คำสอน · พระอาจารย์สุรพงค์Teaching · Pra Ajarn Suraphong
กายในกาย เวทนาในเวทนา จิตในจิต ธรรมในธรรม ในระดับวิปัสสนา หมายความว่าอย่างไรWhat does “body in the body, feeling in feeling, mind in mind, dhamma in dhamma” mean at the level of insight?
การกำหนดรู้กายในกาย เวทนาในเวทนา จิตในจิต ธรรมในธรรม คือการรู้เท่าทันว่าขณะนี้ “เจ้าเรือน” ฝ่ายกุศลหรืออกุศลกำลังครองใจอยู่ ผ่านความสุข ทุกข์ หรือความเฉยๆ ที่ปรากฏขึ้น แล้วเห็นว่ากาย เวทนา จิต ธรรม ของฝ่ายนั้นกำลังซ้อนทับกาย เวทนา จิต ธรรม ของเราอยู่ตลอดเวลาContemplating body, feeling, mind, and dhamma at the vipassana level means recognizing which “host” nature — wholesome or unwholesome — is occupying the mind right now, through the suffering, happiness, or neutrality that arises, and seeing how that host's body, feeling, mind, and dhamma keep overlaying our own.
Someone asked what “body in , feeling in feeling, mind in mind, in dhamma” means at the level of ().
The host: knowing who is occupying the mind
It means we come to recognize the arising of the nature that is the “host” — noticing which side is possessing our mind right now. If it is side, we feel suffering arise in the mind. If it is side, we feel happiness and ease. If it is the neutral (abyakata) kind, we simply feel neutral.
Try noticing it right now. Ask yourself: am I suffering right now? No. Am I happy, then? Comfortable? If not comfortable, then it is just neutral — that shows a neutral host is currently residing there.
Body in body, feeling in feeling, mind in mind, dhamma in dhamma as overlay
Once a host has taken residence, it brings in its own body, feeling, mind, and dhamma. If it is a wholesome one, it brings a body, feeling, mind, and dhamma that are nobler and finer than a human's, in order to lift and elevate the human's body, feeling, mind, and dhamma. Its body overlays the human body, and that shows up as behavior — because the body expresses itself through speech and action.
The mind works the same way: feeling overlays feeling. Whichever nature manages to take residence, its feeling arises automatically and shows its own qualities. The host's mind overlays the human mind — this is “mind in mind” — so the host's thoughts arise within our own thinking, as if we thought them ourselves. And “dhamma in dhamma” is the mental state () — the mind's mood or emotional tone — that the host overlays and brings into appearance.
This is why the is classified into as many as 121 kinds: only one is the human sense-sphere mind, and the rest belong to higher and lower natures. If it is a sinful, lower nature, it likewise overlays its own body, feeling, mind, and dhamma onto the human's. Behavior arising from this “body in body” turns wrong and unwholesome — aggressive, oppressive. Bodily misconduct breeds more bodily misconduct, and verbal misconduct as well; this is how morality gets broken, because of this very body in the body. As for feeling and thought, the unwholesome side's , aversion, delusion, lust, and overlay our own feeling and thought. When an unwholesome nature is the host, it presses our body, feeling, mind, and dhamma down lower and lower.
Why only this is where we must contemplate
At first, before it feels familiar, just contemplate body, feeling, mind, and dhamma directly — noting that the body is like this, the feeling is like this, the mind is like this, the dhamma is like this. After that, we train to learn body in body, feeling in feeling, mind in mind, dhamma in dhamma, which is similar, but with the understanding that it is the result of the mind and s of a “background” presence overlaying down onto us — depending on whoever is the host. Whoever is the host brings in its own body, feeling, mind, and dhamma to direct the human's.
Every thought, every feeling that arises is not truly “us” — what appears is not us. To know this, we have to come and know it right here. This is why the Buddha taught us to know it right here. Cultivating and works the same way — right concentration is the result of right . So we must contemplate body, feeling, mind, and dhamma right here — only here, nowhere else. Contemplating elsewhere leads to not knowing, not understanding, unable to trace back to the root of the nature that is directing our life.
If you do not understand yet, that is fine — keep practicing and you will come to understand on your own. The more often you practice, the more understanding arises, as a result of wholesomeness overlaying in and drawing in to cleanse away the defilements — the obscuring elements of unwholesome states and . Once those obscuring elements grow thin, , the one with inner power, will come and explain everything to us.
Our task: learn, prepare the heart, and choose the wholesome side
Everything in us already runs automatically — like our own internal organs, which work on their own without anyone directing them. We do not have to control it, and in fact we cannot control it. Every other mechanism is likewise automatic. The only thing we have to do is contemplate and know — the part we must learn and understand so we can contemplate correctly, including our own role and duty: first, to learn and prepare the heart, then to set up the right causes, choose the side that belongs to the wholesome system, and act in harmony with that wholesome system. This is exactly the learning and understanding needed to bring wholesomeness to fulfillment.
He does not use the phrase “bring goodness to fulfillment” but “bring wholesomeness () to fulfillment” — showing that the wholesome system is what we must give primary importance to. But if we do not know what wholesomeness is, how can we bring it to fulfillment? Once wholesomeness is established, it draws merit in. As for goodness itself — the goodness of Christianity is one thing, the goodness of Buddhism another, the goodness of Islam another, and the goodness of Hinduism another.