คำสอน · พระอาจารย์สุรพงค์Teaching · Pra Ajarn Suraphong
นำนั่งสมาธิ ค่ำ 31 สิงหาคม 2569: มองเห็นรัตนตรัยภายใน ผ่านอุปมาคนตาบอดกับเพชรพลอยทองคำGuided Meditation, Evening of August 31: Seeing the Triple Gem Within — the Blind Man and the Gems
ในการนำนั่งสมาธิครั้งนี้ พระอาจารย์นำผู้ปฏิบัติกำหนดรู้กาย เวทนา จิต และธรรม ให้เห็นธรรมชาติสามฝ่าย คือ กุศล อกุศล และอัพยากตะ ที่คอยควบคุมชีวิตเราอยู่ทุกขณะ จากนั้นภาวนา “สัมมาอะระหัง” น้อมใจเข้าถึงองค์พระธรรมกายภายในตัว ท่านชี้ว่าผู้ใดไม่รู้ความจริงข้อนี้ก็เสียประโยชน์ไปฟรีๆ เปรียบดังคนตาบอดที่มองไม่เห็นเพชรพลอยทองคำซึ่งมีอยู่ตรงหน้าตนเอง ก่อนปิดท้ายด้วยการแผ่เมตตาแก่สรรพสัตว์ทั่วจักรวาล และอุทิศส่วนบุญอโหสิกรรมแก่คู่กรรมคู่เวรทั้งหลายIn this guided sit, Phra Ajarn leads practitioners to observe body, feeling, mind, and mental objects, revealing the three forces that quietly govern our lives, then guides the recitation “Sammaa Arahang” toward the crystal Buddha image within. He teaches that not knowing this truth means losing out on it entirely — like a blind person unable to see the gems and gold right in front of them. The session closes with loving-kindness spread to all beings and merit dedicated in forgiveness to our karmic counterparties.
Beginning the Sit: Observing Body, Feeling, Mind, and Mental Objects
Let's practice together. Close your eyes gently, comfortably, and send your heart straight toward the path of with a relaxed mind — open, spacious, light, clear, cool, clean, pure, and radiant.
The Lord Buddha taught monks to learn “setting the mind” in order to abide in the system of wholesome states. He said that monastics should clearly observe body, feeling, mind, and mental objects in order to eliminate and displeasure toward the world.
To “set the mind” means to fix a point, to specify exactly where — wherever we set it, the mind is placed there; this is called attention. Once attention rests there, we come to know it, and the knowing itself — — arises right there in the heart. All 84,000 sections of the can only arise in the heart, nowhere else — whether wholesome, unwholesome, or neutral, all of it arises there. But the mind must be brought to rest together with ; never let it slip away here and there. When mind and body come together, all that is good can arise for us.
The Three Forces That Govern Our Lives
Our lives are under the control of three natural forces: wholesome states, unwholesome states, and neutral states. All three compete to become the ruling presence in our heart, overlaying their own body, feeling, mind, and mental objects onto ours. Their body dictates our body; their feeling overwhelms our feeling; their mind and s surface as thoughts and feelings in us that seem like our own — but are, in truth, entirely theirs. We live under this control without ever realizing it.
When wholesomeness takes the seat, it brings in a nobler body, feeling, mind, and mental objects to uplift us, drawing in to refine and purify our inner elements, freeing us to move into ever subtler dimensions. But when unwholesomeness takes hold, it brings in the lower kind instead — a mind akin to that of hell-beings, hungry ghosts, or animals, with mental factors of , hatred, delusion, lust, and — pressing our coarse human elements ever lower.
This is why we need to learn and understand what the Buddha taught: to clearly observe body, feeling, mind, and mental objects. If we hold to a single wholesome object of attention until firmly established, our () develops toward . But if we observe in order to understand body, feeling, mind, and mental objects as they truly are, our reflection serves to reveal reality as it actually appears. We come to see, through contemplating body in body, feeling in feeling, mind in mind, and mental objects in mental objects, the truth of the three forces that control the human body — and only there does the truth appear.
When Craving Arrives: The Law of Kamma and Suffering
What surfaces from all this is simply pleasure and displeasure. We live in the world relying on eye, ear, nose, tongue, and body, meeting sight, sound, smell, taste, and touch — and the result is pleasure and displeasure. Unwholesomeness seizes on this pleasure and displeasure to steer beings toward greed. Once we feel pleased and attached, we want more and more of that feeling — but cannot give more than the cause we created allows. Because we want more than that, unwholesomeness persuades us, luring us into wrong view, into believing it, leading us to create harmful causes — even at real risk — and if we're willing to take that risk, a great deal of suffering follows.
Everything that truly belongs to us is already gathered within our own inner sphere of merit. It is the merit and the subtle wealth within us that draws worldly wealth into our lives. But because there is a limit to the merit we have built, when we want more than that limit allows, unwholesomeness leads us into wrong view, into believing and following it, urging us toward harmful action. Neither wholesomeness nor unwholesomeness is ever truly sincere toward anyone — unwholesomeness aims only to ruin people and beings completely.
When we act on what unwholesomeness urges, it stores up that cause to bear fruit in the near or distant future. The three forces use the law of kamma and to govern beings from the past to the present, storing each moment's cause to yield its result later. This is why we must learn the truth of life as the Buddha clearly pointed to: observing body, feeling, mind, and mental objects, so we can see how the three forces govern all beings. Every behavior and every thought that arises is never truly “us.” If we recognize this, we can be freed from the cycle of birth and death.
Life is ours to shape — we are the owner of this house of body and mind. Our duty is to keep setting the mind with unbroken awareness. We can set it well or set it poorly; setting it well brings good results, setting it poorly brings bad ones. This is why we must learn to understand what “good” really means, and what “loss” really means.
Merit: The Pure Energy That Sustains the Heart
Good means merit flows through when we set the mind rightly. Merit is a pure energy, shaped like a bright, clear sphere, brimming with of body, speech, and mind. This pure merit is sacred — powerful enough to clear away the stains that trouble body, speech, and mind, cleansing whatever creates hardship and obstruction.
More than that, within the sphere of merit is a wellspring of physical ease and of mind that benefits our whole life. Whether sitting, lying, standing, or walking, we feel at ease; whatever we speak, we speak comfortably; whatever business or work we do, we do it with a peaceful heart, free of worry.
Training the Mind to Be at Ease, as Though Resting
In practice, we need to train ourselves repeatedly to abide in this system of wholesome states — practicing again and again until it becomes natural, effortless, bringing the mind to rest with the body in relaxed ease. This wholesome life begins at the heart. We should ask ourselves often: where is my heart right now? How does it feel? How should I care for it, settle it, support it rightly and well? Abiding in this wholesome system needs a clear resting point for the mind — we keep observing without lapsing, and we know it at ease, comfortable in body and mind, clear, cool, clean, pure, and bright.
This ease is a vital foundation of life. We must train ourselves, again and again, in every activity, to hold that ease — thinking at ease, speaking only what brings comfort to ourselves and others, acting with a peaceful heart — so that our whole life is nothing but ease, in body and in mind, toward ourselves and others alike. This is something we must practice until it becomes second nature. Whether we can do it in future depends on what we train now; once we can do it, we repeat it until it becomes effortless — and whatever we grow skilled at, whether wholesome or unwholesome, comes to us more easily. So we should choose to set our minds on what is good.
If meditation practice starts to feel heavy, treat it instead as coming to sit and rest happily — don't think of it as “meditating,” think of it as resting comfortably, staying with our at ease. Resting the right way is different from ordinary rest, because it needs a clear resting point for the mind. Wherever we set our attention, the mind is placed there; we go in and know it there, resting the mind in that spot at ease, staying continuously aware without lapsing.
Every moment we hold this awareness while abiding in system, a wholesome mind arises together with wholesome mental factors — mindfulness arises at the very same moment. We appear radiant in the centre of the Triple Gem, and the Triple Gem shines through, radiant, at our own centre. Both we and it appear bright at the centre of nibbana, the centre of the Knower whose power is beyond measure, beyond counting. A stream of merit from the deepest, subtlest realm of nibbana flows continuously into the bright centre of our heart. That merit drives the wholesome system, refining our inner elements to become clear, clean, and pure — because the system cannot run without this driving energy. We are the ones who set wholesome states in motion, and once set, they draw in their own energy. Merit is the energy that drives the wholesome system; we must establish it through steady awareness, drawing pure energy in continuously, staying with every meritorious activity and good deed we undertake, because every good deed lets merit flow through.
Our late revered teacher once taught that merit flows into our lives in two ways: first, when we do good; second, when we resist the pull of evil and unwholesomeness. Every act of goodness we perform is the fruit of abiding in the wholesome system. When a wholesome mind takes residence in the heart, it guides us to do what is right and good; when unwholesomeness takes residence, it guides us toward wrongdoing. So keep the mind at ease while abiding with a wholesome mind, and the stream of merit will keep flowing continuously through the centre of body and heart — staying with that knowing, that mindfulness, without break, merit is drawn in through the bright centre of as well. Stay continuously aware, know what you are knowing; whatever you set your mind on, that is what appears in the heart — know it all at ease.
Reciting “Sammaa Arahang” and Seeing the Crystal Buddha Image
Once the heart is truly at ease, at peace in body and mind, we bring this good, settled mind to rest with the Triple Gem, the highest and most sublime, by reciting the name “Sammaa Arahang, Sammaa Arahang, Sammaa Arahang.” This name is an epithet — it means “the One who has practised well, practised rightly, practised so as to be free of all defilements.” It is a name given according to his qualities, which overflow with supreme wisdom, purity, and great compassion, complete in higher , higher mind, and higher wisdom, in both and the of liberation — his liberation being both liberation through wisdom and liberation of mind.
As we recite “Sammaa Arahang, Sammaa Arahang,” his form appears at the centre of our heart, since form and name always come together — wherever the name is, the form appears there too. His form is that of a crystal Buddha image, clear, glistening, radiant, crowned with a lotus-bud finial of clear light. When he appears within us, he never appears empty-handed — he appears together with boundless compassion, ready to bring us great benefit, refining the earth, water, wind, fire, air, and consciousness elements within us to become clear, clean, and pure, so that we may be freed from coarse dimensions into ever subtler ones. He also refines away the stains and troubles — the results of kamma, of obstruction, of misfortune — dissolving them completely.
More than that, he expands and overlays himself onto our human body — his lap over ours, his torso over ours, his head, face, and cheeks merging as one. We are the Buddha image, the Buddha image is us. His wish is simply that we know and understand this merging into one unity with him, because that is what allows him to benefit us with full power and effect. Simply by feeling that we are the Buddha image and the Buddha image is us, let our entire body become the crystal Dhamma-body image, radiant, clear, cool, clean, and pure — from head, face, cheeks, shoulders, arms, down through the torso. Our head becomes the clear crystal of the Dhamma-body, crowned with a glistening lotus-bud finial; our face becomes his serene countenance, eyes gently closed, lips curved in a soft smile; both arms, chest, belly, and back all become the crystal Dhamma-body image, radiant, clear, cool, clean, and pure.
Our late revered teacher once said that reaching the Dhamma-body can be easy or it can be hard — easy, because once we know and understand, the mind itself is what accomplishes it: however we set it, so it becomes. And the Dhamma-body already exists within every one of us — it is our true self. Everyone possesses their own Triple Gem, entirely their own, whether or not they follow Buddhism, whether or not they hold any religion at all. This is universal — a truth present within every person.
The Triple Gem Within: The Blind Man and the Gems
So it follows that whoever comes to know and understand this truth can put it to real benefit. But whoever does not know this truth simply loses out — like a blind person unable to see the diamonds, gems, and gold laid right in front of them. Not knowing, not understanding, they cannot make use of what is there to bring them benefit. Access to the Triple Gem within ranges anywhere from one percent to a hundred percent — so whatever degree of unity we can achieve with him through our practice, we take that as our starting point, and gradually build that unity fuller and fuller over time.
As we keep reciting “Sammaa Arahang,” the Buddha image continues to arise at our centre, one after another, together with the stream of merit, and we keep merging ourselves with him into one unity. As each image arises at our centre, it expands and overlays, merging us into one — we are the Buddha image, the Buddha image is us — until our entire body becomes the radiant crystal Dhamma-body, clear, cool, clean, and pure. Once we have merged our body with his body into one, we then merge our mind with his mind into that same unity.
Stillness at the Centre, Toward Nibbana
The Dhamma-body dwells at our centre. He attains absorption by gathering the mind to stop, gathering it to be still — whatever he does, we do the same: gather the mind to stop, gather it to be still, then gather it to release, stopping, releasing, being still — soft, light, and at ease. We merge our body with his body into one unity, our mind with his mind into one unity, by gathering the mind to stop, to release, to be still — soft, light, at ease, clear, cool, clean, and pure. Stopping within stopping, stillness within stillness, soft and light and at ease. Gathering the point of stopping, the point of stillness, at the centre of the Buddha image, the centre of our body, the centre of our heart — not left, not right, not forward, not back, not up, not down, but ever inward, to the centre of the centre — the centre of knowing, the centre of stopping, the centre of stillness, continuously. Send the heart straight toward the path of nibbana — the mind itself is what accomplishes it; however we set it, so it becomes.
As we settle into stillness at the centre of nibbana, we appear radiant and beautiful at its centre, and it appears radiant and beautiful at ours — at the centre of every Buddha, every Silent Buddha, and every Arahant. Only these three kinds of beings can be freed from samsara and dwell in the realm of nibbana. And even having been freed and dwelling there, they never abandon us — they continue, day and night, to support and benefit all beings without pause. Any being who stands in universal goodness — whatever their religion, or none at all — has only to stand in that universal goodness for the Triple Gem to shine radiant at their centre too, and for them to appear radiant at the centre of nibbana as well. A stream of merit from the deepest, subtlest realm of nibbana flows continuously in, and nibbana uses that flowing merit to drive the wholesome system, bringing about purity and liberation in our lives. As he draws in that flowing merit for the practice of his own Dhamma-body knowledge, he continues to help, adjust, and set good causes in motion for our lives.
Spreading Loving-Kindness to All Beings Across the Universe
We in turn benefit people and beings by cultivating loving-kindness. This quality is a tool of wholesomeness, meant for those with abundant merit to share benefit with those who have less. Life within samsara depends on mutual support — we can never live in true isolation; we need society, family, community, kin, and relatives, and we must nurture ever greater harmony among them, guarding against the division that unwholesomeness stirs up and forces upon us, tearing our society apart — division that begins within our own heart and spreads outward to family, kin, community, nation, and eventually the world. We need loving-kindness to bind people and beings together as one, and we must cultivate in our hearts a sincere, pure wish for others' wellbeing.
Our late revered teacher advised drawing on the loving-kindness of a mother's heart — brimming with sincere love and goodwill toward her young child — and using that as the seed to establish our own sphere of loving-kindness, shaped as a bright, clear sphere. Once established, the stream of merit flows continuously into the bright centre of that sphere of loving-kindness. Its special quality is the power to dissolve resentment and ill will in the hearts of people and beings. When loving-kindness arises in us, we hold that sincere love and goodwill, and are rightly called one who upholds the Dhamma; while we hold it, loving-kindness shines out automatically, correcting and benefiting people, beings, and all things.
Then let this heart, brimming with loving-kindness, expand outward, filling every corner of our home, so that people, beings, and all things around us become clear and bright — expanding further to cover the village, the sub-district, the district, the province, the country, neighbouring countries, and all nations, until it covers the entire world, making this world a crystal world, radiant, clear, cool, clean, and pure. May all beings of the world be free from suffering and find happiness; devas of the earth and sky, celestials of every heaven, Brahma and formless-Brahma beings, and even hell-beings, hungry ghosts, and animals — may all beings be free from suffering and find happiness. May those with much suffering have less; may those with little suffering be entirely free of it and find happiness; may those with little happiness find more; and may those already happy find happiness greater still.
Having made this wish, let the heart brimming with love and goodwill expand further still, out into the vastness of the cosmos, covering countless stars — tens, hundreds, thousands, millions, billions — and further still, across ten thousand world-systems and countless universes without end, so that our loving-kindness lights up every being and every thing, radiant, clear, cool, clean, and pure. Our own heart expands, blossoms, opens, light and at ease — clear, cool, clean, pure, and radiant — while the stream of merit continues flowing steadily into the bright centre of that loving-kindness.
Dedicating Merit and Seeking Forgiveness from Our Karmic Counterparties
We now dedicate this merit to arise for the benefit of people and beings everywhere. May all beings of the world share in this merit we have sincerely and rightly performed, and may they be free from suffering and find happiness. May our parents, siblings, grandparents, teachers, and all who have shown us kindness, along with the devas who help and support us, and all who have cared for and protected beings we may once have wronged — our karmic counterparties among them — forgive one another, and may all share equally in this merit.
Having dedicated this merit to all beings, we now merge ourselves with the Triple Gem and our great venerable teachers into one unity, for we can never be apart from them — their kindness toward us is beyond measure. In every passing moment they never cease refining and helping us toward purity and liberation, whether we are standing, walking, sitting, or lying down. So we gather the mind toward the centre of the Buddha jewel, the Dhamma jewel, and the Sangha jewel, and gather the mind to stop, to be still, at the centre of our great venerable teachers — resting in stillness at the centre of the radiant Dhamma-body of our late Great Teacher, and of our late revered teacher, and of our beloved teacher. As we set this merging into one unity with them, we appear radiant at their centre, and they appear radiant at ours — both we and they, the Triple Gem and our great teachers, appearing radiant at the centre of our subtle bodies, our heavenly bodies, our Brahma and formless-Brahma bodies, our entire lineage of elements merging as one with the Triple Gem and our great teachers. As we appear at the centre of nibbana, the stream of merit continues flowing in without pause.
Closing Aspiration of the Sit
Making use of this most auspicious moment, we bow to ask a blessing and set an intention for the mind to remain forever at the centre of this radiant sphere of merit, so that throughout our path of building perfections, we may be filled with wisdom, happiness, and purity, and may every right and good aspiration come true. We ask that the merit, radiance, power, and strength of nibbana throughout every element and every , together with of our Great Teacher, our revered teacher, and our beloved teacher, combine with the merit we have sincerely built since our very first life up to this present one, gathering into a sacred, powerful merit of boundless strength, steadying body, speech, mind, and every element of seeing, remembering, thinking, and knowing — our earth, water, wind, fire, air, and consciousness elements — to become radiant, clear, cool, clean, and pure.
May we be freed from misfortune, from the results of harmful kamma, from obstruction and every hardship in life, may they all dissolve completely — greed, hatred, delusion, lust, , wrong view, craving, and clinging, may they be uprooted entirely, leaving no trace. May we gain the eye that sees the Dhamma, reaching and penetrating fully into the knowledge of the Dhamma-body. May we enjoy strong, complete health and long life, able to build merit and perfections throughout our whole life, with unfailing high spirit for building perfections, heading straight along the path to nibbana, to the very end of the Dhamma. Wherever we travel, may we meet only good fortune and safety, be loved by humans and devas alike, possess radiant wisdom that penetrates the Dhamma of the Lord Buddha fully. Whatever business or work we undertake, may it flourish and prosper with results beyond expectation, granting us great wealth to build vast generosity endlessly, never running short, never given to . When the time comes to leave this world, may we be reborn in the Dusita heaven, in the realm 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 warm, complete family — with sacred, powerful merit enabling us to recall our past lives from birth, together with a clear, radiant Dhamma-body within, able to study the knowledge of the Dhamma-body correctly and truthfully throughout our lives.
Whatever wrong or unwholesome acts we may have committed carelessly in the past, may their results never catch up with us — let them be forgiven forever, and may we never again commit new wrongdoing in body, speech, or mind. May all the merit we have sincerely accumulated combine into something sacred and powerful, wondrous in its strength, its effects continuing without break from this moment until the very end of the Dhamma. May every one of these good aspirations come to pass, come to pass, come to pass 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 every wish be fulfilled.
The session closes with a Pali chant invoking the protective power of the Buddha, the Dhamma, and the Sangha.