พระอาจารย์อธิบายว่า “กลั่น” คือการแยกมลทินออกจากความบริสุทธิ์ภายในร่างกายและใจ เหมือนกลั่นน้ำแยกเกลือออกจากน้ำ ส่วนที่หยาบจะระเหิดออกทางกายเป็นอาการเรอหรือหาว ส่วนที่เป็นอนุสัยจะตกตะกอนอยู่ในใจ ต้องอาศัยการภาวนาต่อเนื่องจนกว่ามลทินจะหมดไปทีละส่วนPhra Ajarn explains that “distilling” in meditation means separating impurity from purity within body and mind — like distilling water to separate out salt. The coarse impurities rise off through the body as burps or yawns, while deeper latent tendencies settle in the heart, and only sustained practice clears them out, layer by layer.
Someone once asked: they recalled hearing Phra Ajarn lead a sitting and talk about “distilling” during meditation — how it comes out through , while part of it settles as a latent tendency (anusaya). They asked him to explain what this “distilling” really means.
Distilling Means Separating Impurity from Purity
When we sit in meditation, what happens is called “distilling.” To distill is to separate the elements — like distilling water: you separate salt water into salt and water. To distill is to separate im from purity. Once the impurity is drawn out from what is pure, the part that is a latent tendency settles like sediment, while the coarser part rises and evaporates away.
Coarse Impurity Rises Through the Body; Latent Tendencies Settle in the Heart
As the coarse part evaporates, it turns to vapor and may come out as a burp. Once it is released, we feel more comfortable — because impurity lodged in the body is what makes us feel unwell. That discomfort is what gets noticed and distilled away, part by part, throughout the body. The dark element breaks down and evaporates as gas, sometimes coming out as a yawn — though not a yawn of sleepiness. If it is in the upper body there is a corresponding upper current; if lower, a lower current joins the upper.
The part that is a latent tendency does not evaporate so easily — it settles and lingers in the heart. When something stirs it up and clouds it, it rises and bears fruit — meaning when we get entangled with those unwholesome states, they surface and ripen on their own. That is why we need to sit in meditation: to correct this, to distill the elements of the body. To enter the deep, subtle, inner dimension, we first have to clear away the outer impurity that holds us back. Every part of the body has to be distilled free of what binds it — much as, in ancient times, Chinese herbal medicine was used to help clear away such impurities and binding forces.
The questioner said they had noticed exactly the experience Phra Ajarn described, and could feel the resulting ease in the body. Phra Ajarn continued: once we put in the effort, it has an effect on the body itself — because impurity really is present in the body, the dark element lodged everywhere throughout it. That is why we need to cultivate meditation practice. Once we do, comes to distill away that dark element from the body; the gas is released, causing us to burp or yawn, and we feel more and more at ease in body and flesh.
Keep Practicing Until Body and Heart Grow Light
As we keep practicing, it corrects every part of the body one by one. Once every part is cleared, whatever bound the body and caused restlessness is gone — the body feels light, the heart feels light, almost as if it could float. This is the beginning stage of entering the inner dimension, as the elements within the body grow purer and purer.
Sustain the Watching, and Merit Flows In on Its Own
The questioner confirmed that once they tried it and tested it for themselves, they were surprised the experience matched exactly what Phra Ajarn described, and that they truly felt more at ease in body and flesh. Phra Ajarn said: yes, the result is real, if we observe it in every moment of practice — but we have to observe closely to know that it is working. So just practice: close your eyes, sit, bring body and mind together, and keep sitting. Repeat “” continuously while maintaining awareness — staying aware without lapsing, knowing what you are aware of, moment after moment. Merit will then flow in on its own.
We have to do our part: to establish the sphere of knowing. We need to understand what we are doing — that is our role to fulfill, because we are the owner of this house of body and heart; we cannot let someone else set our course for us. If someone guides us in how to focus, it should be so that , natural process benefits. And what is our own benefit? We have to keep watching so that good and benefit arise — watching so that the sphere of knowing and is established, staying with our . Once the sphere of knowing is established on our meditation anchor, it draws merit into the brightness of that knowing and mindfulness — a wholesome — and that merit then takes on the work of purifying and driving out impurity, powering the wholesome system to keep correcting and clearing impurity, and so on. Each part does its own part; we too have to do ours — learning, training, doing our part fully — and the benefit will be ours.