Only Three Days Left: Learning to Rest the Right Way

Only three days remain. Let us think of this as coming to rest comfortably, learning to rest the right way — resting body and mind so that merit flows through us too. Resting the right way means resting within the wholesome system, whether we are working, resting, talking, eating and drinking, or doing any activity at all; we learn to dwell within the wholesome system.

To dwell within the wholesome system, the mind itself must be a wholesome mind. If we are unsure how, we can learn from the mental factors (cetasika): the moment a wholesome mental factor arises, we are already within the wholesome system. Simply having mindfulness arise, being self-aware, is enough for wholesomeness to arise. Or we can determine and know the state of a mind that has stopped, is still, soft, and at ease — wholesomeness arises there too. Or we can stay with the recitation and the meditation image, determining the naming-state "Samma-araham," merging ourselves with him into oneness — this too is called dwelling within the wholesome system. Merit then flows continuously, and the refining, correcting, and purifying of the elements within us happens continuously as well.

Training to Make Dwelling in Wholesome Nature a Habit

We may not have known before that this training was necessary, and so we neglected it — because there is never a moment in our lives that isn't a channel for some kind of energy: sometimes merit, sometimes neither merit nor demerit, sometimes demerit, flowing through us all the time, affecting our lives both now and in the future. We therefore need to learn, understand, and train ourselves to dwell with wholesome nature, so that the stream of merit and inner wealth flows through us. This is a simple matter, not difficult at all — we simply didn't know it before. Once we know, we must train until it becomes habit.

Let us relax the entire body, every part, from the head, cheeks, face, mouth, chin, neck, both shoulders and arms, chest, belly, back, hips, thighs, knees, shins, calves, and soles — relaxed and at ease throughout, checking whether any part remains tense. This lets the wholesome sphere of mindfulness arise. The more often we use any particular wholesome sphere of mindfulness, the more often merit flows through, and the more its quality develops. For instance, if we are conscientious about precepts and train ourselves to keep them, the mental factors of moral shame and moral dread (hiri-ottappa) gain in quality, drawing in more merit, which lifts us from the coarse subtle body to a higher one.

Devas Outnumber Humans Because They Live Much Longer

The mind of a subtle body has many levels, just as in a first-grade classroom, students score anywhere from 1% to 100%. The mind of a subtle body is the same — it has many levels. There are roughly seven billion humans, but subtle bodies are far more numerous than that, because they live much longer than humans do. Celestial bodies (devas) are the same — they too have many levels, and we must develop and rise through them. From a coarser celestial body, we must reach full completion — 100% — of that particular body before we can pass into a more refined celestial body. We must develop gradually, raising our mind and heart to become nobler, purer, cleaner, and more radiant.

The Mechanism of Liberation: Once Defilements Clear, the Subtler Dimension Draws Us In

A life dwelling with wholesome nature is entirely a life of purity and liberation, because once wholesomeness arises, it draws in merit that purifies away the defilements belonging to each dimension. Once nothing remains to bind us to a coarse dimension, we are freed, and the subtler dimension draws us in — whether we are aware of it or not, even while we remain in a state of dimness or dullness. All of this is a mechanism that already exists; we simply cannot see it. We can only see the outside of the human body, not what lies within — yet we can feel it even without seeing it, and this requires the eye of the subtle body.

When wholesomeness is able to seize the position of "house-owner" within us, it brings the subtle body, feelings, mind, and mental factors of that refined kammic level to overlay our heart. If we dwell within the wholesome system, wholesomeness will overlay the subtle body onto our coarse human body, the eye of the subtle body onto the eye of our coarse human body, and seeing through the eye of the subtle body will begin to occur. Brightness arises through removing the obscuring, darkening elements — first by clearing away the hindrances, then by clearing the obscuring elements of ignorance. All of this is simply a matter of giving time to dwelling with wholesome nature; wholesome nature itself will do the work of helping and correcting us, while our role is only to draw in pure energy.

Returning to the Heart of Right Mindfulness

Simply by determining and knowing continuously without lapsing, dwelling in the body, feelings, mind, and mental objects, we remove covetousness and grief from the world. This remains the same sentence the Lord Buddha taught for developing right mindfulness. This afternoon we come to practice dwelling with wholesome nature — resting the right way, resting comfortably, making the body at ease and the mind calm. Sitting comfortably, let there be only comfort and ease. Life should be lived at ease — open, relaxed, light, clear, and cool, like sitting under a tree beside a cool, clear stream.

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

Once the body and mind are comfortable, we determine the naming-state that can raise our mind and heart to become nobler and more excellent: "Samma-araham." This is a descriptive name, called according to its qualities — one who practices well, rightly, in a way that leads away from all defilements, perfectly endowed with supreme wisdom, supreme purity, and boundless compassion, dwelling in supreme virtue, supreme mind, and supreme wisdom, clear, cool, clean, and pure.

As we repeat his name, he appears as a clear, pure crystal Buddha image, crowned with a lotus-bud crest, brilliant and radiant, able to smile, speak, and converse, full of life, seated on a meditation dais within a sphere of Dhamma filling the lap, transparent, light, brilliant, and radiant. We repeat his name again and again until it becomes second nature to us, so we come to deeply appreciate his virtues. Every time we say his name, we feel the depth of his supreme wisdom, purity, and compassion, in his virtue, concentration, and wisdom.

Cultivating Loving-Kindness for the World and All Beings

Having done good for ourselves, we go on to benefit the people of the world and all beings, by cultivating loving-kindness. It is essential that we do so, because we live within the cycle of existence — life in this cycle requires us to depend on and support one another. Those with abundant merit should support those with less, because we all come from the same place and must return to the same place. No being in this cycle has never been our relative — all have at some point been our parent, sibling, or kin.

We simply establish the good wish that all beings be free from suffering and happy everywhere, sincerely and purely, like a mother's love and goodwill for her young child. May we bear no enmity toward one another; may we conduct ourselves so as to be free from bodily and mental suffering. Having established this good wish, the sphere of loving-kindness, round, clear, and bright, appears 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 the defilement of resentment and irritation present in the atmosphere, in people, and in all beings and things. Moonlight, starlight, sunlight, and the light of a lamp still cast shadows, because they cannot penetrate through to the inside of things — but the light of loving-kindness shines both outward and inward, radiant everywhere. We simply determine loving-kindness and hold that state within the heart, becoming one who upholds the Dhamma; loving-kindness itself then displays its own qualities.

Radiating Loving-Kindness Across the World and the Cosmos

We expand this heart, filled with loving-kindness, outward, covering this place of practice. Since loving-kindness arises from the heart as its birthplace, wherever the heart expands, loving-kindness shines there too — covering the village, sub-district, district, province, and extending to other nations, 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 this loving heart 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, clean, pure, and radiant.

Dedicating Merit and Forgiving Our Karmic Counterparts

The stream of merit continues to pour into the brightness at the center of loving-kindness. We now dedicate this merit to arise for people and all beings. May all beings share in this merit we have intentionally accumulated, and be free from suffering, happy everywhere. And also our ancestors, our parents, siblings, grandparents, and our whole circle of relatives, our teachers and benefactors, the devas who assist 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 — settling still at the center of the great teachers, the most refined Dhamma body of Luang Pu, Luang Phor, and Khun Yai Ajarn. The mind is the element of accomplishment: however we determine it, so it becomes. As we merge ourselves with them into oneness, we appear bright and radiant within them, and they appear bright and radiant within us; together we appear radiant at the center of Nibbāna.

We use this most auspicious moment at the center of Nibbāna to pay respects and set our resolve for success, fixing it within this bright sphere of merit, so that from this moment on, 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.