Relaxing the Mind — Open, Spacious, and Light

Relax the mind — open, clear, spacious, light. If you can't picture emptiness, imagine a night sky glittering with stars, or an evening sky at sunset. Picturing the sky brings a sense of openness and lightness; the feeling of spaciousness naturally arises. Whatever we focus on arises in the mind, and the corresponding feeling arises with it — an image always comes paired with a feeling.

If focusing on a word doesn't yet produce the feeling, focus on an image instead — because as the image appears, the feeling appears too. This is a wholesome state: relaxation, openness, spaciousness, lightness, fullness, joy, freshness, clarity, coolness, cleanliness, purity, gentleness, softness. When these feelings arise, they continuously draw pure merit-energy in. Stay with these good feelings — once this wholesome state arises, it gradually grows subtler; the mind gradually calms and stills.

Cultivating a Life That Abides in Ease

We must cultivate a life that abides in ease — sit with ease, walk with ease, speak and converse with only ease. Bathe, do laundry, run errands, conduct business, converse — all with ease. Eat with ease, drink with ease, sleep with ease. As we keep practicing this, the mind gradually fills with joy. If it doesn't, it's because the mind has never known what it feels like to live with genuine ease — we must change our whole way of living to hold onto nothing but ease.

This must be trained — untrained, it can't be done, but with training, anything is achievable, no matter how difficult. Learning a language, learning music — the hardest things can still be learned. Yet here we're asking for just one thing: "ease." Sit with ease, walk with ease. Now let's practice sitting with ease — relaxed, light, open, spacious, or clear and cool, as though sitting beside a stream, clear, cool, light. Relax the breath until it grows subtle; loosen every muscle from the crown of the head, face, cheeks, shoulders, arms, torso. Sit at ease, holding onto nothing but ease.

The Mind Is a Wish-Fulfilling Element — Choose Ease

We've carried enough burdens already; let's try something different, let good things happen in our lives. Everyone wants ease — physical and mental comfort — and this must be intentionally set. The mind is a wish-fulfilling element: whatever we focus on becomes so. Focus on ease, and ease follows; relax the breath, loosen every muscle, and physical ease appears. Then focus on mental ease — let go of everything, release it all, as though we're the only person in the world, with no one else, no duties or work. The mind becomes open and light, holding nothing but ease. Stay aware always, without forgetting, resting with that ease.

Why worry? Why be troubled, when we can choose? Choose ease of mind. Choose to sit with ease, walk with ease, lie down with ease, eat with ease, do everything with ease. Let every moment of life hold nothing but ease, fullness, and contentment — and good things will happen to us.

The Stream of Merit and the Triple Gem

The stream of merit pours continuously through the center of our body and mind. The Triple Gem shines radiantly within us; we shine radiantly within him; and both of us shine radiantly at the center of Nibbāna, the center of the Knowing One of boundless, incalculable power. The stream of merit from the deep, subtle essence of Nibbāna pours continuously into the center of our body and mind. Many good things happen to us simply by abiding in ease and comfort.

We must train ourselves to learn how to let pure merit-energy flow through us. As merit flows through, subtle treasures flow through us too. Within each sphere of merit streaming through the center of our being is pure, sacred Dhamma-essence, powerful, capable of dissolving the defilements that create problems and obstacles causing life's difficulty. As merit flows through us, purity and happiness flow through us too — that happiness is a comfortable feeling that makes everything we do — sitting, eating, sleeping, bathing, working — filled with only ease. But if merit is scarce and defilement abundant, defilement produces anxiety instead — worry about this, worry about that, with no ease at all.

The Law of Kamma Continuously Bears Fruit

Every life is under the control of three natures — the wholesome, the unwholesome, and the neutral — governed by the law of kamma and the law of the three characteristics. At every single moment, the law of kamma bears fruit without pause. Sometimes the fruit of merit ripens continuously; sometimes the fruit of sin ripens continuously; sometimes neutral states bear fruit — sometimes heavy, sometimes light. If sin bears light fruit, we feel only slight regret; but when sin bears heavy fruit, we suffer greatly. Every moment where sin, merit, or neutral states bear fruit is governed by just these three natures — sometimes heavy, sometimes light.

The fruit of merit comes from wholesomeness guiding us, and us following that guidance. Wholesomeness always guides us toward what's right and good, because its goal is genuinely, sincerely to help us find happiness, success, and fulfillment. Wholesomeness is clever, full of wisdom, constantly advising, guiding, instructing us — almost as though we're thinking it ourselves, because when wholesomeness arises in the mind, we simply know whatever it knows, since the mind is our instrument of knowing. As wholesomeness arises, it continuously draws pure merit-energy into the brightness of our sphere of mindfulness, and we gain correct understanding, true to reality.

Unwholesomeness is the opposite — also clever, but whoever keeps its company, it makes them foolish, confused, holding wrong understanding and wrong view, straying from reality — because unwholesomeness's goal is to harm and destroy every life, every being. If we associate with it, it causes us trouble. So let us focus only on wholesomeness.

Reciting Samma-Arahang and the Crystal Buddha-Image

Once the mind abides in ease, holding nothing but ease, we bring that comfortable mind to rest with the Triple Gem, the highest and most sublime thing there is. Stay with him and call his name — "Samma-Arahang, Samma-Arahang, Samma-Arahang" — a descriptive name, called according to his qualities, meaning "the One who has practiced well, rightly, in a way that leads far from all defilements." As we recite the qualities of the One complete in wisdom, purity, and boundless compassion, perfected in higher virtue, higher mind, and higher wisdom, he appears at the center of our mind — a crystal-clear, pure Buddha-image, with a radiant lotus-bud crest on his crown, able to smile, speak, and converse, seated in meditation within a sphere of Dhamma filling his lap, light and radiant.

When he appears, he never appears for nothing — being boundless in compassion, he brings us great benefit, refining the elements of our being — sight, memory, thought, awareness, earth, water, wind, fire, space, consciousness — to be clear, clean, pure, clearing away every defilement entirely, and clearing the way ahead so our lives can reap success easily.

Our True Self Across Many Levels of Body

He is our true self. Our identity exists at many levels: the coarse human body; the subtle human body resembling us but as a dream-body; the celestial body, another level resembling us but more beautiful; the subtle celestial body, more beautiful still; the form-Brahma body, more radiant than the celestial body; the subtle form-Brahma body; the formless-Brahma body; the subtle formless-Brahma body — each growing ever more beautiful, yet still retaining a resemblance to us; the Dhamma-body of the "gotrabhū"; the Dhamma-body of the Stream-Enterer, the Once-Returner, the Non-Returner; the Arahant Dhamma-body — all of these are us, at each respective level, layered bodies nested within the sphere of Dhamma. We focus on the Arahant Dhamma-body through the words "Samma-Arahang, Samma-Arahang" — simply reciting his name causes him to appear, because the mind is a wish-fulfilling element: whatever we focus on becomes so. We can focus on good or bad, on the lowly or the sublime — whatever we focus on arises in the mind.

So the revered Luang Phor said that reaching the Dhamma-body is both easy and hard: easy, because we know the mind is a wish-fulfilling element — whatever we focus on becomes so. And when we focus on him, he comes bearing his power.

Even a Moment's Recollection of the Triple Gem Has Power

Consider: if we died right now, where would we go? While he is present in our mind, we would go to a fortunate heavenly rebirth. This shows that what we're focusing on truly has power — because going to heaven isn't easy; it requires accumulating vast merit and goodness. Yet while we abide with him, even for just a single moment, we are under the care of the Triple Gem, complete in wisdom, purity, and boundless compassion. He is in our mind, and we are in his; both of us appear radiant at the center of Nibbāna, because Nibbāna oversees the system of wholesomeness — the Triple Gem — within whose center we abide, not with just one being, not a hundred, not a thousand, not ten thousand, not a hundred thousand, not a million, but asaṅkhyeya, uncountable. It's precisely because of this uncountable number that, even if we closed our eyes and left this world right now, we could appear in the heavenly realm as a celestial being.

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

He desires that we and he become a single unity, because this allows him to help us with maximum effectiveness and the greatest result. So let us put on the feeling that "I am the Buddha-image, the Buddha-image is me," letting our entire body become the crystal Dhamma-body, radiant and bright — from the crown, face, cheeks, shoulders, arms, torso, all becoming the crystal Dhamma-body. Our crown becomes clear crystal, the crown of the Buddha-image, with a radiant lotus-bud crest; our face becomes the crystal Dhamma-body, eyes gently closed, softly smiling; our eyes become his eyes; nose, cheeks, mouth, chin, and neck all become the radiant, clear, cool, clean, pure face of the crystal Dhamma-body; both shoulders and arms become clear crystal; chest, belly, lower abdomen, back, hips, thighs, knees, shins, calves, and feet all become the radiant, clear crystal Dhamma-body, gentle, soft, cool, and pure.

The mind is a wish-fulfilling element — whatever it's tied to, it changes to match that thing's quality. Tied to gold, the mind rises and falls with gold's price; tied to money, it rises and falls with money's value. So why not tie our hearts to the highest and most sublime thing there is — the Triple Gem, Nibbāna, complete in boundless wisdom, purity, and compassion, perfected in higher virtue, higher mind, and higher wisdom? When our mind holds him, his mind holds us; the stream of merit pours continuously through the center of our body and mind. As merit flows through, it drives the system of wholesomeness, refining the elements within us toward purity. As defilement lightens, problems and obstacles lighten too; once defilement clears entirely, whatever binds us to the coarse dimension disappears, freeing us to move to a subtler one.

Developing the Practice Until It Becomes Automatic

The human body's role is simply to focus attention so the sphere of mindfulness arises, continuously drawing pure merit-energy into its brightness — this is the human body's essential role: stay aware always, without forgetting, so merit continues flowing through. This is all a human being can do; everything else belongs to the role of wholesome nature, which continuously refines and helps us toward purity and liberation.

And this requires training. Even though the human body's role is simply to keep knowing without forgetting, what we must do next is develop this into something semi-automatic. The recitation and the visualized object develop into something semi-automatic, and then into something fully automatic. Since what we're doing is this simple, if we do it with determination and continuity, it gradually becomes automatic.

**It's like when a song gets stuck in your head — you hum it over and over until it becomes an earworm, and then you'll notice that at certain moments, without meaning to sing at all, the mind starts singing that song on its own.** This is how automaticity arises. We must train — train until an automatic system develops. The mind can be trained: someone who doesn't know a language can still train themselves to speak several languages. Look at how we learn to drive — starting out unable to drive at all, whether a motorcycle or a two-wheeled bicycle, and eventually able to ride automatically. Abiding within the system of wholesomeness through recitation and the visualized object works the same way — we must train until it becomes automatic, training day and night. Once trained to automaticity, it can run on its own — we can go about our business, talk with customers, while the inner automatic system keeps working by itself; we simply need to occasionally check that it's still running. Once finished with our duties and work, we return to merging ourselves with him into one unity — "Samma-Arahang — I am the Buddha-image, the Buddha-image is me."

Doing the Cause, Observing the Result

Our lives are in our own hands — we can shape them however we wish. If we want this life to be pure and liberated, we need samatha and vipassanā as our tools to do the cause, in order to reach ceto-vimutti and paññā-vimutti. The revered Luang Pu gave us this principle: "Do the cause, observe the result — attend to this, for it is truly excellent. Do the cause and observe the result within — attend to this, for it is truly excellent. Do the cause and observe the result deeply within — attend to this closely." He repeated this three times: having done the cause, observe the result, because observation reveals the changes taking place. This minute differs from the one before; good things gradually arise as a result of the cause we've done. Even small improvements, given time, keep compounding into ever greater improvement — what was once a crisis becomes a good opportunity. We simply need to do the cause and then observe the result that appears.

Bring ourselves, our minds, to abide with the Triple Gem — whatever we give our time to shapes us, transforms us; however much time we give, that much transformation follows. Each day holds 24 hours; give him a little time, and a little result appears; give him more time, and more result follows accordingly. We must therefore abide within the system of wholesomeness, which always yields good results for us.

Cultivating Loving-Kindness for the World

Once we've done good for our own benefit, we move to doing good for the benefit of the world and all beings, by cultivating mettā. Mettā is a tool of wholesomeness, meant for those with abundant merit to help those with little. We live our lives in the cycle of rebirth surrounded by people and beings, all coming from the same place and destined to return to the same place: Nibbāna. But while still cycling through birth and death, mutual dependence among beings persists at all times. At different times, we've been each other's parents, siblings, relatives, teachers and students, people who once loved us, people we once loved, who've shed tears for us, poured their hearts into us, given everything to our lives.

So, living within the cycle of rebirth, whenever we have the opportunity to benefit others, we must take it — don't let opportunities to help slip away, regretted later. Time is the most important resource of life. We simply need to focus on sincere, pure love and goodwill.

Many Kinds of Love, and the Love of Wholesomeness

Love comes in many kinds. Unwholesome love is selfish and self-serving; neutral love creates no benefit for either oneself or others. Only wholesome love can benefit both oneself and others at once. We simply focus on sincere, pure love and goodwill — like a mother's love for her child, filled with sincere, pure love and goodwill. This is mettā — a love of true quality, appearing as a bright, clear sphere filled with love and goodwill. Once it arises in our mind, we hold that feeling, earning the name "keeper of Dhamma," and that Dhamma reveals its own qualities on its own.

Mettā Shines Like Flipping a Light Switch, Covering the World and Cosmos

Mettā's special quality is its ability to dissolve resentment and irritation entirely — in the atmosphere, in people, beings, and things. As mettā arises, it shines radiantly at the center of our mind, dissolving the defilement of resentment within us completely. As we expand the mind transformed by this sincere, pure love and goodwill to cover our home and surroundings, mettā shines, refining every particle of the atmosphere — people, beings, and things — making them radiant, cool, clean, and pure.

Since mettā depends on the mind as its birthplace, wherever the mind extends, mettā's light reaches there too. Moonlight and sunlight cast shadows, because that light cannot penetrate through to the inner being of objects, of people's bodies and minds. But this light of mettā can shine both inside and outside, illuminating every particle of the atmosphere, every cell, then expanding to cover the whole village, radiant through every particle of the atmosphere — trees, grass, people, beings, things, homes — **just like flipping a light switch, and instantly everything is lit up.** We then expand the mind transformed by mettā to cover the sub-district, the district, the province, the country, neighboring countries, other nations, until it covers the whole world, making the world a crystal world, radiant, cool, clean, 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, Brahmas and formless Brahmas, as well as beings in hell, asuras, and animals. May those with much suffering have less; those with little suffering be entirely free; those with little happiness have more; and those with much happiness have ever more. Having set this wish, we expand the mind transformed by mettā further into the atmosphere of the cosmos, covering countless stars — tens, hundreds, thousands, millions — continuing onward to the ten-thousand world-systems, the hundred-thousand-koti universes, the infinite universes, letting our mettā shine, benefiting people and all beings without limit. Our minds expand joyfully, open, spacious, light, clear, cool, clean, pure, radiant. The stream of merit continues pouring through the brightness 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 — including our ancestors, parents, siblings, grandparents, our benefactor-teachers, 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, still, and settle the mind at the center of the Triple Gem — the center of the Buddha jewel, the Dhamma jewel, the Sangha jewel — and rest the mind within the great teachers: the finest Dhamma-body of the revered Luang Pu, of Luang Phor, and of Khun Yay Ajahn. The mind is a wish-fulfilling element — whatever we focus on becomes so.

We must merge ourselves with the Triple Gem and the great masters into one unity every single day, because our lives depend on them every moment — they never cease refining and helping us, whether we're asleep, awake, standing, walking, sitting, lying down, wholly unaware of ourselves; every single moment, without pause, they refine and help us toward purity and liberation, that goodness may arise in our lives. Their kindness toward us is truly immeasurable. As the wise have said, the Triple Gem is the highest refuge and object of recollection there is — nothing else can serve as a greater refuge.

Closing Aspiration

When we merge ourselves with him into one unity, we appear radiant within him, and he appears radiant within us; together we appear radiant at the center of Nibbāna, the center of the Knowing One of boundless, incalculable power. We use this auspicious moment to pay respect to Nibbāna, and while we appear radiant within him, we ask his blessing to set our aspiration deep within this radiant sphere of merit, that our entire path of accumulating perfections be filled with wisdom, happiness, purity, and success in everything right and good.

May all the merit and perfections we've sincerely accumulated since our very first existence gather into sacred, powerful merit, purifying our body, speech, mind, and every element within us to be radiant, cool, clean, 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, and 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.