พระอาจารย์สุรพงค์บรรยายลักษณะองค์พระธรรมกายแก้วอย่างละเอียด ทั้งท่านั่งขัดสมาธิ มือขวาทับมือซ้าย นิ้วชี้จรดหัวแม่มือ และประทับบนแผ่นฌานทรงกลม พร้อมสอนหลักกำหนดรู้กายเวทนาจิตธรรม การภาวนาสัมมาอะระหัง และการเจริญเมตตาธรรมแบบเต็มรูปแบบPhra Ajarn Suraphong gives an unusually detailed physical description of the crystal Dhammakaya image — its crossed-leg posture, the right hand over the left with index finger touching thumb, seated on a round jhāna disc — within a full teaching on the four foundations of mindfulness, the mantra Sammā Arahaṃ, and loving-kindness meditation.
Meditation practice is necessary and vital for every life, because we need merit to sustain our human existence, to stand, walk, sit, and lie down in a normal, peaceful way. With merit, follows. Whatever we try to learn or understand, merit helps clear away the elements that obscure and conceal, so we can know and understand. In work and business, merit clears away problems and obstacles so we can succeed. No other nature can be of any benefit to us — a neutral nature merely lets our life pass by uselessly, while an unwholesome nature aims only to harm and destroy. Only a wholesome nature can truly benefit us. To abide with that wholesome nature, we must learn and train ourselves.
The Foundation: Knowing Body, Feeling, Mind, and Dhamma
The Buddha taught: "Monks, you should clearly discern body, feeling, mind, and , to remove craving and aversion toward the world." He taught us to develop through "determining" — fixing our attention, pointing at a specific spot, whether the feet, the fingers, the breath, the abdomen, or the whole body at once. Wherever we point, the mind is placed there, and arises. The sphere of mindfulness is a bright, clear, round sphere — invisible to the physical eye, but visible through the -eye of the Dhammakaya. Once mindfulness, a sphere of wholesomeness, arises at the center of the mind, it induces pure energy — merit — to flow continuously into the brightness at its center. We only need to keep observing without lapsing. If we lapse, that's fine too — mindfulness simply fades, and the flow of energy pauses; the moment we recall ourselves, mindfulness returns and the flow of pure energy, merit, resumes continuously.
Feeling, Mind, and Mental Factors: The Mechanism That Overlays the Mind
Feeling (vedanā) consists of only three senons: pleasant, unpleasant, and neither-pleasant-nor-unpleasant. Observe how you feel right now — if it is pleasant, the nature that has taken possession is wholesome; if unpleasant, unwholesome; if neutral, it is the neutral (abyakata) nature. We simply ac things as they truly are, and this itself helps mindfulness arise, letting us observe whatever appears. As for mind (citta), when a wholesome nature enters, it overlays its own wholesome body-feeling-mind-dhamma onto the human body-feeling-mind-dhamma, and our thinking becomes the "voice of thought." The () is the mood that binds the mind into one unified state. The mind itself is neutral — wholesome, unwholesome, or neutral mind-states can all overlay it as a resting place. Whatever nature possesses the mind, its thoughts and feelings appear as our own thinking. If wholesome, that inner voice is good; if unwholesome, it is unwholesome, unclean, contrary to Dhamma. The energy drawn in differs entirely depending on which nature has become the "owner of the house."
Removing Craving and Aversion Through Equanimity
In observing body, feeling, mind, and dhamma, the Buddha taught us to observe in order to know and understand, then let go of craving and aversion, removing delight and distress toward the world. Once removed, the mind rests in neutrality, undisturbed by any stimulus, and the mental factor of equanimity (tatramajjhattatā) arises, drawing pure energy — merit — into each sphere of wholesome mental factors. This produces lightness, honesty, and a body and mind that grow agile, refined, gentle, and soft. All of this happens automatically through the mental factors — not because we will it to happen. We simply need to understand the principle and apply the right cause, giving sufficient, sustained effort. When facing hardship, and fortitude help us push through toward the truth. Merit arises in two situations: when we intend to do good, and when we resist doing wrong.
Softening the Eyes and the Seventh Base at the Center of the Body
Our teachers advise us to soften our closed eyes slightly, letting a little light through, which dispels drowsiness, dullness, and distraction. That trace of light lets us perceive more clearly the inner point at the center of the abdomen — at . This is a vitally important point, the gateway that leads straight toward nibbāna. Once we've settled there, we recite: Sammā Arahaṃ, Sammā Arahaṃ, Sammā Arahaṃ. This phrase is a name given according to quality — meaning "the one who practices well, practices rightly, practices in a way that leads far from every defilement."
The Form of the Crystal Dhammakaya
When we utter this name, a form appears, because name and form always come as a pair. It appears as a sphere, a crystal Buddha image, clear, clean, and pure, crowned with a lotus-bud finial, streaming with brilliant, shimmering light. **He sits cross-legged, right leg over left, right hand resting over the left, the index finger of the right hand touching the tip of the left thumb, seated upon a round, flat disc, resting within a sphere of Dhamma that fills the whole lap.** As we utter "Sammā Arahaṃ," this crystal figure appears at the center of our mind, arriving together with his function: to refine our seeing, remembering, thinking, and knowing — our earth, water, wind, fire, space, and consciousness elements — into clarity and , for he is our true, authentic self. He also expands and merges as one with our human body, out of his wish that we and he become a single unity.
Merging the Body Into the Crystal Dhammakaya
We can merge into oneness with him by adopting the feeling that the crystal Buddha is ourself, and we are the crystal Buddha — that our entire body, head to toe, is the radiant, cool, clean, pure crystal Dhammakaya. From the crown of the head, the face, cheeks, shoulders, arms, and torso — all crystal, shimmering, radiant, refined, gentle, and soft. Our face becomes his face, eyes gently closed with a faint, serene smile; the forehead, nose, mouth, chin, and cheeks all clear, cool, clean, and pure. The shoulders, arms, torso, chest, abdomen, hips, thighs, knees, shins, calves, and the soles and backs of the feet — all become the crystal Dhamma body, clear and cool. We are the crystal image; the crystal image is us.
Stopping Within Stopping, Stilling Within Stillness
Once body and body have merged into one unity, we merge our mind with his mind as well, by gathering the mind into a single, unified stillness — stopping the mind, stilling the mind, soft and at ease, at the very center of the crystal figure. Stopping within stopping, stilling within stillness, at the center of the center of the crystal image, the center of ourselves, the center of our mind. As we settle still into his center, a sense of spaciousness and ease arises; the mind expands. This shows we are being freed from one dimension, stilling into the center of him — a state of openness, ease, clarity, coolness, cleanliness, and purity arising continuously. Not left, not right, not forward, not back, not up, not down — only into the center of the center of that spaciousness and ease. If you can't yet break through, that's fine too — simply keep the mind still, relaxed, without straining or forcing, as if resting and enjoying a quiet moment, the way we do every day after finishing our duties, washing the body, and now washing the mind through this practice.
Radiating Loving-Kindness Across the Universe
Once we've done good for our own body and mind, we turn to benefit the world and all beings through . Simply set the intention of goodwill — as the revered Grandmaster taught, drawing on the mind imbued with a mother's love and goodwill for her small child — and this sphere of loving-kindness appears bright at the center of our being, drawing in pure energy, merit, to flow into its brightness. This light of loving-kindness then purifies every particle of the atmosphere, the environment, all people, beings, and things, making them radiant, cool, clean, and pure. We then expand this loving mind out to our home, our neighbors, our village, district, province, country, and other nations, until it covers the whole world, turning it into a crystal world — radiant, cool, clean, pure. May the people of the world be free from suffering and find happiness everywhere; may celestial beings of every realm, heavenly beings of every tier, be free from suffering and find happiness. We then extend further to the atmosphere of the cosmos, covering countless stars, extending to ten thousand world-systems and infinite universes, so that this loving-kindness benefits all people, beings, and things without limit.
Dedicating Merit to Our Karmic Counterparties
As the stream of merit flows continuously into the brightness of loving-kindness, we dedicate this arising merit to all people and beings, to our ancestors, to our teachers of great kindness, to the devas who help and protect us, to those who raised and cared for us, and to all beings we may have wronged — our **karmic counterparties** — that we may forgive one another and share equally in this merit. We then gather the mind, still and centered, within the sphere of merit pouring continuously in, forming a stream of merit, resting still within happiness, purity, and the radiant light of the merit-element.
Merging with the Triple Gem and Setting the Resolve
Gather the mind, still and centered, within the Triple Gem — the Buddha jewel, Dhamma jewel, and Sangha jewel — and rest still within the great masters, within the most refined Dhamma body of the revered Grandmaster, the Master, and the female teacher. Every single day we must merge ourselves with the Triple Gem and the great masters into one unity, so that our mind never drifts far from them, for every moment of their existence works to refine and correct our elements toward purity. Whether we stand, walk, sit, or lie down, they continue guiding us as though it were our own good thought arising, keeping us in what is right and good. Every time we recall them, we appear bright within them, and they appear bright within us; both we and they appear radiant within nibbāna. We take this opportunity to pay homage, setting our resolve — a — fixed within this bright sphere of merit, so that our entire path of building perfections, from now on to the very end of Dhamma, unfolds with knowledge, happiness, purity, and success in all that is right and good. The session closes with the traditional Pali chant, dedicating the boundless power of every Buddha to bring these wishes to fulfillment.