September 26, 2546 B.E.
How To Find Ariya Wealth
The Rains-Exit Day will be here in just fifteen days. Seventy-five days of this Rains-Retreat have already gone past. Let everyone spend the rest of the Rains-Retreat endeavoring to practice meditation earnestly and correctly like he did at the beginning of the season.If one endeavors to practice meditation earnestly and correctly, fifteen days are long enough to attain the Dhammakaya. As an Inner Dreams kindergartener, you have often heard that Stillness Is the Key to Success. It means that one must bring one’s mind which is in the habit of wandering to come to a standstill at the seventh base in the center of one’s body and keep it there at all times. That is all that one has to do and before one knows it, one’s mind will come to a standstill in just the right way.
Once one’s mind has come to a standstill in just the right way, one will be able to access life’s blueprint starting with the Pathamagga Sphere, the Refined Human Body, the Coarse and Refined Celestial Bodies, the Coarse and Refined Form Brahma Bodies, the Coarse and Refined Non-Form Brahma Bodies, the Coarse and Refined Gotarabhu Dhammakaya, the Coarse and Refined Sotapanna Dhammakaya, the Coarse and Refined Sakidagami Dhammakaya, the Coarse and Refined Anagami Dhammakaya, and the Coarse and Refined Arahat Dhammakaya. There are altogether eighteen different coarse and refined bodies. These Inner Bodies can be accessed by keeping one’s mind completely still and quiet.Our Most Venerable Luang Pu Phramonkolthepmuni (Sodh Candasaro), the Discoverer of Vijja Dhammakaya, has already given us the formula for success. He said that only complete stillness is needed from the beginning to attaining Arahatship.
If one pays close attention to Luang Pu’s words, one will endeavor to practice them earnestly instead of trying to come up with one’s own technique. More often than not, a person is familiar with how he can get things done in the secular world but these methods cannot be applied to meditation practice.The search for external wealth and the search for internal wealth are completely opposite. To search for external wealth, activities are required such as reading, listening, studying, asking questions, thinking, gaining knowledge, etc. But the search for internal wealth or Ariya wealth requires complete stillness. It does not require movement, thinking, speaking or anything else. Stillness and quietness alone will lead one to attain Ariya wealth, the pride and joy of Ariya Personages.
Ariya Personages are sublime beings. They are all-knowing, fully awake, and gloriously joyful. They are the true sages. Ariya wealth is the pride and joy of the personages who are all-knowing, and are distant from defilements and unwholesomeness.All of us are extremely fortunate to have heard about our Most Venerable Luang Pu’s teachings on how to search for Ariya wealth. Without sufficient merit, being near is like being far. With sufficient merit, being far is like being near. Merit-filled persons can understand Luang Pu’s teachings and his Vijja Dhammakaya meditation practice.
Luang Pu has kindly taught us everything. All we have to do is to take it and run with it. All we have to do is to practice what Luang Pu teaches correctly and earnestly in order to burn away all of our defilements.When one’s mind can be brought to a complete standstill in the center of one’s body, one will be able to see and know everything there is to know about the reality of life. Kaye kayanupassi viharati…One will be able to see brightness, the different Dhamma Spheres, and the different Inner Bodies. It will be like looking at the passing scenery when riding in a car or a train. The entire journey will be filled with spaciousness, expansiveness, lightness, comfort, and relaxation. One’s body seems to have disappeared as one merges with the different Dhamma Spheres and the different Inner Bodies one after another easily and comfortably. It is as easy as driving a car with an automatic transmission on a straight stretch of a superhighway.
The car will stop on its own when it has reached its destination. There is absolutely no need whatsoever to think anything or consider anything.One may find it difficult to believe that it can be that easy, but it really is.But something is misleading one to think that the attainment of the Dhammakaya is a very difficult feat. When one does not kill, it is easy. One does not have to put in any effort or time to kill something or someone. But killing is very difficult process.One is about to fall asleep when a mosquito shows up and makes an annoying buzzing sound close to one’s ear. One decides to kill it, so one takes a swing at it. One misses and hits one’s ear instead. When one decides not to steal things, one does not have to look for the necessary equipment.
One does not have to put in the time and effort to study the way and the time that the homeowner will not be home. One is not startled by any light whether it is the moonlight, the starlight or a torch light. One has no need to be afraid. One does not have to check if the stars are shining too brightly or if the dog has gone to sleep yet.Luang Por Abhirupo told Kru Mai Yai that at one point in his layman life, he had been a thief and was learnt in the trick of the trade. Having completed the course, he was given a blessing by his teacher for him to gain material wealth from his thievery, to be safe from the police and the homeowners, to travel anywhere safely, to not be harmed by a bullet or a knife, so on and so forth. The last advice given was, if he wished to prosper as a thief, he should commit theft just once a year. But if he wished to meet with disaster and be caught by the police, he was to commit theft daily.To get ready to break into a house, he needed to watch the dog constellation. If he could see it, it meant that the dog was asleep.
But when he did break into a house, it turned out that the homeowner did not have a watchdog but he had a watch goose instead. The homeowner took a shot at him with a bow and arrow by following the sound of the goose’s squawking. He said that he was nearly killed that time. You see, it is not easy being a thief. When one decides not to commit sexual misconduct, not to lie, not to use foul language, not to talk nonsense, not to use divisive speech, not to smoke cigarettes, not to drink alcohol, one simply refuses to do these things and that is all there is to it.
If companies refuse to manufacture cigarettes and alcohol, the world will already be a much better place to live. People can enjoy better health. They can use the human body given to them by their parents to accumulate merit and pursue Perfections to the fullest extent. This way, their accumulated merit and Perfections will also benefit their parents. Meditation practice is simple but something keeps telling one that it is difficult. All one needs to do is to practice Luang Pu’s teachings which can be summarized as Stillness Is the Key to Success from the beginning until the attainment of Arahatship.
