resulting cool, calm sense of happiness will be the same. Dif-
ferences occur in the practical methods they employ and in the
nature of insights that arise during meditation. Some meditators
are inclined to know only things existing exclusively within their
own minds. Others tend to know things of a more external nature
- such as visions of ghosts or devas, or visions of people and ani-
mals dying right in front of them. They may see a corpse car-
ried along and then dumped right in front of them or they may
have a vision of their own body lying dead before them. All such
experiences are beyond the capability of beginning meditators to
handle correctly with any certainty, since the beginner is unable
to distinguish between what is real and what is not. People who
are not inclined to analyze their experiences carefully may come
to a wrong understanding, believing what they see to be genuine.
This could increase the likelihood of psychological damage in the
future. The type of person whose citta tends to go out to perceive
external phenomena when it ‘converges’ into a state of calm is
quite rare – at most, about one in twenty people. But, there will
always be someone in whom this occurs. It is crucial that they
receive advice from a meditation master with expertise in these
matters.
Listening to dhutanga monks as they relate their meditation
results to Ãcariya Mun, and hearing him give advice on ways to
deal with their experiences was so moving and inspirational that
everyone present became thoroughly absorbed in it. In explain-
ing the proper method for dealing with visions, Ãcariya Mun cat-
egorized different types of nimittas and explained in great detail
how each type should be handled. The monks who listened were
delighted by the Dhamma he presented, and so gained confidence,
