Why We Must Practice

Meditation practice matters greatly for every life, because we live under the governance of three kinds of nature. Only the wholesome kind gives real benefit — knowledge, understanding, happiness, and rightful success. The other kinds give nothing of value and only bring suffering. That is why we must learn to understand this and train ourselves to dwell with wholesome nature.

The Buddha's Teaching: Knowing Body, Feeling, Mind, and Dhamma

The Buddha taught: "Monks, clearly know body, feeling, mind, and dhamma, in order to remove longing and grief regarding the world." This sentence alone can turn an ordinary person into a noble one. Its meaning unfolds in three parts: first, what "determining" (kamnod) means; second, why we must know body, feeling, mind, and dhamma; and third, the true purpose and goal of life.

The Meaning of "Determining," and Fixing on the Breath

To determine is to mark, to specify, to point precisely — wherever we mark, the mind settles there. If we fix on the breath, the mind goes to the nostrils; as breath moves in and out, the nerve cells register it, and mindfulness continuously arises alongside that signal. If mindfulness fades, ignorance — a dark orb — takes its place and obscures our awareness. So we must stay knowing, without lapsing.

The Recitation "Samma-arahang" and the Crystal Image

Besides the breath, we can also use the recitation "Samma-arahang" as an aid, since it is something we ourselves determine, and can be paced faster or slower as needed. The word is a name describing a quality: one who practices well, rightly, in a way that leads far from defilement. When we speak this name, its form appears — a crystal-clear, pure Buddha image, containing within it a pure dhamma.

The Crystal Image's Mission: Refining the Elements Within Us

The image does not appear for nothing; it comes with a mission to refine the elements within us — making them clear, clean, pure, and free of defilement — because this image is our true self. Its wish is that we and it become one and the same, so that it can help and correct us with full effectiveness.

Merging Body and Mind Into One With the Crystal Image

Take on the feeling that you are the crystal image, and it is you — radiant, clear, cool, clean, and pure from head to foot. Once body has become one with the image, merge the mind too, by resting and stilling the mind exactly as the image does — stop within stop, still within still, soft and at ease, heading straight along the middle path within toward Nibbana.

The Triple Gem and Nibbana: Benefit Regardless of Religion

Nibbana is the abode of every Buddha, every Silent Buddha, and every Arahant. Though they have long passed beyond the round of rebirth, they continue helping and caring for the world and all beings. Whoever rests in universal goodness will have the Triple Gem shine radiantly within them, even without ever seeing it. This wonder occurs as a matter of course — whether or not a person follows any particular religion — so long as they abide in goodness that is universal.

Pure Energy Purifies Defilement: Each Part Does Its Own Work

As the stream of merit pours continuously into the center of body and mind, this pure energy drives the wholesome system to remove defilement, carrying us gradually from one dimension to a subtler one. Everything is the responsibility of its own part — our task is only to keep determining, letting the "knowing orb" of mindfulness arise and keeping it from lapsing. Everything good that follows happens on its own, benefiting both ourselves and the whole world and cosmos.

Cultivating Loving-Kindness: A Tool for the Fortunate to Help the Less Fortunate

Having done good for ourselves, we now do good for others and all beings by cultivating loving-kindness. This is a tool of wholesomeness meant for those with abundant merit to benefit those with less. Luang Pu taught us to draw on the heart of a mother's love and goodwill toward her young child, and hold that feeling in our own heart, sincerely and purely.

Benefiting the World and Cosmos Earns the Right to Its Treasures

Every time we cultivate loving-kindness, it refines not only the hearts of people and beings but every particle of the environment — earth, water, air, sky, mountains, oceans, plants, buildings, homes, possessions, and crops — making them bright, clear, clean, and pure, fit to be an environment where the world and all beings can dwell happily. Phra Ajarn Suraphong states this directly: whoever benefits the world and the cosmos in this way thereby earns the right to make use of the treasures of the world and the cosmos in return.

Radiating Loving-Kindness Across the Universe

Having set this wish, we expand the heart of loving-kindness outward — over our home, the village, the sub-district, the district, the province, the whole country, and neighboring countries — until it covers the entire world, wishing all beings, human and celestial alike, freedom from suffering. We continue expanding it to cover the countless stars of the boundless universe.

Dedicating Merit and Closing Resolve

We then dedicate this merit to the world and 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. We rest still within the stream of merit, within the Triple Gem, and within the refined dhamma-body of our teachers, closing with a resolution that the whole path of building perfections be filled with knowledge, happiness, and purity, followed by a chant of appreciation.