การนำนั่งสมาธิครั้งนี้ พระอาจารย์เปรียบเราผู้เป็นเจ้าของเรือนกายเรือนใจเหมือนพระราชาที่ปกครองประเทศของตน ส่วนธรรมชาติสามฝ่าย — กุศล อกุศล และอัพยากตะ — เป็นเพียงอำมาตย์ที่ไม่อาจสังขารได้ด้วยตัวเอง ต้องชี้นำผ่านเราเท่านั้น จากนั้นท่านนำเข้าสู่กฎแห่งกรรมและกฎไตรลักษณ์ การเลือกดำรงอยู่ในระบบกุศลธรรม การกำหนดรู้ตามหลักสติ การน้อมใจเข้าสู่พระรัตนตรัย การแผ่เมตตาไม่มีประมาณ และปิดท้ายด้วยการอุทิศส่วนบุญและอธิษฐานจิตIn this guided sit, Phra Ajarn compares us — the owner of this house of body and mind — to a ruler governing a kingdom, while the three natures (wholesome, unwholesome, and indeterminate) are ministers who cannot act on their own and must lobby through us to get their way. From there he moves through the law of kamma and the three characteristics, choosing to live within the wholesome system, mindful knowing, bringing the heart to the Triple Gem, boundless loving-kindness, and closes with dedicating merit and a final aspiration.
Let us gently close our eyes, comfortably. Relax every part of . Let the breath ease, growing softer and softer. Every muscle loosens, bit by bit. This is the fruit of the we determine — when we set an intention it affects the heart first, and only then, gradually, the body. Let the heart become open, spacious, empty, light and comfortable, clear, cool, clean, pure, and radiant.
Whatever we determine, so it becomes — because what we determine appears as a bright, clear sphere that arises only at the heart, nowhere else. Once it arises, that state of dhamma spreads out to the heart, and the heart knows accordingly — because the heart is our organ of knowing. Determine relaxation, and a sphere of relaxation arises. Determine openness, and a sphere of openness arises. All such spheres look alike — clear, bright, round — differing only in the inner quality carried within, which we name according to that quality.
Whatever We Determine, That Is What Arises
Determine something good, and something good arises. Determine something not good, and something not good arises. What makes something good or not good is simply whether flows through it. Whatever we determine, if merit flows through, it counts as good — because when merit flows, it carries and sanctity, a power able to clear away the defilements that are the root of every problem and hardship. Nothing else can clear the stain of demerit except merit itself. Within a sphere of merit is also a fullness of happiness, of body and of heart, sustaining us so that whether we sit, lie down, stand, walk, talk, or work, we can do so at ease.
Our life is not happy all the time. Sometimes we are happy, sometimes suffering, sometimes neutral — all of it is the result of energy. When wholesome energy gives its result, we are happy in body and at ease in heart. When unwholesome energy gives its result, we feel anxious, irritable, bored, gloomy, stressed, annoyed, weary, discouraged, hopeless, restless, and constricted. The neutral stretches are mostly the result of indeterminate (abyakata) energy.
How our life unfolds depends on right view — whether our view is correct or mistaken. A wrong determination comes from being caught in a wrong system. We should determine what is correct and wholesome so that merit can flow; determining what is not correct and wholesome only harms and destroys ourselves, bringing distress on our own head, simply for lack of right view. Right view is therefore the essence of life. To practise the and reach it, to sit with a happy body and an at-ease heart, we must rely on the right view of who guides us.
Ruler of Body and Mind — Three Ministers Who Must Lobby Through Us
We, the owner of this house of body and this house of mind, are like a monarch — an emperor, a king — who must govern and care for this house. We are sovereign here; our body and our heart are like our own country, which we alone must tend. A king is the one who sets the goals and issues the decrees.
The three natures — , , and — are like ministers who are forever advising us. But none of these three natures can act on its own; each can only guide us by lobbying through us, since we alone are the one who determines. So they must come and persuade us, using every argument they can muster, so that we will determine as they wish. Each has its own script ready — what it wants said, what it wants done.
The Law of Kamma and the Law of the Three Characteristics
All beings live under the control of the three natures — the wholesome, the unwholesome, and the indeterminate — and these three govern every being and every thing through two laws: and .
The law of kamma is the result of what we have done in the past. When the unwholesome guides us and we go along with it, causing distress to ourselves and others, it ripens as demerit. But whenever we act on the guidance of the wholesome, benefiting ourselves and others, it ripens as merit — good results that show themselves moment by moment, in every present instant. Every present moment unfolding is entirely the result of the law of kamma. Whether we are poor or well-off, at ease or beset by problems, it is all the result of the law of kamma.
The current of demerit is released from within the sphere of demerit inside the sphere of dhamma, drawing in the conditions that shape our life moment by moment, giving results exactly according to the pattern already set — no more than that. Merit works in the opposite way, releasing a current that draws in good conditions, producing goodness in each present moment.
The net result of merit and demerit is simply liking and disliking, joy and sorrow — and this is where the law of the three characteristics takes over, using that liking and disliking as its material. If we take delight, it turns that delight into , because we cling to what pleases us; yet the pattern only gives what it gives, because we have only created causes for that much. Human beings want more, but the law of kamma will not allow it, since we only created the cause for so much. The unwholesome seizes on that craving to provoke greed, luring us to believe it, offering us one scheme after another — because the unwholesome's aim is always to bring us suffering and harm. If people and beings do not see through it, they accept it, and life runs straight into the trap — like a fish drawn to the bait on a hook, swallowing it and suffering unto death, or a barking deer lured into a snare, suffering unto death.
The law of kamma has governed beings from the past up to the present, and the law of the three characteristics directs beings to create causes whose results are carried into the future — governing everything, end to end, from past to future. No one can ever escape this control.
Choosing a Side — Living Within the Wholesome System
Given this, we must choose a side — which nature we will live with. The unwholesome aims to destroy beings utterly, even to the point of death, and then drag them down into the realms of hell beings, hungry ghosts, and animals. The wholesome, by contrast, aims to benefit beings sincerely — giving value, benefit, and understanding, happiness, success, and fulfilment. Even in death it leads to a good destination, a heavenly world, an existence as a celestial being, a Brahma, a formless Brahma, or a Dhamma body. The indeterminate, meanwhile, does no harm, but neither does it give any benefit — it simply uses up our time and resources to no purpose at all.
Knowing this, we must choose to live within the wholesome system, because the mistakes that occur are systemic mistakes. Every system needs a goal, because the goal determines the quality of the system — a high goal makes for a system of high quality, a low goal for one of lesser quality, though it is quicker and easier to set up and needs less energy. Within a system are the processes that lead toward the goal, and within each mechanism are the components suited to that level of goal. But no system can move at all without energy — and so the three natures each need energy to drive their own system.
Our mind is never for a moment free of energy flowing through it. At times wholesome energy flows through; at times unwholesome energy flows through; at times it is indeterminate energy, neither merit nor demerit. They alternate, taking turns possessing the heart — and whichever nature succeeds in possessing the heart draws in its own kind of energy to drive its own system.
The Tools of the Wholesome — Precepts, Concentration, Wisdom, Liberation, and Liberation-Insight
Once we choose to live within the wholesome system, the wholesome offers its tools — precepts, concentration, wisdom, , and liberation- — kept as standing equipment within every body, ready to serve our benefit.
When we abide in , the sphere of precepts protects and cares for us, helping us keep the wholesome as our normal state, helping us resist the wickedness of the unwholesome that would guide us into wrongdoing. The sphere of precepts draws merit in to cleanse away every defilement.
The sphere of concentration helps raise the quality of the mind — for our mind has as many as 121 states, and we must elevate and develop it with the energy of merit, by determining to know and never forgetting, so as to move free of the coarse dimension into the subtle one. We move free of the sense-sphere dimension — form, taste, smell, sound, touch, and mental objects, the coarse dimension of the outer world — into the inner dimension, layer by layer. We must let go of clinging to the world perceived through eye, ear, nose, tongue, and body. As for the inner world, we must let go of liking and disliking, settling the heart into neutrality; the of arises together with and non-aversion, enabling us to release liking and disliking so the heart no longer sways with whatever stimulates it, inside or out.
As we let go, we move free into the inner dimension, layer by layer. Every dimension we occupy carries its own defilement, and this defilement flows differently into each person's life — some have a narrow heart, so their defilement of runs deep; some have a broad, generous heart, so their giving flows as broadly. We must therefore keep letting go to move through the inner dimension, layer by layer, and there we meet the inner knower. This layer-by-layer release is what lifts our mind higher and finer. Each dimension we pass through has its own knower, a being of power who watches over and helps us — like a secretary forever reminding, guiding, and instructing us, together with the that makes us want to act or not to act, relying on the mental factor that anchors the mind to the heart, holding it there longer and more continuously, so no other nature can seize the throne of the heart.
Precepts, concentration, and wisdom are what we must learn and understand, seeing the danger of the unwholesome, so that we can free ourselves from every defilement. As long as we do not see that danger, we will not wish to be free. Wisdom is what shows us the danger, so that we come to wish for freedom from every unwholesome state — laziness, fear, irritability, drink, drugs, theft, and the rest — all defilements of the unwholesome that overpower beings. Once we are free from the power of the unwholesome, the sphere of liberation does its work of freeing us, relying on the sphere of wisdom that sees the danger in each of these things. Once freed, the sphere of liberation carries us toward a better life, a more excellent life, a wondrous and marvellous life — which requires the wisdom that sees the value and benefit of the wholesome. This wisdom refines our heart, raising its quality higher and finer, until we reach that better life. We must also rely on the sphere of liberation-insight.
These six spheres of dhamma — precepts, concentration, wisdom, liberation, and liberation-insight — are kept at the centre of the body in every body we have, whether the coarse human body, the refined human body, the celestial body, the Brahma body, the formless-Brahma body, or , all along our lineage of bodies. We must therefore study them, to understand and then put them to use for our own benefit.
Mindful Knowing
Simply by determining to know — as the Lord Buddha taught in cultivating : “Monks, you should clearly determine and know the body, feelings, mind, and mental objects, in order to remove and displeasure regarding the world.” He taught the monastic community that they must determine to know. When we determine to know, the sphere of knowing — the sphere of — arises. Wherever in the heart we place our determination, the heart is placed there too; this is called paying attention. Once placed there, we go on to perceive it in a relaxed, easy way, as though we had come simply to sit and rest, at ease in body and at ease in heart.
This ease of body and heart is a foundation of life. However we live, whether at ease or not at ease, this is something we can determine — we can determine suffering, or we can determine happiness. Since we can choose, let us choose to determine what is good, dwelling in ease of heart. Determine that ease again and again, and there will be nothing but ease of heart.
Bringing the Heart to the Triple Gem: Sammā Arahaṃ
As we determine, the Triple Gem appears bright within us, because the Triple Gem oversees the wholesome system. If we determine with a heart that is relaxed, open, spacious, empty, light and easy, holding only ease of heart, the Triple Gem will appear clear and bright at the centre of our heart. We will appear bright within them, and both we and they will appear bright within Nibbāna, within the innumerable knowers of boundless power.
As we abide within the wholesome system, we appear bright within the Triple Gem and Nibbāna. A current of merit streams continuously into the brightness at the centre of our heart, sphere after sphere — like a straw dipped into water and blown through, sending up an unbroken stream of clear, bright bubbles: this is the current of merit. At the centre of that sphere of merit runs a stream of treasures, flowing in continuously — treasures of form, of wealth, of , of retinue, of gain, status, praise, happiness, and the fruit of the path to Nibbāna, all complete within the sphere of merit. When merit flows through us, flows through us too, and this subtle treasure draws coarse, worldly treasure to us in turn. The current of merit flowing in drives the wholesome system, refining and improving the elements of dhamma within us — making them clear, clean, pure, and radiant. The merit that flows changes us through happiness and purity. And so, when we determine to know and never forget, our Great Benefactor taught us to perceive that very happiness and purity, the fruit of merit.
As we abide within the wholesome system, merit is continually drawn in, bringing both happiness and purity. We must observe closely to perceive the results appearing moment by moment — knowing, happiness, and purity. These three are the essence of the wholesome, and we must determine and observe to perceive them. As our Great Preceptor emphasised: “Create the cause, observe the result — attend to this, for it is truly excellent” — repeated three times over, urging practitioners to determine and observe the results appearing in each moment.
Take this ease of heart and determine it again and again. Once the heart is truly at ease, bring that ease to rest with the Triple Gem by uttering their name: Sammā Arahaṃ. This is the name of the arahant Dhamma body, the one who has practised well and rightly, whose practice leads away from every defilement — the Triple Gem, full of the virtue of supreme wisdom, of utter purity, and of great compassion, complete in higher virtue, higher mind, and higher wisdom, together with liberation and liberation-insight.
As we utter their name, Sammā Arahaṃ, they appear — because form and its inner nature always arise together; wherever there is form, that nature appears there too. They appear as the crystal Dhamma body, clear and gleaming, radiant, subtle, soft, gentle, clear and cool. When they appear at the centre of our heart, they do not appear empty-handed — they come together with boundless compassion, taking the elements of seeing, remembering, thinking, and knowing, and the elements of earth, water, wind, fire, space, and consciousness within us, and refining them to be clear, clean, and pure, so that we may be freed from the results of past kamma, of demerit, of malevolent forces, and of disaster. They help dissolve all of it away, then expand and merge with our human body — their lap over our lap, their torso over our torso, their head, face, cheeks, shoulders, arms, torso, down to the tips of the toes, all becoming the crystal Dhamma body, clear and gleaming, radiant, subtle, soft, gentle, clear and cool.
Let us merge our body with theirs into one, and our heart with theirs into one unity. Whatever they do, we do likewise — as they gather the mind, still it, and settle it at the centre of the image, we too gather the mind, still it, and settle it at the centre, still, soft, light and easy, stillness within stillness, within calm, clear and cool, clean and pure, radiant, into the centre of the centre — the centre of the image, the centre of ourselves, the centre of our heart — sending mind and heart straight along the path to Nibbāna. The heart is the element of accomplishment: whatever we determine, so it becomes. Remain still, soft, light and easy at the centre of the centre — centre of knowing, centre of stillness, centre of calm — on and on, and we will appear bright within Nibbāna, within the innumerable knowers of boundless power.
Nibbāna already holds all beings at its centre. Any being established in universal goodness — whether or not they follow the Buddhist path, whether or not they hold any religion at all — if they are established in goodness that is universal, they too will appear bright at the centre of Nibbāna, and the Triple Gem will appear bright at their centre as well. A current of merit from the deep, subtle heart of Nibbāna streams continuously into the centre of their body and heart. Nibbāna takes this flowing merit and, through its mastery of Dhammakaya knowledge, invests it with sanctity, purifying and freeing our life, and setting a good and lasting pattern for us — just as is happening for us at this very moment.
Spreading Boundless Loving-Kindness
And as they work this sanctity into our life, we in turn extend benefit to the world and to all beings by cultivating . Loving-kindness is a tool of the wholesome, given so that those rich in merit can benefit those with less. We must determine loving-kindness as sincere and pure love and goodwill. Our Great Preceptor advised that we draw on the heart of a mother who loves and wishes well for her small child, and raise that very heart within us. Loving-kindness then appears as a clear, bright sphere in our heart, and the current of merit is drawn in continuously, because a wholesome state, once raised, can draw in the current of merit to flow through. What is special about loving-kindness is its power to dissolve the ill-will that arises in the hearts of people and beings, and in the atmosphere itself, until it vanishes entirely.
As loving-kindness arises in our heart, at our centre, it shines and refines our body and heart, making them clear, clean, and pure, then spreads out to cover our home. It shines and refines every particle of the people and beings around us, making them clear and bright, then spreads further to cover the whole village, the sub-district, the district, the province, the country, other countries, and finally the whole world — until the world becomes a crystal world, radiant, clear, cool, clean, and pure.
May the people of the world be free from suffering and share happiness together — terrestrial devas, tree devas, sky devas, celestial beings of every heaven, Brahmas and formless Brahmas, as well as beings in hell, hungry ghosts, and animals. May all beings be free from suffering and share happiness together. May those with much suffering have less; may those with little suffering be free of it entirely; may those with little happiness have more; and may those who already have much happiness have ever more.
Having set this wish of goodwill, we spread the heart, full of loving-kindness, out into the atmosphere of the cosmos, covering countless stars — tens, hundreds, thousands, millions, billions of them — and extending onward to ten thousand world-systems, a hundred thousand million galaxies, infinite universes, so that our loving-kindness shines out to benefit people and beings without limit. Our heart expands, joyful, open, spacious, light and easy, clear, cool, clean and pure, radiant — and the current of merit continues to stream through the brightness of that loving-kindness.
Dedicating Merit and Asking Forgiveness
We then dedicate this merit to all beings — may all beings share in the merit we have sincerely and well intended, and be free from suffering, sharing happiness together. May it also nourish our parents, siblings, grandparents, teachers, and all who have shown us kindness, together with the devas who help and support us, and those who tend and protect all beings whom we may have wronged — our karmic counterparts of every kind — may we forgive one another, and may they too share in this merit equally.
Merging with the Triple Gem and the Great Masters — Final Aspiration
Having dedicated the merit, we now merge ourselves with the Triple Gem and the Great Masters into one, for we can never afford to drift from them — they hold immense goodness for our life, since every instant, without pause, they are refining and helping us, whether we are asleep, awake, standing, walking, sitting, or lying down; they are working on our behalf without ceasing.
Let us gather the mind, still it, settle it as one at the centre of the Buddha-jewel, the centre of the Dhamma-jewel, the centre of the Sangha-jewel, and settle still at the centre of the Great Masters — at the centre of the refined Dhamma body of our Great Preceptor Luang Pu, at the centre of the refined Dhamma body of Luang Por, and at the centre of the refined Dhamma body of Khun Yai Ajarn. The heart is the element of accomplishment: whatever we determine, so it becomes. As we determine to merge with them into one unity, we appear bright at the centre of the Triple Gem, and the Triple Gem and the Great Masters appear bright at our centre — at the centre of the coarse human body, the celestial body and its refined form, the form-Brahma body and its refined form, the formless-Brahma body and its refined form, all along our lineage of bodies, every one radiant at the centre of the Triple Gem, at the centre of Nibbāna, among the innumerable knowers.
We then use this auspicious moment to pay respect and ask their blessing, setting our aspiration and our pattern for success, that it may stay fixed at the centre of this radiant sphere of merit throughout our entire path of building perfections — that this path may be filled with knowledge together with happiness and purity, and success in everything right and good. We ask that the merit, power, radiance, and authority of Nibbāna, together with the spiritual power of our Great Preceptors — Luang Pu, Luang Por, and Khun Yai Ajarn — combine with the merit we ourselves have sincerely built up since our very first life until the present, becoming a sacred merit of great power and boundless might, refining our body, speech, mind, and the elements of seeing, remembering, thinking, knowing, earth, water, wind, fire, space, and consciousness within us, making them radiant, clear, cool, clean and pure, freeing us from misfortune, malevolent forces, the results of past kamma, and every kind of obstacle in life, so that they vanish entirely — greed, hatred, delusion, lust, , wrong view, craving, and clinging, uprooted without a trace — that we may gain the eye that sees the Dhamma, reaching and penetrating fully into Dhammakaya knowledge, attaining the three and eight-fold higher knowledges, the six superknowledges, the four analytical insights, the eight liberations, and the fifteen conducts, all complete; that we may enjoy strong health and long life, able to build merit and perfections our whole life through, with unfailing high spirit in building perfections, moving straight along the path to Nibbāna, to the very end of the Dhamma. Wherever we travel, may we meet only good fortune and safety, be dear to humans and devas alike, possess radiant wisdom, and understand fully and clearly the Dhamma of the Lord Buddha and the knowledge of Dhammakaya. In whatever business or duty we undertake, may it flourish and prosper, with results beyond expectation, gaining great and imperial wealth that is never exhausted, enough to build great acts of giving without end, generous and never stingy, giving with our full strength to build the perfection of generosity.
And when the time comes to close our eyes and leave this world, may we be born in the Tusita heaven, in the special sphere of merit reserved for future Buddhas, 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 Dhammakaya family, a model family for the world, a warm family — complete and full with the finest of physical wealth, material wealth, and virtue, gain, status, praise, happiness, and the fruit of the path to Nibbāna; may we have a vast and sacred store of merit, able to recall our past lives from birth, born together with a clear and radiant inner Dhamma body, and study Dhammakaya knowledge correctly and according to truth alongside Luang Pu, Luang Por, and Khun Yai Ajarn, from childhood until the end of our life.
Whatever unwholesome act we have committed through error or carelessness in the past, may it never catch up with us, never have the chance to bear its fruit, and be forgiven forever; may we commit no new demerit in body, speech, or mind. May all the merit we have sincerely and well accumulated combine into a sacred merit of great power and wondrous might, bearing fruit continuously from this moment until the very end of the Dhamma. May all these good wishes be fulfilled, be fulfilled, be fulfilled, for all of us, from this moment onward, in every life, until the very end of the Dhamma, by the boundless power of every Lord Buddha. May it be so according to every wish.
The sit closes, as is customary, with a chant of blessing: “Sabbe Buddhā... ” invoking the power of every Buddha, Solitary Buddha, and Arahant for the wellbeing of all.