The Human Body's Role in Practice: Only to Determine and Know

Phra Ajahn opens by pointing out that the human body's role in spiritual practice is very small: simply to determine and know, so that the orb of mindfulness arises — and then to keep that orb of knowing continuously present, so it can draw pure energy in. Everything else belongs to the wholesome system, which does the work of refining and purifying on its own.

The Analogy of Going to See a Doctor

He compares practice to visiting a doctor: once there, we simply relax and let the doctor take over — the doctor examines, traces the cause of the illness, and administers medicine or surgery as needed. Developing our inner quality of life works the same way — we bring our body and mind to the doctor for treatment. Here, the "doctor" is the wholesome nature itself. To reach this doctor, we only need to determine and know so the orb of mindfulness arises; the healing process then follows automatically. Right livelihood works on the same principle — just determine, know, stay unlapsed. Everything else, the Wheel-Turning King within the merit orb handles for us.

The Buddha's Core Teaching

For a fuller, more complete understanding, we rely on the Buddha's own teaching: "Monks, you should clearly determine and know body, feeling, mind, and dhamma, in order to eliminate covetousness and grief regarding the world." This profoundly important sentence alone can turn an ordinary person into a noble one. We need to memorize it and truly understand it — brief as it is, it carries enormous meaning, which can be unpacked into three parts.

Part One: Determining to Draw In Wholesome Energy

The Buddha teaches us to determine and know, so as to draw energy in for the wholesome nature to use in refining and purifying our elements — bringing about liberation through mind (jhāna practice, jetovimutti).

Part Two: Knowing Body, Feeling, Mind, Dhamma to Understand the Three Natures

The Buddha teaches us to determine and know body, feeling, mind, and dhamma so as to understand how the three natures — wholesome, unwholesome, and neutral — control beings through these very four domains. The unwholesome aims to press our elements down; the wholesome aims to lift them toward purity and liberation. All three natures have entirely different goals, even though their methods can look similar. This is where the working of the three characteristics (impermanence, suffering, non-self) at the level of the mind comes in.

Part Three: Eliminating Covetousness and Grief Through Equanimity

The third part concerns the effect of the law of kamma — namely, liking and disliking. The three natures use joy and sorrow as levers to steer beings into creating new kamma. The Buddha teaches us to eliminate "abhijjhā" — joy that leads to greed — and "domanassa" — sorrow that leads to blaming this person or that. We're taught to settle the mind in equanimity, staying neutral, so none of the three natures can use us as leverage toward greed or anger.

Tatramajjhattatā and Settling Into Neutrality

Once the mind rests in equanimity, the mental factor tatramajjhattatā brings balance — the mind stays neutral, unswayed by liking or disliking, and doesn't waver. When it doesn't waver, none of the natures can steer or control it; the neutral mind simply stays still. As we determine and understand this, the knower within teaches us to grasp it more fully, part by part, as described above.

Knowing Body in Body, Feeling in Feeling, Mind in Mind, Dhamma in Dhamma

To determine means to mark, specify, or point to something; wherever the mind is placed, mindfulness comes to know the act of practice itself — for example, knowing the chant, the meditation image, or the breath touching the nostril wall. Within "body in body," we observe whatever sensation arises. "Feeling in feeling" is pleasure, pain, or neither — the result of whichever nature currently occupies the mind as its "resident." If the wholesome resides there, we feel at ease; if the unwholesome resides there, we feel a suffering that is hard to bear; if the neutral resides there, we feel simply indifferent. "Mind in mind" is the thinking of that resident — whether an inner voice or an inner image. "Dhamma in dhamma" is the feeling-tone that results from that resident's own mental factors.

The Inner Knower Guides Us Toward the First Jhāna

As we gradually come to understand body, feeling, mind, and dhamma as they truly appear, the knower within guides, advises, and teaches us — letting us perceive more detail, understand more, grow calmer, lighter. We come to understand how mental factors work, which is key to the arising of the first jhāna, and we come to understand the mental factors of a mind being developed, level by level — the very foundation for learning to understand the mind at each stage.

The Foundation of Insight: From Radiance to Full Knowledge

From basic insight practice, we move toward insight-knowledge composed of radiance, the Dhamma-eye, intuitive vision, and full knowledge (vijjā) — growing steadily clearer until insight-knowledge itself can be reached. We must begin from this foundation, gradually knowing, gradually understanding, gradually developing. The tools for studying insight will gradually appear for us to study at each stage, each level.

The Ladder of Insight: From Kindergarten to a Doctorate

Phra Ajahn compares the development of insight to the ladder of formal education. We must begin at "kindergarten level," learning and understanding step by step, before rising to "primary level," "secondary level," a "bachelor's degree," a "master's degree," and finally a "doctoral degree" — each stage bringing greater clarity, built on the foundation of the one before. Every time we study to understand, things grow clearer and clearer; as new tools arrive, we continue developing through radiance, the Dhamma-eye, intuitive vision, and full knowledge, level upon level.