Only a Few Days Left — Make the Most of the Time

Only a few days remain — today, tomorrow, and the day after, just four days in all before we go to pay homage. Let us use the time we have left fully for practice, gathering as much merit and inner wealth as we can, so that when we leave here we can use this pure store of merit to clear away defilements and problems, and so that our refined treasure can draw material wealth in from the outer world to support our lives.

The Four Steps and the Principle of Naming the Inner State

Practice has four steps. The first step is to determine the naming-state. A "name" is simply what we call something. Since wholesome states all appear as spheres of light that look the same, but their inner qualities differ, we must name each one according to its inner quality — for example, a state of relaxation is called "relaxed," a state of clarity is called "clear," a state of stillness is called "still."

Every word we determine is a wholesome sphere that, once established, benefits us. If we want to feel clear and cool, we think of a clear, cool stream and keep determining it — soon it becomes cool, it becomes clear, because whatever we determine appears at the heart. The heart is the element of accomplishment: whatever we determine, it becomes. Determine something good, and something good appears; determine something bad, and something bad appears at the heart — and it has consequences, because both wholesome and unwholesome natures are always watching, ready to lock onto whatever we determine and draw in their corresponding energy. This is why we must choose to determine only what is right and good.

The Heart Is the Element of Accomplishment; Merit Lies Behind Success

The heart is the element of accomplishment. Merit is what lies behind happiness and success; a stilled mind is the culmination of merit — stillness is itself the accomplishment. Practicing Dhamma is simply using wholesome qualities for our own benefit, so we should train ourselves to make it easy — because it truly isn't difficult, it just requires determining and knowing. Good things are good thoughts and good feelings: relaxation, clarity, openness, ease, fullness, cheerfulness, freshness, clarity, coolness, cleanliness, purity, subtlety, softness, gentleness. Unwholesome feelings are the opposite: boredom, gloom, stress, irritation, weariness, despair, depression, restlessness, tightness in the chest, agitation, and worry — we must avoid engaging with these, because once they take root in the heart they draw in unwholesome results too.

Let us sit and rest body and mind comfortably, without tension, relaxed. Make it simple, because there is nothing difficult about it once we understand — we simply need the sphere of knowing to arise. When mindfulness arises, covetousness falls away. Mindfulness lets us be aware of ourselves, recollecting that we are dwelling with something good, a good feeling. Let the whole body relax, from head to toe, and let go of every worry, so our whole life becomes comfortable — whether sitting, lying down, speaking, eating and drinking, working, or being with family.

Samma-Araham: The Naming-State and Form-State of the Triple Gem

What lies behind this ease is the wholesome system, overseen by the Triple Gem, with Nibbāna behind it all. We must dwell within this wholesome system, with the Triple Gem, reciting the name with a heart full of faith: "Samma-araham" — one endowed with supreme wisdom, supreme purity, and boundless compassion, perfectly pure in virtue, concentration, wisdom, liberation, and the knowledge and vision of liberation.

As we recite the name, the Buddha image continuously rises through the center of our body and heart, one image after another, because form and name always go together. To speak the name is to call him, and once called, he appears at the heart — because Dhamma can arise only in one place, the heart, nowhere else. We fix our base at the seventh center of the body, and there he appears: a clear crystal Buddha image, brilliant and radiant, able to smile, speak, and full of life, seated on a meditation dais within a sphere of Dhamma filling the lap — brilliant, radiant, delicate, soft, gentle, clear, cool, clean, and pure.

The Simile: A DMC Top-View Image Expanding from 2D into 3D

The Buddha image rises through the center of our body from a small clear point at its center, expanding and layering as one with us, image after image, filling and layering over our lap. His knees overlap ours, his thighs, torso, shoulders, arms, head, and face all merge as one with ours. It is like the images in DMC media, where the Buddha figure, shown from a top-down view, expands upward one figure after another — what starts as our two-dimensional image becomes three-dimensional. His lap overlaps our lap, his torso expands over ours, and every part of the body — head, face, all of it — merges as one with us. This is step two: the form-state flowing continuously in.

Step three is merging with him. Once he has expanded to fill us completely, he wishes for us to merge with him, so we merge into oneness with him, so that he can lead us to liberation. After merging, as he expands further outward, we gather the mind and settle it, still, at the center; a new Buddha image then rises, and we settle again, still, at the center of that new image. Each image that rises refines our mind and heart, making it clearer, cleaner, and purer.

Merging Body and Mind into Oneness with the Buddha Image

We are the Buddha image, the Buddha image is us. Our whole body — head, face, cheeks, shoulders, arms, torso, down to the soles of our feet — becomes the brilliant, radiant crystal Dhamma-body. Our head becomes the clear crystal of the Dhamma-body, crowned with a lotus-bud crest, brilliant and radiant, delicate and gentle. Our face becomes the face of the crystal Dhamma-body, eyes gently closed, with a soft, subtle smile, clear, cool, clean, pure, and radiant. Our neck, shoulders, and arms likewise become the clear, pure crystal Buddha image. Our chest, belly, and back all become the crystal Dhamma-body, and our hips, thighs, knees, shins, calves, and soles all become the radiant, clear, cool, clean, pure crystal Dhamma-body.

Once we have merged our body with his body into a single unity, we then merge our mind with his mind into a single unity — gathering the mind to stop, gathering it to be still, soft and at ease, stop within stop, still within still, spacious, at ease, clear, cool, clean, pure, and radiant. As each new image rises, we settle still within it, again and again.

Knowing at Ease, Receiving the Stream of Merit

Let us know at ease — knowing continuously without lapsing, aware of ourselves. Whatever we determine, we remain aware of it with a relaxed heart. Sit at ease, receiving the stream of merit and inner wealth with a comfortable heart. This stream of merit drives the wholesome system, refining and purifying the elements within us, freeing us gradually from coarser to subtler dimensions, increasing the proportion of wholesomeness within us. Sitting still and soft, relaxed and at ease, purity and liberation arise continuously, and this stream of merit continues to pour through the center of our body and heart without interruption.

Cultivating Loving-Kindness for People and All Beings

Having done good for our own lives, we go on to benefit the people of the world and all beings, by cultivating loving-kindness — a tool of wholesomeness meant for those with abundant merit to support those with less. Living within the cycle of existence, we must support one another. We need only establish a sincere and pure wish that people and all beings be happy and free from every suffering — as sincere and pure as a mother's love and goodwill for her young child.

Once we have established this good wish, the sphere of loving-kindness — round, clear, and bright — arises at the center of our heart, and the stream of merit pours continuously into the brightness at its center. This loving-kindness has the special quality of dissolving away resentment and irritation present in the atmosphere and in all beings and things. We are merely the one who determines it and holds this state of loving-kindness in the heart, letting our heart change with love and goodwill; the rest is the work of loving-kindness itself, refining every particle of the atmosphere into brightness.

Radiating Loving-Kindness Across the World and the Cosmos

We expand this heart, filled with loving-kindness, to cover this place of practice, then our village, sub-district, district, province, country, and neighboring countries, until it covers the entire world, making this world a crystal world, radiant, clear, cool, clean, and pure. May the people of the world and all beings be free from suffering and find happiness everywhere — earthbound devas, celestial devas, heavenly beings of every heavenly realm, formless Brahmas, and also beings in hell, hungry ghosts, and animals. May those with much suffering have less; may those with little suffering be entirely free of it; may those with little happiness have more; and may those with much happiness have ever more.

We then expand further into the atmosphere of the cosmos, covering countless stars — tens, hundreds, thousands, millions, billions — continuing on to the ten-thousand-fold world system and the hundred-thousand-koti of infinite universes. Our hearts expand, joyful, spacious, at ease, clear, cool, and fresh, and the stream of merit continues pouring into the brightness at the center of loving-kindness without interruption.

Dedicating Merit and Forgiving Our Karmic Counterparts

We now dedicate this merit to benefit people and all beings. May all beings share in this merit we have sincerely accumulated, and be free from suffering, happy everywhere. And also our ancestors, our parents, siblings, grandparents, our teachers and benefactors, the devas who assist and support us, and those who protect all beings, and every being we may have wronged — our karmic counterparts (คู่กรรมคู่เวร) — may we forgive one another, and may they too fully share in this merit.

Settling in the Center of the Triple Gem and the Great Teachers, Setting the Resolve

We gather the mind to stop, gather it to be still, at the center of the Triple Gem — the center of the Buddha jewel, the Dhamma jewel, the Sangha jewel — and settle still at the center of the great teachers, the most refined Dhamma body of Luang Pu, Luang Phor, and Khun Yai Ajarn. As we think of and recollect them, we appear bright and clear within them, and they appear bright and clear within us; together we appear radiant at the center of Nibbāna, the center of the one who knows, of boundless power.

We use this auspicious moment within the center of Nibbāna to pay respects and set our resolve for success, fixing it within this bright sphere of merit, so our whole path of accumulating perfections may be filled with knowledge alongside happiness and purity, and success in everything right and good. May all this merit and perfection combine into sacred, powerful merit, freeing us from calamity, sin, karmic results, and every obstacle in life, exhausting greed, hatred, delusion, lust, ignorance, wrong view, craving, and clinging without a trace, granting us the Dhamma eye that sees and penetrates the Dhammakāya teaching, achieving the three knowledges, the eight higher knowledges, the six analytical insights, the four discriminations, the eight liberations, and all fifteen conducts in full.

Closing Dedication

The session closes with a wish for strong health so we may keep building perfections throughout life, walking steadily toward Nibbāna. When we pass from this world, may we be reborn in the Tusita heaven in the realm of the great Bodhisattas of special merit, and when we return to build perfections in the human world, may we be born into a family of right view — a crystal family, a Dhammakāya family. The session ends with the closing chant of loving-kindness and merit dedication.