparents, uncles and aunts, our retinue, our revered teachers who have shown us kindness, the devas who help and protect us, our caretakers and guardians, and all beings we may ever have wronged, our **karmic counterparts** (khu-kam khu-wen). May we forgive one another and may all receive a share of this merit equally.

Merging with the Triple Gem and the Great Teachers, and the Closing Aspiration

Gathering the mind to stop, to be still, within the stream of merit, within happiness, purity, and the radiance of merit's substance — then gathering the mind to stop, to be still, within the Triple Gem, the Buddha Jewel, the Dhamma Jewel, the Sangha Jewel, and within the Great Teachers — the utterly refined Dhamma-body of our revered Grand Teacher, our Teacher, and Khun Yay Acharn — for they are of immeasurable benefit to us. The Triple Gem never ceases to look after us, whether we are asleep, awake, standing, walking, sitting, or lying down; the Great Teachers likewise gather merit and Dhamma for us every time we practice good deeds.

Having appeared bright within nibbāna, we take this most auspicious moment to pay respect and make an aspiration, sealing our intention into this radiant sphere of merit along the entire path of building perfections — that our lives be filled with knowledge, happiness, and purity. May all the merit and perfections we have accumulated combine into a sacred, powerful merit that refines our body, speech, mind, and elements to brightness, clarity, coolness, cleanliness, and purity, freeing us from calamity, sacred sin, karmic results, and every obstacle in life, until greed, hatred, delusion, lust, ignorance, wrong view, craving, and clinging are extinguished without remainder. May we gain the Dhamma-eye, penetrating fully into the knowledge of the Dhammakaya, attaining the Threefold Knowledge, the Eightfold Knowledge, the Six Higher Powers, the Four Analytical Insights, the Eight Liberations, and the Fifteen Conducts, complete in every respect. May we enjoy good health and long life to build merit and perfections throughout our lives, and when the time comes to leave this world, may we be born in the Tusita heaven among the assembly of future Buddhas, returning to be born into a family of right view in the human world, studying the knowledge of the Dhammakaya correctly and in accordance with the truth, always.