Why We Must Practice — The Three Natural Forces and the Three Characteristics

Phra Ajarn opens by explaining that practice is essential and vital for every life, because we live under the control of three natural forces, abiding within the law of the three characteristics — we can never escape these three forces. Only the wholesome force gives us benefit, understanding, happiness, and fulfilled wishes; the others give nothing beneficial and bring only suffering and danger. He recalls the Buddha's teaching: "Monks, you should clearly determine and know body, feeling, mind, and Dhamma, to eliminate craving and grief in the world" — something we have already studied many times from different angles. Today, he says, we will move directly into stilling the mind.

The Seventh Base — Gateway to the Middle Path

Phra Ajarn has us place the mind at the seventh base, the center of the body — a crucial position, the gateway leading straight to the inner middle path. That inner middle path can only be entered through the sphere of Dhamma: not left, not right, not forward, not back, not up, not down, but straight into the middle of the middle of that inner sphere.

The Dot-on-Paper Analogy — Into the Middle of the Middle of the Middle (Two Dimensions)

He offers this analogy: take a sheet of paper and mark a single dot on it. Then take that dot and magnify it a hundred times, a thousand times, ten thousand, a hundred thousand, a million times over — and mark another dot at its very center. Magnify that new dot the same way, again and again, marking the center each time, without end. This, he says, is how one enters the middle of the middle of the middle in its two-dimensional form — a dot on paper.

Comparing the Three-Dimensional Version — A Sphere Within a Sphere

Phra Ajarn is explicit that what he has just described is only the two-dimensional version. In three dimensions, it is not a dot on paper at all, but entering into a sphere — the middle of a sphere within the middle of a sphere — expanding that sphere, then entering the middle of the sphere within it, continuing this way indefinitely. It is the same process of entering the middle of the middle of the middle, only here it takes the form of a sphere nested inside a sphere rather than a point on a flat plane.

Chanting Sammā Arahaṃ to Enter the Center

He teaches that to enter this innermost center, our teachers offer a simple method relying on the recitation and visualization of "Sammā Arahaṃ." Once the mind is placed at the seventh base, we chant "Sammā Arahaṃ" — a name describing the qualities of the One who practices well, rightly, in a way that leads far from all defilement: one who is pure and complete in higher virtue, higher mind, and higher wisdom, complete with the virtue of boundless wisdom, purity, and great compassion.

Seeing the Crystal Buddha Image and Merging into the Crystal Dhammakaya

As we determine on him, he appears at our center — a crystal-clear, radiant Buddha image, a lotus-bud crown gleaming with light, seated on a meditation disc within the bright, clear, pure sphere of Dhamma. He appears together with great compassion, taking the elements of seeing, remembering, thinking, and knowing and refining them until clear and pure, dissolving defilement, connecting us to a stream of merit, and enfolding and protecting the human body. Phra Ajarn explains that he is the Triple Gem, our true self — everyone has their own Triple Gem. We merge with him by feeling "I am the Buddha image, the Buddha image is me," from the head, face, eyes, nose, mouth, chin, chest, abdomen, back, hips, thighs, knees, shins, calves, to the soles of the feet — all becoming the crystal Dhammakaya, radiant, cool, clean, and pure. He cites Luang Phor's saying that reaching the Dhammakaya can be easy or hard: easy, once we understand the mind is a substance that succeeds — however we determine it, so it becomes — and that the Dhammakaya already exists within us, our own. Attainment ranges anywhere from one percent to a hundred percent.

Stilling the Mind Within the Buddha Image

Once body and his body have merged as one, he leads us to merge mind with mind by gathering and stilling the mind exactly as he does — stopping in stopping, stilling in stillness — still, soft, light, clear, and cool. We are to think of this as resting properly, resting body and mind the right way: resting the body at ease, resting the mind in calm, attention fixed at the center of the body.

Suffering Exists to Be Known — Endurance and Austerity

Phra Ajarn teaches that all we need is the sphere of knowing, mindfulness — whichever signal is clearest, we determine and know it. The Buddha once taught that "suffering exists to be known." Suffering is the state that must be endured, and endured with difficulty; when it arises, we simply determine and know it — knowing is enough, with no need to fight it. As we know it, the sphere of knowing arises and brings pure energy, merit, to cleanse the defilement that is the suffering, lightening it. He explains that the reason sitting feels hard and unwelcome is precisely this state of suffering — which is why the Buddha taught the cultivation of the truth of suffering: determine and know suffering whenever it arises. At first, some endurance is required, since facing suffering directly does require tolerance — but only a little at the start. Once we can bear it, patience arrives together with austerity, using austerity as armor against torment — suffering without being tormented by it. Once we endure that initial stretch, the sphere of knowing draws in pure energy to cleanse the defilement, and the suffering lightens along with it, because suffering is a coarse, clear, and continuous signal — easy to determine and know.

The Sphere of Knowing and the Stream of Merit

When we remain constantly aware without forgetting — knowing wherever we place attention — the sphere of knowing, mindfulness, arises and continuously draws in pure energy, merit. Each sphere of merit is made of pure, sacred dhamma-elements with power and potency, able to dissolve suffering, grief, and defilement entirely. Within each sphere of merit are also refined treasures — physical assets, wealth, virtues, retinue, honor, praise, happiness, and the path, fruit, and Nibbāna, and the knowledge of the Dhammakaya. As merit flows through us, these refined treasures flow through as well, drawing the coarser treasures of the world into our life. This pure energy drives the wholesome system, refining the elements within us and dissolving the defilements that tie us to coarser dimensions, freeing us progressively into subtler ones. The Triple Gem appears radiant at our center; we appear radiant within it; both we and it appear radiant within Nirvana. He explains that Nirvana consists of every Buddha, every Solitary Buddha, and every Arahant — beings who, though liberated from the cycle of existence, continue to hold and protect all beings within them, guarding against death seizing the body at will.

Radiating Loving-Kindness Across the Universe

Having done good for ourselves, Phra Ajarn leads loving-kindness practice for all beings. Simply by determining sincere, pure love and goodwill, a bright round sphere of loving-kindness arises at the center of the heart, continuously drawing in the stream of merit. Loving-kindness has the special power to dissolve resentment and friction in the hearts of all beings. He leads the radiance to spread over our homes, the village, district, province, country, neighboring countries, and other nations, until it covers the whole world like a crystal globe of light — wishing all beings, earth spirits, sky spirits, heavenly beings of every realm, brahmas, formless brahmas, and beings in hell, asuras, and animals, to be free from suffering and full of happiness. The radiance then continues outward to cover countless stars and the boundless world-systems.

Dedicating Merit to Karmic Counterparties and Stilling the Mind

Phra Ajarn dedicates this merit to all beings, our ancestors, parents, siblings, grandparents, teachers of great kindness, the devas who help us, and the karmic counterparties we may have wronged, asking that we forgive one another and receive a share of this merit. He then leads the mind to still within the Triple Gem — the Buddha Jewel, the Dhamma Jewel, the Sangha Jewel — and within the finest body of Dhamma of the Grand Master, the Great Teacher, and Khun Yai.

Making the Aspiration and the Closing Chant

He leads the aspiration, asking that the merit, power, and radiance of Nirvana and the teachers combine with all the merit accumulated since our first life, refining body, speech, and mind until they shine clear and pure, freeing us from downfall, sin, karmic obstruction, and every hardship down to the last trace; granting attainment of the threefold and eightfold knowledge, the six higher powers, the four analytical insights, the eight liberations, and the fifteen conducts; granting good health and long life, heading straight toward the path of Nirvana; and upon passing from this world, to be reborn in the Tusita heaven and in a family of right view. The sit closes with a chant invoking the well-being that comes through the power of the Buddha, the Dhamma, and the Sangha.