Setting Out: Between the Inner World and the Outer World

Close your eyes gently and comfortably — just enough that your eyelashes touch, letting a little light through. There's no need to rush fully into the inner world; going too quickly can bring on a dazed, drowsy feeling. Stay for now between the inner and outer worlds, reciting "Samma-arahang" with a deep, subtle awareness, word by word. Don't think of it as "doing meditation" — think of it as simply resting easy with the recitation.

Knowing Only One Thing: The Knower Is What Matters Most

What matters most is focusing on a single signal. Wherever you fix your attention, stay knowing with that. If the mind wanders elsewhere, something has slipped in and interrupted — simply notice and gently bring it back to "Samma-arahang" again, because the moment the mind drifts off its anchor, the drawing-in of pure energy stops.

Recitation and Visualization: A Paired Practice

The word "Samma-arahang" is a name describing a quality — one who practices well, rightly, in a way that leads far from defilement. When we utter this name, its form appears: a crystal-clear, pure Dhammakaya Buddha image, seated in meditation at the center of our body and mind. The spoken recitation keeps out intruding sounds; the visualized image keeps out intruding pictures. What remains is only this sound and this image, held with a relaxed feeling — no pressure, no rushing.

The Crystal Buddha Appears With a Mission

When the crystal image appears, it does not appear for nothing — it comes with a task: to refine the elements of seeing, remembering, thinking, and knowing, along with earth, water, wind, fire, space, and consciousness within us, making them clear, clean, and pure, dissolving defilements and the residue of past kamma. A continuous stream of merit from Nibbana pours into the center of body and mind.

Merging Body and Mind Into One With the Crystal Image

Take on the feeling that you are the crystal Buddha image, and the image is you — from the crown of the head, the face, cheeks, shoulders, arms, torso, all the way to the feet, all radiant, clear, cool, clean, and pure. Once body has merged as one with the image, merge the mind as well by resting and stilling the mind together — doing whatever the image does.

Waves of Disturbance in the Mind

As the mind becomes subtler, we begin to notice vibrations disturbing it — even in an ordinary, calm situation these ripples are always present. They arise from craving: wanting this, wanting that, wanting to be this or that, wanting in terms of sights, tastes, smells, sounds, or money and livelihood. The subtler our mind becomes, the more clearly we can detect this wave of disturbance.

Determining Stillness Settles the Wave

When we fix the mind on "stop," the orb of stopping arises, quieting every signal except the wholesome. When we fix on "stillness," whatever was trembling gradually settles. The orb of equanimity, once arisen, shields us from stimuli both outside and within. Rest in "stop within stop, still within still," soft and relaxed, and observe whether any part of the feeling is still restless — if so, keep knowing, and let mindfulness draw in the purifying energy that clears the defilement causing the disturbance.

The Physics Simile: Observation Makes the Wave Orderly, Like a Laser

Phra Ajarn Suraphong stresses that observation is essential. Science itself has shown that the moment observation occurs, a wave changes its behavior into something governed by order — much as laser light, once made coherent, becomes orderly enough to be genuinely useful. In the same way, when we continually determine and observe the disturbance in the mind, the disordered waves of craving and defilement gradually settle into order, and the mind grows finer and finer.

Cause and Effect: The Teaching of Luang Pu

As Luang Pu taught: "Perform the cause, observe the result — take up this practice, for it is excellent." When we perform the cause — fixing the mind still, soft, and at ease — we should observe the result compared with a moment before, and see that the mind has become finer, steadier, little by little. As we sow the cause, so the result follows.

Cultivating Loving-Kindness: The Heart of a Mother

Once the mind has settled and refined, we cultivate loving-kindness to benefit others and all beings, drawing on the heart of a mother toward her young child — pure, sincere love and goodwill. This bright, round orb of loving-kindness arises at the heart. The very first person to receive its benefit is ourselves. Loving-kindness has the special quality of dissolving resentment and ill will until they fade away.

Radiating Loving-Kindness Across the Universe

We then expand this heart of loving-kindness outward — over our home, the village, the district, the province, the country, neighboring countries, and finally the whole world, wishing that all beings be free from suffering and find happiness. We continue expanding it to cover the countless stars of the boundless universe.

Dedicating Merit and Asking Forgiveness

The merit sincerely accumulated is then dedicated to all beings, as well as to parents, siblings, grandparents, teachers, guardian devas, and every karmic counterparty (khu-kam khu-wen) we may have wronged, asking that we forgive one another and all receive a share of this merit.

Resting in the Stream of Merit

We then rest, still and quiet, within the stream of merit that continues pouring in — in the midst of happiness, purity, and radiance. We observe the small, gradual improvements, even measurable second by second, resting still within the Triple Gem and the refined dhamma-body of our teachers.

Closing Resolve

The sitting closes with a resolution: that the entire path of building perfections be filled with knowledge, happiness, and purity; that all merit gathered combine into something sacred and powerful enough to dissolve every trace of past kamma and defilement; and that we continue steadily toward the path of Nibbana. It ends with a chant of appreciation.