Base 7 : The Position of the Knower : Stopping the Mind at the Center of the Body
Luang Por Dhammajayo teaches that the center of the body, the Seventh Base, is the most important position in our life as human beings, because it is the only position that can liberate us from the kilesa and āsava, or from all suffering. At the very least we reach inner happiness, a vast happiness without measure that we have never met before in life. When we throw everything away and let go of everything, the mind returns to stop still at the center of the body, the Seventh Base, then falls into the center within, and bright spheres of Dhamma arise. In the end we attain magga, phala, and Nibbāna. It is at this very position that all the Sammāsambuddhas, countless as asaṅkheyya without measure, having thrown away everything and let go of everything, brought the mind to stop still right here, stopping still alone from the beginning until they attained anuttara sammā sambodhi and became Sammāsambuddhas, and then taught their disciples, who in turn did the same by bringing the mind to stop still at this place. Let us learn about this position where suffering comes to an end.
Base 7 : The Position of the Knower : The Position Attained by Every Buddha
- The most important position in human life: The center of the body, the Seventh Base, is the most important position in our life as human beings, because it is the only position that can liberate us from the kilesa and āsava, or from all suffering. At the very least we reach inner happiness, a vast happiness without measure that we have never met before in life. When the Buddha threw away everything and let go of everything, the mind came to stop still at the center of the body, the Seventh Base, right here, stopping still alone from the beginning until attaining anuttara sammā sambodhi and becoming a Sammāsambuddha. And when he taught his disciples, they followed by bringing the mind to stop still at this place.
- Bright spheres of Dhamma arise when the mind falls into the center: When we throw away everything and let go of everything, the mind returns to stop still at the center of the body, the Seventh Base, then falls into the center within, and bright spheres of Dhamma arise—small as a star in the sky, medium as the full moon on the night of the fifteenth, large as the midday sun. They shine like the midday sun or even brighter, but are as clear as water, or as glass, or as a diamond, or even clearer, each according to the different power of one’s pāramī. And in the end one attains magga, phala, and Nibbāna, becoming a witness to the enlightenment of the Sammāsambuddhas, who are indeed countless beyond number.
- Māra obscures this position: The Seventh Base is therefore very important, and Māra obscures it so that we cannot come to know, see, understand, or stop still here. He obscures it until we do not know this position at all—the position that enables us to extinguish suffering. Moreover, Māra pulls our mind away from the Seventh Base, pinning it to sights, sounds, smells, tastes, touches, and dhammārammaṇa, and binds it with the law of karma, so the mind circles among these things—what is called that which delays attainment of magga, phala, and Nibbāna.
- We live our lives wrongly through ignorance: We have therefore lived our lives wrongly all along through our own ignorance, until the arising of the Sammāsambuddha. It is he who had to sacrifice his life to find this position, having perfected the thirty pāramī-dhammas completely, and then found this position. So this is no small matter—that we have come to know the Seventh Base. We must count it as our merit to have been born human, to have met Buddhism and Vijjā Dhammakāya. The Venerable Luang Pu Mongkhon Thepmuni (Soṭ Jandasaro), the Conqueror over Māra, sacrificed his life to rediscover this and transmit it down to us. That is how we come to know the center of the body, the Seventh Base.
- Guard this position well: Therefore hold this position dear and guard it well; do not let the mind slip from the position of the center of the body, the Seventh Base. If it slips from this position, the mind has only suffering, because it has slipped from the position of happiness. Slipping from this position, one becomes one who knows nothing. We must remain in this position and train on and on until skillful, doing it every day with no conditions, no excuses, no terms whatsoever.
- The first stopping is very important: The first stopping is very important. Make it so—still, soft, light, and comfortable; let the mind be clear and calm; let us have inner experience and know the word “falling into the center” (tok sūny)—what its signs are—and what the first sphere that appears, called “Paṭhamamagga” or the sphere of dhammānupassanā satipaṭṭhāna, is like, what its nature is. We must master this, come to know it, repeating slowly, clearly, over and over again, lightly and comfortably.
- Once you possess Base 7, the rest is easy: If we have come to possess the center of the body, the Seventh Base, and have come to possess the Paṭhamamagga sphere, then the rest is easy. Whether the spheres of sīla, samādhi, paññā, vimutti, and vimuttiñāṇadassana that we have heard so often—they will appear and arise for us to know, to see, to be, to have that nature. We know clearly why it is called the sphere of sīla, called the sphere of samādhi, called the sphere of paññā, the sphere of vimutti, the sphere of vimuttiñāṇadassana—and it becomes clearer and clearer.
- It depends on the first stopping: It depends on the first stopping. If we place the mind well and give importance to this position, never slipping from it—even though we have slipped from other worldly positions—this position awaits us; we must not slip. If we slip we become one who knows not; slipping we become one who has only the suffering and torment of life; the mind will not be fully clear and pure.
- When one sees the Dhamma one sees the Tathāgata: “When one sees the Dhamma, one sees the Tathāgata.” This first sphere is very important. If we practice until skillful and fluent, we will understand the saying that when one sees the Dhamma, one sees the Tathāgata. That is, on the day we reach Paṭhamamagga, stopping in stopping, still in stillness, in the middle of the middle of the sphere, when it is rightly set we gradually move inward and see in due order—seeing spheres within spheres, bodies within bodies, until reaching the body of the Tathāgata, that is, the Dhammakāya within us, the body of the Knower.
- The Dhammakāya is the body of the Knower, the Awakened, the Joyful: The Dhammakāya within us is the body of the Knower, the One who is awakened, the One who is joyful and gladdened, the true refuge and support of us all. It is very beautiful, possessing all the marks of the Great Man (mahāpurisa), with the uṣṇīṣa like a lotus bud, in the meditative posture, seated on a round, flat, clear seat of jhāna, facing the same direction as we do. That is the true Tathāgata within our body, which is like the Tathāgata in the body of the Great Man. And our own Sammāsambuddha is likewise a Dhammakāya, but his is the Dhammakāya of an arahanta Sammāsambuddha, with the same face and features, differing only in size, in purity, and in clarity. Therefore when one sees the Dhamma one sees the Tathāgata, and one understands the word “Tathāgata” more and more.
- The stopping of the mind is what matters—”stopping is success”: The life of the illusory world comes to an end when the mind stops still at the center of the body, the Seventh Base. We reach the life of the world of reality, which is the truth (saccadhamma)—that which is real; the inner life. The outer life is the life of the illusory world—impermanent, without any essence at all. Therefore the stopping of the mind is what is important. The Venerable Luang Pu, the Conqueror over Māra, always taught: “Stopping is success” (yut pen tua samret). It makes clear both worldly and spiritual matters; it makes things clear as when we draw something out of the darkness into the open—we see clearly what it is. The stopping of the mind is therefore very important.
- Life is entering the center—escaping being a slave to Māra: Life is entering the center again and again into that still mind, so as to escape being a servant and slave of Māra, who commands us with kilesa and āsava to become his servant and slave, forces us to do wrong in body, speech, and mind through ignorance, and then re-commands us with the results of karma (vipāka). Moreover, he hides things by covering element with element, so that we do not know these matters, and so we waste time wandering in saṃsāra through countless lives and births.
- Being born in ignorance is extremely dangerous: Being born in ignorance is extremely dangerous, because life will circle in the three realms, in the two destinies—that is, sugati and duggati—circling on and on like this. Therefore, when the Sammāsambuddha arose, these things came to an end, through practicing according to his teaching—to throw everything away, to let go of everything, to be still alone, still and soft, on and on, comfortably. Get this point first: come to know what it is for the mind to stop still, what it is to fall into the center, what the first sphere is like, what it is for purity to be a clear sphere rightly set. Come to know this well and clearly.
Now the dedication of merit. When we recall every merit made through countless lives and births up to today, gather it all at the center of the body, the Seventh Base, and make the vow that this merit may eradicate all defilements of the mind completely, becoming the treasury of attainment accompanying us into the next life, complete with physical beauty, wealth, and virtue, with gain, honor, praise, happiness, magga, phala, and Nibbāna, and the knowledge of Vijjā Dhammakāya, with mindfulness and wisdom to protect ourselves. Then let this merit reach our relatives, friends, family, benefactors, and companions who have passed away, and also limitless sentient beings throughout the hundred-thousand universes and the infinite universes, that they may share in the merit we have so diligently made.
Other articles in the series ง่ายแต่ลึก (Easy Yet Deep):
This article is compiled from the teaching of Luang Por Dhammajayo in the program “ง่ายแต่ลึก” (Easy Yet Deep), Episode 6 “ฐานที่ ๗ ตำแหน่งของผู้รู้” (Base 7 : The Position of the Knower), Sunday, 22 May 2011 (B.E. 2554).
