พระอาจารย์สุรพงค์ชี้ให้เห็นว่าความคิดฟุ้งซ่านที่วนเวียนไม่หายนั้นแท้จริงไม่ใช่ของเรา แต่เป็นธรรมชาติภายนอกที่เข้ามาซ้อนทับ เปรียบได้กับเด็กดื้อที่ตื้อจนเราต้องยอม พร้อมสอนหลักการกำหนดรู้กาย เวทนา จิต ธรรม เพื่อขจัดอภิชฌาและโทมนัส และนำเจริญสมาธิภาวนาแบบเต็มรูปแบบPhra Ajarn Suraphong explains why a thought that won't stop nagging you isn't actually yours — it belongs to a foreign nature that has overlaid the mind, like a stubborn child who wears a parent down until they give in. He teaches the four foundations of mindfulness and leads a full guided sit.
Meditation practice is necessary and vital for every life, because every life needs merit to sustain a normal, peaceful human existence. Without merit, there is no lasting peace. All progress and prosperity depend on merit driving the system of wholesome states — drawing the elements together and pushing us toward understanding both worldly and spiritual truth, so life can be at peace and find fulfillment in whatever is right and good. Merit can only arise when we abide within the system of wholesome . When a wholesome state arises, it induces the flow of pure energy — merit, along with refined treasures and a blueprint for success. That is why we need to learn, understand, and train ourselves to abide with the system of wholesome dhamma easily and continuously.
The Foundation: Knowing Body, Feeling, Mind, and Mental Objects
The Buddha taught: "Monks, you should clearly discern body, feeling, mind, and mental objects, in order to remove craving and aversion toward the world." "Determining" (kamnod) means fixing your attention — pointing at something specific. Wherever you point, the mind is placed there. Once the mind is placed there and we go in to know it, the sphere of knowing — the sphere of — arises. Once mindfulness arises, it induces pure energy, merit, to flow continuously into the brightness at the center of that sphere. This merit then drives system, refining and correcting our inner elements, clearing away the defilements that cause problems and obstacles. Only merit can cleanse these things. When the dimension we currently occupy is cleared of defilement, we are freed from it into a subtler dimension, and the proportion of wholesomeness increases while unwholesome force diminishes.
We are taught to observe these four bases — body, feeling, mind, and dhamma — because whenever a foreign nature seizes the chance to become the "owner of the house," it overlays its own body-feeling-mind-dhamma onto our human body-feeling-mind-dhamma, onto the mind itself, and takes control of the body. Its behavior then shows through the human body — however distorted or however wholesome, depending on which nature has entered. If that nature is wholesome, feeling registers comfort and . If unwholesome, feeling registers suffering — a state hard to bear and hard to endure. If it is a neutral (abyakata) nature, feeling registers neither pleasure nor pain.
When a Thought That Isn't Ours Overlays the Mind
When the body-feeling-mind-dhamma of whatever nature has entered overlays our own, its thoughts and feelings appear as if they were our own thoughts and feelings — even though they are not us. Many times we dislike and reject a wrong thought and try to refuse it. But why can't we refuse it? If it really were our own thought, we could simply stop thinking, stop feeling it, and it should disappear. Yet it keeps nagging at us constantly. **It is like a stubborn child who won't let up until we finally give in — we surrender to it out of sheer irritation, because we don't know how else to handle it.** This is the proof that the thought isn't ours: it belongs to the mind (citta), the knower of existence, which always arrives together with its () — the mood of the mind that manifests as a mental state in each present moment. The body-feeling-mind-dhamma of whichever nature has taken possession keeps shifting, unpredictable, according to circumstance. We can only see the truth in each present moment — never in the past, never in the future.
Resting the Mind in Neutrality
The central purpose of developing , as the Buddha taught, is to use this observation of body, feeling, mind, and dhamma to remove craving and aversion — delight and distress — toward the external world of form, taste, smell, and sound perceived through the five sense doors: eye, ear, nose, tongue, body. When we perceive these external objects, delight or aversion arises within the mind. As we observe body, feeling, mind, and dhamma, we let the mind rest in neutrality — not delighting, not resisting, not elated, not upset. A good experience: stay still. A bad experience: stay still. At first a good experience is nearly impossible because defilement is still there, causing difficulty — just as anything new, whether study, sport, music, exercise, or business, is hard at the start. It takes time. Gradually, as we keep observing, the mind settles into neutrality, and the mental factor of equanimity (tatramajjhattatā) arises, balancing the mind so it no longer sways with every stimulus.
How to Observe and Choose a Signal
Observing the body can mean focusing on one part or the whole body at once. What matters is a clear, continuous signal for the sphere of mindfulness to rest upon. Stay aware without lapsing, observing pleasantly and at ease. Whatever you fix on, that is what you know; wherever you fix, that is where you know. In the seven factors of enlightenment, once mindfulness arises the wholesome system arises together with it, because mindfulness is a mental factor that only ever arises together with a wholesome mind. Next comes investigation of states (dhamma-vicaya) — examining whichever phenomenon appears, checking whether the signal is clear and continuous, such as the in-and-out breath or the steady rhythm of the heartbeat. Once you've chosen a suitable signal, you add effort (viriya). That's really all there is: mindfulness, investigation, and effort. Everything else happens automatically — clearing away defilement bit by bit until it grows light, at which point (pīti) arises naturally, developing into (passaddhi), then into stable concentration (), then into happiness, and finally into equanimity (upekkhā).
What Lies Within a Sphere of Merit
The pure energy flowing into the center of the sphere of mindfulness is a bright, clear, radiant sphere of enormous power, filled with pure, sacred elements possessed of the power to dissolve every defilement completely. Within that sphere of merit also lie refined treasures — form, wealth, , honor, praise, happiness, the path, fruit, nibbāna, and the Dhammakaya itself. When merit flows through us, these refined treasures flow through us too, and it is precisely these refined treasures that draw coarser worldly treasures toward us. Everything follows cause and effect.
Radiating Loving-Kindness
Once we have done good for ourselves, we turn to benefit the world and all beings by developing (). Simply recall the love and goodwill a mother feels for her own small child, then extend that same goodwill toward all beings, seeing them as our own children, our closest kin, deserving of our love and goodwill. Loving-kindness then arises bright and clear, drawing in the energy of merit to drive the wholesome system, letting the light of mettā shine upon people and all beings: may the people of the world and all beings be free from suffering and find happiness everywhere.
Expanding Loving-Kindness Across the Universe
Then expand this mind, transformed by loving-kindness, to cover our home, our neighbors, our whole village, district, province, country, neighboring countries, until it covers the whole world, turning it into a crystal world, radiant, cool, clean, and pure. May the people of the world and all beings — celestial beings of the earth, of trees, of the sky, the heavenly realms of every tier, the Brahma and formless-Brahma realms, as well as beings in hell, asuras, and animals — be free from suffering and find happiness. May those with much suffering have less, may those with little suffering be free of it, may those with little happiness have more, and may those already happy be happier still. Then extend further to the atmosphere of the cosmos, covering countless stars, extending to ten thousand world-systems and infinite universes. This loving-kindness also purifies every particle of the environment — earth, water, air, sky, mountains, oceans, trees, plants, buildings, and belongings — making them fit and wholesome for people and beings to dwell in peacefully.
Dedicating Merit and Forgiving Karmic Debts
Gather the mind, still and centered, in the bright sphere of loving-kindness. The stream of merit continues pouring in at the center of that radiant sphere of mettā. Then dedicate this merit to all people and beings: may all sentient beings, our companions in the suffering of birth, aging, sickness, and death, share in this merit. May our ancestors and relatives — parents, siblings, grandparents, close friends, and teachers of great kindness — along with the devas who protect and care for us, and all beings we may have wronged, our **karmic counterparties**, forgive one another and share equally in this merit.
Merging with the Triple Gem and the Great Masters
Gather the mind, still and centered, within the stream of merit, within happiness, within , within the radiant light of the merit-element. Then rest the mind, still and centered, within the Triple Gem — the Buddha jewel, the Dhamma jewel, the Sangha jewel — and within the great masters, within the most refined Dhamma body of the revered Grandmaster, the Master, and the female teacher. Every single day it is essential that we merge ourselves with the Triple Gem and the great masters into one unity, for they are of immeasurable benefit to our lives. Every single moment, without pause, they work to correct and help us, guiding and teaching as though it were our own good thought arising. Every time we recall them, we appear bright within them, and they appear bright within us; both we and they appear radiant within nibbāna.
Making the Aspiration and the Closing Chant
We take this auspicious moment to pay homage and ask for their blessing, setting a resolve — a — fixed within this radiant sphere of merit, so that our entire path of building perfections, from now on, unfolds with knowledge, happiness, and purity, and with success in fulfilling all that is right and good. May all the merit and perfections accumulated since our very first life gather together into sacred, powerful merit, purifying our body, speech, mind, and all elements — thought, memory, cognition, awareness, earth, water, fire, wind, space, and consciousness — making them radiant, cool, clean, and pure. May we be freed from misfortune, from the results of bad karma, and from obstacles of every kind; may greed, hatred, delusion, lust, , wrong view, craving, and clinging be exhausted without remainder; may we gain the eye of Dhamma and penetrate fully into the knowledge of the Dhammakaya, be strong and healthy, and have unfailing resolve to build perfections all the way to the ultimate end of Dhamma. The session closes with the traditional Pali chant, dedicating the boundless power of every Buddha to bring these wishes to fulfillment.