Learning to Rest the Right Way

Every time we sit to rest, sit for pleasure, or sit while waiting, let us rest with a comfortable mind. Resting the right way means resting while the stream of merit — pure energy — flows through our body and mind. We need a reservoir for our merit, like a power bank, holding a charge of purity in store. It's the same in practicing sacred knowledge (vijjā): one must stop and be still to gather pure energy for use in that work.

Every Success Depends on Merit

Every achievement in life depends entirely on merit. Curing illness, resolving crises of every kind — all depend on merit. In the course of our lives, clearing obstacles and problems also depends on merit. If we haven't stored up pure energy, when a crisis comes we suffer; but if we have stored pure energy, we can draw on it to purify away all the accumulated stains.

This Body Is Our Own Country, Our Own Company

The essential duty of being human is to gather and store pure energy — merit. We are like the owner of a country; this body is like our country, like our own company. So for our country to run smoothly, for our company to flourish, we need a reserve of pure energy — just as running a business requires reserve capital. Without reserves, when the need arises, we suffer.

Gathering Pure Energy Is Simple

This is not difficult at all — just maintain awareness, know with an easy mind, and entrust body and mind to the care of the wholesome nature. Once wholesomeness takes care of us, it lets pure energy flow through this body. But if we let some other nature take care of us, nothing beneficial results — it's merely amusement that passes the days without gaining anything. And if it is the unwholesome nature, it doesn't just fail to benefit us — it actively causes trouble. We must therefore learn to abide with the wholesome nature.

Recalling the Triple Gem

Abiding with wholesomeness is simple — we need only maintain awareness with the Triple Gem: the Buddha jewel, the Dhamma jewel, the Sangha jewel. Simply calling to him, speaking his name, and he comes. When he appears, through his compassion he purifies the elements within us and connects us to a stream of merit and prosperity.

Reciting Sammā-Arahaṃ with a Relaxed Mind

Rest with him with a relaxed, easy mind — "Sammā-Arahaṃ" — abide with a relaxed mind, filled only with ease. When we speak his name, he appears in our mind as a crystal Buddha image, clear and radiant, full of life — a living presence, full of relaxation and inner peace. He is seated on a plane of jhāna, his Dhamma-sphere filling his entire lap, dwelling within that bright sphere. When he appears, out of his great compassion he refines the elements of seeing, remembering, thinking, and knowing — earth, water, wind, fire, space, and consciousness — within us until they are clear and pure. Not only that, he expands and merges into one with our human body, protecting and caring for it, because he is our true self.

Merging Body, Part by Part, Into the Crystal Buddha

Let us merge with him into one: "I am the Buddha image, the Buddha image is me." Let our entire body become the crystal Dhammakāya, radiant, clear, cool, and pure. Our head is clear crystal of the Dhammakāya, with a bright shining halo; our face is the countenance of the Dhammakāya, eyes gently closed, with a faint smile — delicate and soft. Our neck, shoulders, and both arms down to the fingertips are all the crystal Dhammakāya, radiant and clear. Our chest, abdomen, and back are all the crystal Dhammakāya. Our hips, thighs, knees, shins, and feet are all the crystal Dhammakāya, radiant, clear, cool, and pure. Whatever we determine, so it becomes, because the mind is the element of accomplishment — all things arise from the mind alone.

Why a Nature Needs Our Consent to Take Over

All three natures require our consent before they can seize the mind as their host. If we consent, it's easy for that nature to become the ruling host, and once it does, it can use this body and mind to draw in its own energy. Unwholesomeness therefore does not want us to know or understand this truth, because if we understand it, we can help wholesomeness dominate, increasing its proportion while weakening the others. This is why ignorance works together with unwholesomeness to keep us from knowing or understanding.

Abiding With Wholesomeness Is Easy

Abiding with wholesomeness is easy, because its nature gives us only good things. When we're with wholesomeness, it teaches us to rest body and mind comfortably — relaxed, unburdened, at ease, filled with nothing but comfort whether sitting, eating, drinking, or speaking. Every time we speak his name — calling on the One who has practiced well, practiced rightly, in a way that leads far from defilement — he appears in the center of our mind together with a continuous, pouring stream of merit.

Repeating Until Brightness Appears

Let us gently repeat, part by part, again and again, from the crown of the head to the soles of the feet. All we need is for the sphere of knowing to arise — whether it's clear or not doesn't matter; that's not the important point. Once the sphere of mindfulness arises, it draws merit in to clear away the stains — the elements that cover and obscure — on its own. This is the task of the wholesome system to handle for us; our role is simply to maintain awareness so the sphere of knowing arises. Do it playfully, with an easy mind — don't take it too seriously, because seriousness brings tension, tiredness, and no enjoyment.

Stop Within Stop, Still Within Still

Once we've merged our body with his body into one unity, we merge our mind with his mind as well. Whatever he does, we do the same — he gathers his mind to stop, gathers it to be still; we gather our mind to stop, gather it to be still. Stop within stop, still within still, soft and at ease, in the center of the Buddha image, at the tiny bright point at its very center. As we settle in stillness there, our mind opens, becomes spacious, light, and at ease, released into a subtler dimension — image after image continuing to arise, unceasing, at the center of our being.