พระอาจารย์สุรพงค์สอนหลักการกำหนดรู้เพื่อให้ดวงสติตั้งขึ้นและเหนี่ยวนำบุญ พร้อมย้ำว่าการภาวนาและการแผ่เมตตาไม่ต้องเคร่งเครียดจริงจัง ทำเล่นๆ เพลินๆ ด้วยใจที่ผ่อนคลายก็ได้ผลดี ปิดท้ายด้วยการแผ่เมตตาเต็มรูปแบบและบทอธิษฐานอุทิศส่วนบุญPhra Ajarn Suraphong teaches the practice of "determining" (กำหนด) attention so the sphere of mindfulness arises and draws in merit, stressing that both sitting practice and radiating loving-kindness work best with a light, playful, unforced heart rather than gripping effort. The sit closes with a full loving-kindness radiation and dedication of merit.
Meditation practice matters greatly to every life, because we need to learn to abide within the system of wholesome () , and to train properly at it. Only system can draw in the pure energy of merit that sustains a human being in ordinary well-being. Only merit can drive our lives toward what is right and good; every kind of true prosperity has merit standing behind it.
The Buddha taught: "Monks, you should clearly determine the body, feelings, mind, and mental objects, so as to remove covetousness and grief from the world." This is the key sentence to remember for developing and abiding in wholesome nature.
What "Determining" Means
To "determine" (กำหนด) means to mark, to point at, to specify — wherever the mind is placed, that is where attention lands; this is called "putting the mind in." Once placed there, we go on to notice a signal. That signal has to be clear and continuous. Signals appear at the body, feelings, mind, and mental objects — these four grounds. In the body, for example, the breath: breathing in, we know it; breathing out, we know it — this is picking up on a signal generated by the nervous system working together with the consciousness element, as the breath touches the walls of the nostrils.
What we want is the sphere of knowing — the sphere of — to arise. Even before we can see what that sphere of light looks like, simply staying aware of the signal already means mindfulness is present. Wherever we determine, that is where we notice; as long as we keep noticing, mindfulness keeps drawing in pure energy continuously. We can determine at the body, the feelings, the mind, or mental objects — whichever is easiest, start there.
Practice All Day — Even If It's Playful
Stay aware always, without lapsing; enjoy the awareness continuously. Train to keep it up the whole day. Even if it's done playfully, lightly, as long as it's kept up all day — whatever you manage today, tomorrow you'll do a little better, and the day after, better still, on and on. Keep it continuous through the day, not just during a formal sitting session and then dropped. The point of training is to learn the principle, the pattern, the method, and then carry it into every posture — sitting, lying down, talking, eating, drinking. Establish a base for the mind: wherever you determine, the mind is placed there; whatever you determine on, the mind dwells with that.
Signals to Use: Breath, Heartbeat, or a Mantra
Easy signals to notice include the heartbeat — thump, thump — or the breath touching the wall of the nostril on the in-breath, and again on the out-breath. Just two things, in and out — simple. Notice them on and on, enjoying it. Or, if you prefer to choose your own object, recite "Samma-araham" continuously and pleasantly, one syllable at a time, without stopping. Just notice, just watch, one word at a time — that's all it takes.
How Merit Flows In and Purifies Defilement
While we're noticing, the sphere of knowing — the sphere of mindfulness — draws pure energy, merit, to flow continuously into the middle of its brightness. This pure energy then comes to refine and correct the elements within us, purifying them, clearing away the defilements that cause problems and obstacles. When defilement is gone, arises, carrying us to a subtler dimension. Keep at it — a hundred times, a thousand, ten thousand, a hundred thousand, a million times.
If suffering appears more prominently than any other signal, we must determine and know that suffering, because severe suffering can knock over any meditation object. Notice the intense state with a relaxed, light heart. Train to become familiar with noticing signals during sitting meditation, then carry that training into other postures — while working, talking, even in the bathroom. Every posture needs training.
What Mindfulness Is, and Why We Stay Constantly Aware
Mindfulness is recollection, remembering. It needs a signal to cling to, to rely on for recollection — there are 40 subjects of recollection, and body-feelings-mind-mental-objects are part of that set. When we determine a signal and stay with it, the sphere of knowing — mindfulness — draws pure energy, merit, to flow continuously into its brightness. This pure merit has the character of a clear, round, luminous sphere, brimming with and purity. Within the center of that sphere of merit reside all the refined treasures: form, wealth, , retinue, gain, honor, praise, happiness, the path, fruit, nibbāna, and — all complete and present within. When merit flows through us, these refined treasures flow through us too, and it is these refined treasures that draw coarser worldly treasures to us.
How Defilement Disturbs Us
When defilement is present, it causes drowsiness, restlessness, and swings of sfaction and dissatisfaction. It sends out disturbing waves and directs us through an inner voice, an inner feeling. With more refinement we begin to see images too; with still more, still images turn into moving ones. Practicing on and on brings virtue, benefit, merit, refined treasures, and a good blueprint for success.
From Coarse to Subtle Dimensions
When merit flows through the point we're determining, that point gets purified first. The elements that obstruct and obscure grow lighter, until the obscuring element of is gone. We can then enter that dimension, relying on the position that's been purified. At first, entering the interior still feels dark, but we can tell we've entered a room, a dimension. Keep noticing, and at a certain level mindfulness turns into (), able to perceive the details of the atmosphere within. When we develop right mindfulness this way, it refines and corrects the elements, purifies them, and frees us from one dimension into a subtler one — the proportion of wholesomeness increases, and life becomes easier, more comfortable, more open, more vibrant, lighter of heart.
Loving-Kindness: Play at It, Enjoy It
Once we've done good for ourselves, we go on to create benefit for others and all beings through the practice of (). Mettā is a tool of the wholesome side, meant for those with abundant merit to support those with less. Simply determine the feeling of goodwill — that's all it takes — and the sphere of loving-kindness arises in the heart, a clear, round, luminous sphere.
The revered Great Teacher advised drawing on the heart of a mother, brimming with love and goodwill toward her young child, and establishing that as the sphere of loving-kindness. Once established, it draws in wholesome energy, merit, to flow into the brightness of the wholesome dhamma, to serve the purpose of mettā: illuminating and refining earth, water, air, sky, and the whole environment — people and beings alike — dissolving away resentment and friction.
Expand the mind imbued with this loving-kindness outward to cover your home, then your neighbors, your whole village, sub-district, district — and here he stressed: **do it pleasantly, at ease, as if playing, having fun — no need to be tense or overly serious.** Bringing benefit to the world and all beings doesn't require gripping intensity. Doing it playfully brings its own vibrancy, ease, and freshness. Everything should happen naturally — when it flows naturally, it has life in it, and it's comfortable. Comfort comes from how we hold the mind: don't grip too tightly at it. With sincerity, purity of heart, and genuineness, ease appears on its own.
Radiating Loving-Kindness Across the Three Worlds
Once the mind imbued with loving-kindness has expanded to cover everything, make the aspiration: "May the people of the world and all beings be free from suffering and find happiness, everywhere" — including earth-bound devas, sky devas, heavenly beings of every realm, form-brahmas, and also hell-beings, asuras, and animals. May those with much suffering have less; may those with little suffering be free of it entirely; may those with little happiness have more; may those already happy be happier still. Then expand the mind further out into the atmosphere of the cosmos, covering tens, hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, millions of stars, extending to ten thousand world-systems, a hundred thousand koti of universes, infinite universes. The mind expands, blossoms, becomes spacious, light, clear, cool, clean, and pure, radiant.
At first, do only as much as you can manage — that's fine for now. Practicing often gradually clears away defilement, and it becomes easier on its own. Beings of great power will come to refine and correct according to what we determine; we, as mere human beings, only determine — that is all. Once loving-kindness is established, it manifests its own qualities.
The Benefits of Practicing Loving-Kindness
The Tripiṭaka records that practicing loving-kindness for even the snap of a finger has greater merit than giving alms continuously for seven days and seven nights along a road one yojana long (about 16 kilometers). Loving-kindness doesn't only benefit sentient beings — it also nourishes the environment: earth, water, air, sky, mountains, oceans, trees and grass, buildings and homes, belongings, crops and grains — making the surroundings fit for the world and all beings to dwell in peacefully. Whoever brings benefit to the world and the cosmos can rightly make use of the treasures of the world and the cosmos.
Dedicating Merit and Settling Still
With loving-kindness established, gather the mind and settle still within the ever-flowing river of merit welling up in the brightness of that loving-kindness, and dedicate the merit that has arisen to all beings. May all beings share in this merit, be free from suffering, and find happiness — as well as our ancestors, parents, siblings, grandparents, teachers, benefactors, devas who help and protect us, and all those we have ever wronged, our **karmic counterparts** (คู่กรรมคู่เวร) — may we forgive one another and may they too receive a share of this merit.
Then gather the mind and settle still in the center of the pure element of merit, brimming with happiness, brightness, and purity. Settle in the center of the Triple Gem — the Buddha Jewel, the Jewel, the Sangha Jewel — and in the center of the Great Teachers. Settle within the most refined Dhamma body of the revered Great Teacher, the Great Master, and the Great Lay Teacher, merging ourselves with the Triple Gem and the Great Teachers into one. Both we and they will appear radiant within nibbāna, the center of the Knower of unlimited power.
Aspiration and Closing
Taking this auspicious moment, we pay respects and set our aspiration, so that it becomes fixed within this radiant sphere of merit for the entire path of building perfections from now until reaching the ultimate goal of the Dhamma, so that our lives may be full of and successful accomplishment in everything right and good. We ask that all the merit and perfections accumulated since our very first lifetime, through countless lives up to the present, be gathered together into sacred, potent merit of boundless power, dispelling misfortune, sin, the fruits of bad kamma, and all obstacles — greed, hatred, delusion, lust, ignorance, wrong view, craving, and clinging — leaving not a trace, so that we may attain and penetrate the Vijjā , the Three Knowledges, the Eight Higher Knowledges, the Six Abhiññā, the Four Analytical Insights, the Eight Liberations, and the Fifteen Conducts in full, together with strong health, long life, and the strength to build perfections throughout life.
The sit closes with the Pali chant: "Sabbe buddhā balappattā paccekānañca yaṃ balaṃ, arahantānañca tejena rakkhaṃ bandhāmi sabbaso. Sabba-buddhānubhāvena, sabba-dhammānubhāvena, sabba-saṅghānubhāvena, saddhā-sotthī ntu te" — and "Sādhu."