A Cave Meditation Experience: Floating Legs and a Question About Fear

The teacher recounts a night of meditation in a cave. After sitting for some time, he grew drowsy and lay down; he felt his legs float upward and, unsure whether this was real, didn't dare reach out to touch them. The cave was pitch dark, so dark he couldn't see his own hand — and because the air inside was thin, he eventually had to move outside to a hut that forest monks had built for practice and then left behind. One night, deep into the dark hours, he came out to do walking meditation around midnight, looking up to see a waning but still bright moon. He asked himself: aren't you afraid, alone in the forest like this? An inner voice answered that there was nothing to fear, because he had morality (sila) to protect him.

Preparing Before Entering the Forest: From Five Precepts to Eight

Before entering the forest to live alone at a forest monastery in the hills, he had to ask himself what could protect him there. The inner voice answered: morality. But he argued with himself that the five precepts weren't enough — it had to be the eight precepts — so he undertook the eight precepts before going in. Yet two or three days passed and he felt nothing, no sense that it carried any power at all. He thought this couldn't be relied upon, so he turned to making the precepts genuinely pure in practice. At first he didn't fully understand and leaned on other supports — his mother, for instance, loved eating a vegetarian breakfast and would say it purified the mind. He recalls wondering privately whether that was simply "eating grass," not true purity. What was true purity, then? Not delighting in sensual pleasure — in forms, in tastes. He leaned on that alongside his precepts, but the essential point remained the genuine purity of the precepts once undertaken.

The Five Benefits of Morality, and the Difference Between Five Precepts and Eight

The foundational benefit of morality is safety. First, not killing living beings grants safety to the lives of all creatures, and this merit protects our own life in turn. Second, respecting others' property grants us protection of our own property. Third, not intruding on others' spouses protects our own family. Fourth, honest speech protects our own words. Fifth, protecting mindfulness — a wholesome quality. These five are what the five precepts protect. But the five precepts protect us only from the unwholesome nature; the eight precepts protect us from both the unwholesome and the neutral natures — covering both systems of nature at once.

The Sphere of Morality Brightens When We Keep the Precepts, Drawing In Merit Continuously

Once we undertake the precepts, the sphere of morality within us brightens. This brightness comes from drawing in the pure energy called merit, which flows into the center of that bright sphere. As long as we don't break the precepts, the sphere of morality continues drawing that energy in, all day and night, whether we're asleep, awake, standing, walking, sitting, or lying down. As it flows in, it drives the wholesome system, refining the elements within us toward cleanliness and purity, freeing us from one dimension into another without our even noticing. It is like a child who eats and grows every day — does the child know they're growing? They don't; it happens millimeter by millimeter, day after day, growth occurring constantly. In the same way, as merit flows through us and drives the wholesome system, liberation happens continuously, carrying us into subtler dimensions further from the defilements that cloud the mind. The proportion of wholesomeness within us increases, weakening the unwholesome and the neutral.

The Sphere of Merit Is Like Bubbles Rising Through a Straw

Merit flowing through us takes the form of a bright, clear sphere, brimming with happiness and purity. At its center are subtle treasures — physical assets, wealth, virtues, entourage, fame, praise, happiness, and even the path and fruit of Nibbana — all complete and whole within the sphere of merit. This is precisely why the Pali verse says: "sīlena sugatiṃ yanti" — morality leads to a good destination; "sīlena bhogasampadā" — morality brings wealth; "sīlena nibbutiṃ yanti" — morality leads to the fruit of Nibbana. These are not mere sayings — they describe the actual natural mechanism: the sphere of merit flowing through us.

This flowing merit is like dipping a coffee straw into water and blowing through it — bubbles rise rapidly, one after another, pouring forth continuously in this way, like a current of merit flowing in without pause, as long as we don't break our precepts. You can see, then, that a person with morality and one without are entirely different: the person without morality has no current of merit flowing through them at all, while the person with morality has that current flowing continuously, day and night, whether asleep, awake, standing, walking, sitting, or lying down — all it takes is keeping the precepts.

The Story of the Universal Monarch: Contemplating the Purity of the Precepts Until the Sphere of Light Reaches the Fingertips

The teacher recounts from the scriptures that when a king destined to become a Universal Monarch is about to succeed to that role, the Wheel Treasure appears in the east at dawn. The ministers then tell the king that the Wheel Treasure has appeared, and ask him to undertake the uposatha precepts to be a fit vessel for the treasures of the Universal Monarch about to arise. The king undertakes the precepts, then closes the doors, enters his chamber, and sits or lies contemplating the purity of his own precepts — the first through the eighth — finding them pure and complete, filled with joy. At that moment, at the center of the body, a sphere of purity appears, tiny as a needle's point, and the current of merit pours continuously into the center of that sphere of morality. That sphere of purity gradually expands, expanding further and further, until it reaches all the way to the fingertips.

The teacher shares that this happened to him personally — the purity gradually expanded until it reached his fingertips, at which point an inner voice exclaimed spontaneously: "Before, I had to guard the precepts. Now the precepts guard me." Wherever he went, that purity surrounded him, out to his fingertips, continuously. If we sustain this purity, the mass of that purity condenses into a bright sphere at the center of the body, and this condensed sphere becomes the foundation for developing samadhi meditation — which is why it is said that morality is the foundation of concentration. But we must keep the precepts truly pure for this to become that foundation.

The Thirteen Ascetic Practices: Armor Against Suffering for Those Unused to Hardship

Another topic is undertaking the thirteen ascetic practices (dhutanga). These exist to help monks cultivate austerity — austerity acting as armor that protects against being overwhelmed by suffering. Some monks who ordain come from wealthy or royal families, having never known hardship, accustomed to having things their own way — much like some of us who were doted on by our parents from childhood. Once out of that environment, we can't tolerate difficulty. The factors of ascetic practice help by preventing unwholesomeness from nagging at us, complaining, "why do we have to live like this?" — a complaint that keeps us from continuously drawing in the current of merit during practice, making the work of purification difficult. But once we've undertaken these ascetic practices, we're ready to face the hardship of our living conditions. When unwholesomeness tries to suggest, "why live like this?" we can answer: no need to say anything more — I've already undertaken the ascetic practice, and I am content with whatever is provided. Unwholesomeness then has no room left to nag at us.

The Purpose of Practice: Freedom from Suffering and Access to an Extraordinary Life

The teacher invites us to look back to the Buddha's time. After attaining supreme enlightenment, the Buddha traveled to teach people to practice Dhamma for two reasons. First, to free them from suffering — the condition of having to endure what is difficult to endure. Second, to bring them to a superior life, a truly wondrous life. The teacher has proven both of these true since his youth: they can only be found through actual practice. Without practicing Dhamma, it is difficult to encounter these things. We are, in following this path, walking in the footsteps of the Buddha's own teaching.

Five Tools Within Us: Morality, Concentration, Wisdom, Liberation, and Knowledge-and-Vision of Liberation

Within us are spheres of Dhamma that store morality, concentration, wisdom, liberation, and the knowledge-and-vision of liberation — five instruments recorded in the scriptures. But the great Luang Pu Sodh attained this and taught that these exist as spheres at the center of the body, standard equipment carried by every human body. We need to learn to use these tools; even unseen, they can be used, just as a blind person cannot see a refrigerator yet still uses it, cannot see a bathroom yet still uses it. Sons and daughters of good families who enter this teaching should train in the training of morality, the training of concentration, and the training of wisdom, because these are tools already present within us. When we undertake the precepts, the sphere of morality brightens and draws in merit; when we train in concentration, the sphere of concentration brightens and draws in another stream of merit. Morality purifies the coarse impurities, bringing purity of body and speech but not yet purity of mind. Concentration then purifies the mind itself, refining the consciousness and mental factors, elevating them toward greater purity and completeness. Wisdom, the third sphere, is where we come to learn and understand the essential principles that will set us free.

Form and Name Always Paired: Why Even Just Hearing Dhamma Can Bring Liberation

The teacher recalls that in the Buddha's time, merely hearing a teaching could bring liberation — and this is genuinely true. He once traveled to Japan to give a Dhamma talk; afterward, people came to tell him they felt an overwhelming sense of spaciousness, openness, and lightness. That is precisely the state of being freed from one dimension into a subtler one. The world remains the same — the sky still blue, the trees and grass still there — but our own mind becomes more spacious, more at ease. This happens every time we do something good, every time we meditate, every time we hear and understand a teaching.

A wholesome teaching arises at the center of the heart as a bright, clear sphere — all wholesome spheres look identical this way, in contrast to unwholesome spheres, which are dark. All 84,000 sections of wholesome Dhamma are equally bright, clear spheres; what differs is the inner quality within each — we name each sphere according to that quality. Loving-kindness (metta), for instance, is a bright sphere whose inner state is filled with genuine goodwill. What we call it is its "name" (nama); its outer container — the bright, clear sphere itself — is its "form" (rupa). Form and name are always paired, the way water always needs a bottle to hold it — a vessel is required, and this same pairing holds true for Dhamma.

Determination Differs from Physical Elements: Why We Need to Repeat the Mantra

Physical elements must be sought out laboriously — a microphone, for example, requires gathering resources to trade for it. But Dhamma appears the instant we determine it — set the intention, and it appears immediately. The difference is that it doesn't last as long as a physical object does; though hard to acquire, an object stays with us continuously, but a Dhamma quality, once summoned, displays its own nature for only a few seconds — five seconds for some, fifteen to twenty for others — before gradually dissolving. During that brief appearance, the manifested state draws in pure energy. If we want that same quality to reappear, we must set the intention again; a feeling of ease, for instance, lasts only a moment before dissolving, and setting it again brings only another moment. If we want it to endure, we must set the intention repeatedly — this repetition is what's called recitation (borikam). This is why we recite — because we want the state to remain, again and again. As the recitation becomes familiar, that state lasts longer and longer, until a mass begins to form; while that state persists, it draws in pure energy to clear away impurity, and once the impurity is fully cleared, it forms a mass of purity. This accumulated mass is what allows the state to remain without our needing to keep reciting — this is how it becomes able to sustain itself.

A Simple Technique: Focus Awareness at the Feet — Wherever the Mind Goes, Merit Flows There

The teacher teaches a simple meditation technique: focus awareness at the feet, noticing coolness, warmth, softness, firmness — sensations we never noticed before simply because we never paid attention. Wherever we direct our attention, the mind settles there, because the mind is our instrument of knowing. Wherever we focus, the consciousness element goes there too, working together with the sensory nervous system — feeling, perception, mental formations, and consciousness travel together, though consciousness itself is what receives and registers, working in tandem with the nervous system, coarse and fine alike. If the nervous system is damaged, no perception is possible, precisely because it works together with that system. Once perception occurs and we focus our intention there, mindfulness arises to know it — mindfulness being a wholesome sphere, a bright, clear sphere that, once established, immediately draws in energy — merit flows right to that spot. This is why, when a person feels pain somewhere, the mind naturally goes there to know it: because by nature, once the mind settles on a spot, pure energy — merit — flows in to heal and tend to that area. Enzymes, hormones, minerals, everything gets mobilized to that location for healing — this is the natural mechanism life uses to preserve itself. If a person never falls ill, this mechanism goes unused, the mind simply drifting without purpose. We should therefore put this mechanism to deliberate use: wherever we focus awareness, merit flows there, clearing the ignorance and obscuring elements that conceal that dimension. Once that dimension is cleared, we can enter it, and it opens to us. As we keep focusing there, light appears, developing into a bright sphere, then a clear sphere. Whether we focus on the breath, the rising and falling of the abdomen, or the fingers, the same mechanism applies. We should focus lightly, without straining, because all we need is for the sphere of knowing — mindfulness — to arise. It needs some signal to anchor to, such as the in-breath and out-breath, the heartbeat, or fingers touching one another — any point we can actually feel will do.

A Story: The Elderly Aunt Who Recovered from Panic Disorder Through Focused Awareness at Her Fingertips

The teacher tells the story of an elderly woman who had never meditated and suffered from panic disorder — an affliction common in this era. Her niece, who studied Dhamma with the teacher, received a call from relatives describing the aunt's condition, and came to ask how to help. The teacher asked about her character in her younger years, and learned that she used to volunteer for public service work, with a genuinely good heart, and that this condition had persisted for over ten years. He reasoned that if it had gone on that long, some of the heavier kammic burden had likely already played out, and given her genuinely good disposition since youth — a foundation of wholesomeness — this wouldn't be difficult. He suggested she gently stroke two of her own fingers and ask herself whether she could feel it. She could. He had someone at home sit with her repeatedly, moving her fingers, letting the sphere of knowing arise and simply stay with the sensation, continuously. As she did this, merit flowed continuously into that exact spot, purifying her whole body starting from there. After roughly an hour of this, her panic symptoms had vanished — she was able to pick up her phone and check the news normally, without the panic that would previously overwhelm her. The following morning, waking up, an inner voice told her to do the same thing again — a sign the method truly worked. This, the teacher concludes, is the core principle of meditation: focused awareness, giving the sphere of knowing — mindfulness — a signal to anchor to, so it can continuously draw pure energy into the center of its own brightness. Our role is simply to focus and stay aware without lapsing; the role of the Dhamma quality itself, once mindfulness is established, is to draw in pure energy and drive the wholesome system, refining and clearing away all defilements. Each part plays its own distinct role — just as when we eat nutritious food, the stomach digests, the intestines absorb, and nourishment flows to every part of the body, each part doing its own job. We need only carry out our own role correctly and appropriately.