คำสอนสามนัยยะของสัมมาสติ พร้อมข้อควรระวังสำคัญว่า ความสว่างหรือนิมิตใดๆ ที่ปรากฏก่อนเข้าสู่ปฐมมรรคยังถือเป็นเพียงนิมิต ยังไม่อาจเชื่อถือหรือรับรองได้ว่าถูกต้อง มีเพียงการเข้าสู่ปฐมมรรคเท่านั้นที่นำมาซึ่งการคุ้มครองอัตโนมัติจากระบบกุศลธรรมอย่างแท้จริง ปิดท้ายด้วยเมตตาภาวนาและอุทิศบุญTeaching the three layers of meaning in right mindfulness, with an important caution: any brightness or meditation image that appears before actually reaching the first path (patthamamagga) remains only a nimitta — it cannot yet be trusted or confirmed as correct. Only entering the first path itself brings the true, automatic protection of the wholesome system. Closes with metta radiation and merit dedication.
Practicing the is essential to every life, because we all live under the control of three kinds of nature. Only wholesome nature can give us , understanding, benefit, and the , success, and fulfillment that are right and good, because wholesome nature is overseen by the Triple Gem, with Nibbāna behind it. The other natures give us nothing beneficial at all — if a nature is unwholesome, it brings great suffering and danger. This is why we must learn, understand, and train ourselves to dwell within system.
The Heart of Right Mindfulness: Three Layers of Meaning
To dwell within the wholesome system, the Lord Buddha taught: "Monks, you should clearly know the body, feelings, mind, and mental objects, in order to remove covetousness and grief in the world." This is an essential sentence, one that can transform an ordinary person into a noble one. We must memorize it and understand its content and its significance, which unfolds in three layers of meaning.
First Layer: Determining Means Marking the Heart
The first layer is this: dwelling with wholesome nature requires us to determine, in order to know. Determining means specifying, pointing to, or marking something. Wherever we mark, point to, or specify, the mind will be placed there. We come to know at the heart, because all Dhamma — wholesome, unwholesome, or neutral — can arise in one place only: the heart. It cannot arise anywhere else.
When we determine and know, the sphere of knowing — — a wholesome , round, clear, and bright, arises. When wholesomeness arises, mindfulness arises together with it. Mindfulness lets us be self-aware, recollecting and perceiving the various states of Dhamma that appear. At the same time, the sphere of mindfulness draws pure energy, merit, continuously into the brightness at its center. This pure energy then drives the wholesome system, refining and correcting the elements within us, clearing away the defilements, the impurities that cause problems and obstacles. Once the wholesome system has cleared these defilements away, nothing remains to bind us to a coarse dimension; the mind is freed, and a subtler dimension draws it in.
Second Layer: The Law of the Three Characteristics and the Three Natures at Work
The second layer is this: the Buddha taught us to determine and know the body, feelings, mind, and mental objects because this is a consequence of — three completely different kinds of nature: wholesome states, unwholesome states, and indeterminate (neutral) states. These three natures compete to seize the position of "house-owner" of our heart. Whichever one succeeds brings its own body, feelings, mind, and mental factors to overlay our heart, controlling our body, feelings, mind, and mental states, and drawing in energy to drive its own system, increasing its own proportion within us.
If wholesomeness is the house-owner, its body overlays ours, making the human body courteous, well-mannered, and calm; feelings become comfortable and at ease; mind and mental objects become thoughts that are good, reasonable, and grounded in correct principles, raising our mind and heart to something nobler. At the same time, the stream of merit is drawn continuously into the brightness at the center of these wholesome mental factors, refining and purifying the elements, clearing away the defilements belonging to each dimension, bringing about and liberation.
But if unwholesomeness — being subtler and thus quicker to seize the position — becomes the house-owner, it brings its own unwholesome body, feelings, mind, and mental factors, laden with greed, hatred, delusion, and lust, to overlay us. Its mind belongs to a lower order than the coarse human body — like that of a wandering spirit, an animal, a hungry ghost, or a hell-being. Once it takes hold, it draws in energy that is demerit, automatically making the human body's behavior coarse and harsh; feelings become suffering, something that must be endured, and endured with difficulty; mind and mental objects draw us into identifying with its unwholesome thoughts. If we accept them, we become imprisoned within its dimension.
As for (neutral) nature, when it is subtle enough to seize the position of house-owner, it controls life so that it holds no suffering or danger, yet also no substance at all — the mind drifts, unable to find any anchor, and daily life becomes wasteful and directionless. We can only understand this mechanism by determining and knowing the body, feelings, mind, and mental objects.
Third Layer: Removing Covetousness and Grief through Contentment and Equanimity
The third layer concerns removing covetousness and grief from the world, because we live under . What we did in the past produces results in the present, moment by moment. The results of wholesome guidance let us perform good deeds, but because our good deeds in the past were limited, the results are also limited to that degree. Yet, dissfied, we want more, and so unwholesomeness intervenes, offering us a way to get it — knowing full well that this path is meant to harm and destroy us. Yet out of greed, we are willing to take the risk, and in the end we fall right into its trap.
The Buddha therefore taught us to remove covetousness (abhijjhā) — a delight that leads toward greed (abhijjhā, not to be confused with avijjā, ). If we dwell in , we find happiness. Grief (domanassa), meanwhile, is the result of our own past mistakes, brought about by unwholesome guidance. Unwholesomeness then seizes on that regret, turning us to blame others even though we ourselves are the ones who accepted its guidance, giving rise to resentment and ill will.
The Buddha therefore taught us to live by removing covetousness and grief from the world, dwelling in contentment and equanimity. Contentment () means being satisfied with what we have and are; equanimity (upekkhā) means keeping the mind neutral — knowing happiness as happiness, suffering as suffering, without excessive delight or aversion. When we live this way, the mental factors of non-greed, non-aversion, and equanimity of mind (tatramajjhattatā) arise, able to draw in pure energy to cleanse and refine, giving quality to the other twelve subtler mental factors, such as of body and mind, which calms restlessness, lightens the body and mind, makes them supple rather than rigid, fit for work, nimble, and upright — all of which contributes to reaching the first .
Samma-Araham: The Naming-State and Form-State at the Seventh Center of the Body
Understanding this mechanism makes the work of the mind easy. There are two worlds — the inner world and the outer world. The goal of the inner world is and liberation through wisdom, leading us toward the path, fruition, and Nibbāna, relying together on calm () and (vipassanā). Our teachers instruct us to settle the mind at the seventh center of the body, a position of the highest importance — the gateway that leads to Nibbāna. Wherever we determine, wherever we mark, the mind will be placed there; the sphere of knowing, mindfulness, arises there, and pure energy is drawn in to purify that spot first. Once and the obscuring elements at that position are cleared away, brightness arises, and a sphere of clear light follows; then rises from the sixth center to the seventh, drawing our mind into the inner sphere of Dhamma.
This seventh center of the body needs a marker, and we use recitation and a meditation image as that marker. Reciting "Samma-araham" is determining the naming-state — a name called according to its qualities. "Samma-araham" refers to the one who practices well, rightly, in a way that leads away from all defilements. As we recite his name, we come to know his qualities: supreme wisdom, supreme purity, and boundless compassion, perfectly pure in supreme , supreme mind, and supreme wisdom, both liberation and the knowledge and vision of liberation.
As we recite his name, his form-state appears at the heart — because all Dhamma can arise only at the heart. It has the character of a clear, pure crystal Buddha image. Even though the physical eye cannot see it, he lets us use the meditation image of the Buddha as a representation for now: the crystal Dhamma-body, clear and pure, alive, able to smile, speak, and converse, clear as crystal, clear as diamond, seated on a meditation dais within a sphere of Dhamma filling the lap, delicate, light, clear, clean, and pure, appearing from a small clear point at and expanding upward.
Merging Body and Mind into Oneness with the Buddha Image
When he appears, he brings us great benefit, taking the elements within us — earth, water, fire, wind, space, and consciousness — and refining them to be clear, clean, and pure, clearing away our defilements. What he wishes for is for us to become one with him, because that lets him help us with full effectiveness. As we merge with him, he leads us toward purity and liberation. We are the Buddha image, the Buddha image is us; our whole body, from head, face, cheeks, shoulders, arms, torso, down to the soles of our feet, becomes the clear, pure crystal Dhamma-body.
Once we have merged with him, he expands, vast and wide, and we are freed from the coarse human body; a new Buddha image appears at the small clear point at the center. We merge our mind with his mind into oneness, then settle still at the center of this new image that has appeared. Merging with him, he continues to lead us toward liberation; each time we are freed, we settle still within the new image that appears. In this way, our life becomes a life of liberation, relying on the inner Triple Gem, even while we may still feel dim, dull, or unclear. This practice keeps mindfulness established continuously — the essential factor — because continuous mindfulness lets the stream of merit flow in without interruption, and prevents other natures from being able to interfere.
What Matters Is the Sphere of Mindfulness, Not Clarity
So it does not matter whether we see clearly or not — we need only remain aware continuously, without lapsing, engaged with this activity together with wholesome Dhamma. Let us do it with a relaxed, open, and easy heart; do not turn it into a life-or-death struggle, because the important issue is not clarity but the sphere of mindfulness that has been established. Whether we see clearly or not is simply not the point.
A Caution: Brightness Before Reaching the First Path Is Still Only a Meditation Image
Even the brightness that arises is still not the important point. What truly matters happens only once we enter the first path (paṭhamamagga) — only then does the real thing appear. Whatever brightness appears before that is merely a meditation image (nimitta); clarity too is merely a meditation image. No matter how bright the light, if we have not yet entered the first path, it all remains only a meditation image.
Entering the first path means entering the wholesome system, which is the automatic system of wholesome Dhamma — only then do we receive the true protection of the wholesome system. As long as we have not yet entered the first path, nothing can be guaranteed as correct or incorrect.
Cultivating Loving-Kindness for the World and All Beings
Having known, understood, and practiced what benefits ourselves, we go on to perform good deeds that benefit the people of the world and all beings. It is necessary that we cultivate , because it is a tool that wholesomeness uses for those with abundant merit to support those with less. Life within the cycle of existence requires us to depend on one another, because we all come from the same place and must return to the same place. No being has never been our parent or child.
We cultivate loving-kindness sincerely and purely, like a mother's heart, filled with love and goodwill for her young child. We raise this sphere of loving-kindness, which has the character of a supremely clear and bright sphere, appearing at the center of our heart. The stream of merit pours continuously into the brightness at the center of loving-kindness. This loving-kindness has the special quality of dissolving away the resentment and irritation present in the atmosphere. Moonlight, sunlight, and lamplight still cast shadows, because they cannot reach into the depths of every particle — but the light of loving-kindness shines both within and without, and therefore casts no shadow. Our role is simply to determine loving-kindness and hold that state within the heart; the rest is the role of loving-kindness itself, which displays its own qualities.
Radiating Loving-Kindness Across the World and the Cosmos
Loving-kindness arises from the heart as its birthplace; wherever the heart expands, loving-kindness shines there too, refining every particle of the atmosphere into brightness, clarity, coolness, cleanliness, and purity. We expand this heart, filled with loving-kindness, to cover our home, our village, sub-district, district, province, country, and 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 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, so that our loving-kindness shines and benefits all people and beings without limit. 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 people and all beings. May all beings share in this merit we have sincerely accumulated. And also our ancestors, our parents, siblings, grandparents, aunts and uncles, 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. 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 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 most auspicious moment to pay respects and set our resolve for success, fixing it within this bright sphere of merit, so that from this moment on, our entire 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 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.