Settling the Body, Calming the Mind

Practicing Dhamma is easy and comfortable when we stay within the system of wholesome states; outside of it, everything becomes difficult, simply because we don't understand it. So we first need to learn the essence of meditation.

Bhāvanā means "to bring into being, to make real." Whatever we focus on arises in the mind. Wherever we place our attention, the mind settles there. We're taught to rest the mind at the seventh base at the center of the body, since this is the mind's permanent resting place and the gateway pointing straight toward the path to Nibbāna.

Wherever we focus, the mind is placed there — this is called "attending." When we attend, we come to know; and when we know, the sphere of knowing arises — the sphere of mindfulness, awareness, recollection. All states, whether wholesome, unwholesome, or neutral, can only arise at one place: the mind. Nowhere else. Once the sphere of mindfulness has arisen, we need an object for it to rest on — something easy, with a clear and continuous signal. This is why the teachers give us the recitation "Samma-Arahang."

The Meaning of Samma-Arahang and the Vision of the Crystal Buddha-Image

"Samma-Arahang" is a descriptive name, called according to his qualities — the One who has practiced well, rightly, in a way that leads far from the defilements. He is complete in wisdom, purity, and boundless compassion, perfected in higher virtue, higher mind, and higher wisdom, along with liberation and the knowledge of liberation.

When we recite his name — "Samma-Arahang, Samma-Arahang, Samma-Arahang" — he appears at the center of our mind as a crystal-clear, radiant Buddha-image, alive, able to smile, speak, and converse. Seeing him fully requires the "Dhamma eye"; ordinary human sight can only sense his presence, so we use this image as a stand-in for now — a crystal-clear, pure Buddha-image with a lotus-bud crown, radiant and bright, seated in meditation within a sphere of Dhamma that fills his lap.

When he appears, he never appears for nothing — being boundless in compassion, his appearance always brings great benefit. He takes the elements of our being — sight, memory, thought, awareness, earth, water, wind, fire, space, and consciousness — and refines them to be clear, clean, and pure. He handles the defilements: karmic results, obstructing forces, sacred sins, disasters — turning heavy into light, light into gone, bad fortune into good. He also clears the way ahead of us so we can reap success without great difficulty.

Beyond that, he expands to merge with our human body, protecting and caring for it, so as to carry it to liberation. For us to be liberated, we must merge ourselves with him into a single unity — this is what he wants.

"I Am the Buddha-Image, the Buddha-Image Is Me"

To merge ourselves with him into one unity, we need to put on the feeling: "I am the Buddha-image, the Buddha-image is me." Let our entire body — from the crown of the head, face, cheeks, shoulders, arms, torso, down to the toes — become the crystal Dhamma-body, radiant, clear, and pure.

The crown becomes clear crystal with a lotus-bud crest, radiant, soft, gentle, cool, and pure. The face becomes his countenance, eyes gently closed, lips softly smiling. The eyes become his eyes; the nose, cheeks, mouth, chin, and neck all become crystal-clear, radiant, cool, and pure. Both shoulders and arms down to the fingertips become clear, radiant crystal. The chest, belly, lower abdomen, and back all become the crystal Dhamma-body. The hips, thighs, knees, shins, calves, and soles of the feet all become the crystal Dhamma-body, radiant, soft, gentle, cool, and pure.

The revered Luang Phor once said that reaching the Dhamma-body can be described as both easy and hard: easy because the mind is a "wish-fulfilling element" — whatever we focus on, that is what arises — and the Dhamma-body already exists within each of us, belonging to each person individually. Attainment ranges from 1% to 100%; whatever we can perceive right now is enough to start from. Wherever in the body we can sense that clear radiance, begin from there.

But if we still cannot picture the whole body as a radiant Buddha-image, that's fine too — simply use the feeling instead. Feel that "I am the Buddha-image, the Buddha-image is me," letting mindfulness rest on that feeling. Stay with him at ease, sensing his presence with a relaxed mind — open, spacious, light, clear, cool, clean, and pure.

The Stream of Merit and Subtle Treasures

While we're mindfully aware of the crystal Dhamma-body, a continuous stream of merit flows through the center of our body and mind. The Triple Gem shines radiantly within us, whether we see it or not. As long as we abide in the nature of wholesomeness, with mindfulness — a wholesome mental factor — arisen, pure energy is drawn to flow through continuously.

Within each sphere of merit that streams through is complete happiness and purity. At its center is a treasury of subtle assets — forms, wealth, virtues, retinue, fame, honor, praise, happiness, and even the path, fruit, Nibbāna, and the knowledge of the Dhamma-body — all complete within each sphere of merit. When merit flows through us, these subtle treasures flow through us too, and it's these subtle treasures that draw worldly, tangible fortune into our lives.

With every recitation of "Samma-Arahang," the Buddha-image arises from a tiny bright point at the center of the body, expanding — point to sphere, sphere to full image — appearing within the sphere and merging as one with us, his lap overlapping with our own human lap, shoulders, arms, head, face, cheeks all merging into a single unity. Image after image streams through continuously, each one bringing great benefit to us.

Abiding in the Center of Nibbāna, and the Value of Anchoring the Heart

We appear radiant within him, he appears radiant within us, and both of us appear radiant within the center of Nibbāna — the center of the Knowing One of boundless power, incalculable, beyond counting. Nibbāna is every Sammāsambuddha, every Paccekabuddha, and all the Arahants — only these three kinds of beings have escaped the cycle of rebirth. Even having passed on, they haven't truly "gone" anywhere; they abide in the Nibbāna-realm, still helping beings and all living things continuously, holding them within, refining, protecting, and guarding them so death cannot seize the body arbitrarily.

Whichever being abides in universal goodness, the stream of merit from the deep, subtle essence of Nibbāna streams continuously into the center of their mind. The Triple Gem shines radiantly within them, whether or not they follow Buddhism, whether or not they hold any religion at all — as long as they stand in universal goodness.

He teaches that the mind is a wish-fulfilling element — focus on good, and good arises; focus on bad, and bad arises. Whatever the heart is tied to, it changes according to that thing: a heart tied to gold rises and falls with the price of gold; a heart tied to money rises and falls with its value. So his teacher, Khun Yay, taught: tie your heart to Nibbāna instead, because it is the highest and most sublime thing there is. Once tied to him, the stream of merit from the deep essence of Nibbāna flows continuously through our entire lineage of elements and Dhamma, making every sphere — of Dhamma, precepts, concentration, wisdom, liberation, and the knowledge of liberation, in every body — clear and pure.

If You Can't Picture It, Simply Count the Recitation

If we can't yet picture the Buddha-image, we can simply count the recitation onward — Samma-Arahang 1, Samma-Arahang 2, Samma-Arahang 3, and so on — without rushing, without forcing, without pressuring ourselves. Do it with a relaxed mind, open, spacious, light, at ease — each person practicing in their own comfortable way.

The Human Body's Role and the System of Wholesomeness

Once we've done good for our own benefit — cultivating right mindfulness, focusing so the sphere of awareness arises — to draw the pure, deathless energy of merit flowing into the brightness of that sphere, our only role is simply to keep knowing, without forgetting. Everything else belongs to the nature of wholesomeness, which brings merit to drive the system, refining the elements within us to be clean and pure, clearing away the defilements that create problems and hardship.

Once the defilements clear, whatever binds the mind to the coarse dimension disappears, and the mind is freed to move to a subtler dimension. Every dimension still has some defilement, right up until Arahantship, but the subtler the dimension, the subtler the defilement. We must keep focusing to draw pure energy in to drive the system of wholesomeness further, reducing the proportion of unwholesome and neutral states — reducing life's meaninglessness — and increasing the proportion of wholesomeness, making it easier to reach happiness, success, and fulfillment. Life gains substance; body and mind become light and full of vitality.

Cultivating Loving-Kindness for the Benefit of Others

Once we've done good for our own benefit, we move on to doing good for the benefit of others and all beings, by cultivating mettā (loving-kindness). Mettā is a tool of the wholesome nature, meant for those with abundant merit to support those with little. We are in a position to benefit all beings — life in the cycle of rebirth depends entirely on mutual support. We all come from the same place and return to the same place: Nibbāna. While we're still cycling through birth and death, we've all at some point been each other's parents, children, siblings, relatives, and friends — we've shed tears for one another, loved and cared for one another.

Love in the human world comes in many forms; we must cultivate the right and good kind, born of wholesomeness, entirely different from unwholesome love, which is selfish and self-serving, harming the very people we claim to love. We must instead cultivate love filled with sincere, pure goodwill — like a mother's love for her child, willing to sacrifice everything for the child's happiness. We simply focus on this sincere, pure love and goodwill, holding the feeling in mind continuously — this is called being a "keeper of Dhamma." Mettā then reveals its own qualities on its own.

Mettā Shines Like Flipping a Light Switch

When mettā, a bright clear sphere, arises, the stream of merit continuously flows into its brightness. Mettā's special quality is its ability to dissolve resentment and irritation in the hearts of people and beings entirely. Once mettā arises, it refines our body, speech, and mind to be clean and pure, then spreads outward — the mind, transformed by sincere love and goodwill, expands to cover our home and its surroundings. Mettā shines into every particle of the atmosphere, illuminating people, beings, and things, making them clear and pure.

Moonlight, sunlight, and lamplight still cast shadows, because they cannot penetrate through to the inner being of people and things. But the light of mettā can shine through both outside and inside, radiating into every particle of every atmosphere, for everyone and everything.

He teaches: mettā depends on the mind as its birthplace — wherever the mind extends, mettā's light reaches there too, **just like flipping a light switch — the moment you flip it, the light fills the space at once.** The light of loving-kindness doesn't travel gradually to its destination; it illuminates instantly, everywhere the mind has reached. The wider the mind expands, the farther that light of mettā covers.

From there, we expand the mind transformed by mettā to cover the whole sub-district, then continuously outward to the district, the province, the country, other nations, until it covers the whole world — making the world a crystal world, radiant, cool, clean, and pure. May the people of the world and all beings be free from suffering and find happiness everywhere — the earth-bound devas, tree devas, sky devas, heavenly beings of every realm, all the Brahmas, as well as beings in hell, asuras, and animals. May those with great suffering have less; those with little suffering be free of it entirely; those with little happiness have more; and those with much happiness have even more.

Then we extend further into the atmosphere of the cosmos, covering countless stars — tens, hundreds, thousands, millions of them — continuing outward to the ten-thousand world-systems, the hundred-thousand-koti universes, the infinite universes, letting our mettā shine, benefiting all beings without limit. Our minds expand, joyful, open, spacious, light, clear, cool, refreshed and moistened with joy. The stream of merit continues to pour through the brightness of the sphere of mettā without pause.

Dedicating Merit and Forgiving Our Karmic Counterparts

We then dedicate this merit to arise for all people and beings. May all beings share in this merit we've sincerely made, and be free from suffering, finding happiness everywhere — including our ancestors, parents, siblings, grandparents, teachers and benefactors, and the devas who help and support us, as well as those who care for and protect all beings. To any **karmic counterparts** we may have wronged, we ask forgiveness from one another, and may they too receive a share of this merit equally.

Uniting the Mind Within the Triple Gem and the Great Masters

We then gather and still the mind at the center of the Triple Gem — the center of the Buddha jewel, then the Dhamma jewel, then the Sangha jewel — and rest the mind within the great teachers: the finest Dhamma-body of the revered Luang Pu, then of Luang Phor, and of Khun Yay Ajahn.

The mind is a wish-fulfilling element; whatever we focus on becomes so. We need to merge ourselves with the Triple Gem and the great masters into one unity, for we can never truly be apart from them — their kindness toward us is beyond measure. Every single moment of theirs is devoted to helping us, refining us toward purity and liberation, whether we're standing, walking, sitting, lying down, or simply going about our lives unaware — they never cease helping us, day and night. As the wise have said, the Triple Gem is the highest refuge and recollection there is; nothing else can serve as a greater refuge.

Closing Aspiration

In this auspicious moment, we pay respect and set our aspiration deep within this radiant sphere of merit, that our entire path of accumulating perfections be filled with wisdom, happiness, and purity, and success in everything right and good. May all the merit and perfections we've sincerely accumulated since our very first existence gather together into sacred, powerful merit, purifying our body, speech, mind, and every element within us to be radiant, cool, clean, and pure — freeing us from misfortune, sacred sin, karmic obstruction, and every kind of hardship in life, dissolving greed, hatred, delusion, lust, ignorance, wrong view, craving, and clinging without remainder — granting us the Dhamma-eye to fully penetrate the knowledge of the Dhamma-body, complete in every respect, along with good health, long life, the strength to build perfections throughout our lives, all the way to the ultimate end of Dhamma.

He closes with the traditional Pali verse: "Sabbe Buddhā papetā... Arahantānañca tejena rakkhaṃ vandāmi sabbaso. Sabba-Buddhānubhāvena, sabba-Dhammānubhāvena, sabba-Saṅghānubhāvena, saddhā-sotthī bhavantu te" — Sādhu.