into samãdhi to expound on Dhamma for the devas’ benefit. After
he finished and the devas had departed, he would lie down to
rest, arising in the morning as usual to continue his normal rou-
tine of practice. Ãcariya Mun considered receiving devas a special
responsibility. Since honoring one’s promises is very important to
them, he was always careful to be punctual. They were likely to
be critical of a monk who missed an appointment unnecessarily.
Discussions between devas and monks are carried on entirely
in the universal language of the heart, bypassing the multitude
of conventional languages used by human beings and other types
of animals. Arising from the citta, the substance of the inquir-
ies turns into questions in the language of the heart which the
inquiring individual clearly understands as if they were words in
conventional language. Each word or phrase of the respondent
emanates directly from the heart, so the questioner in turn under-
stands the reply perfectly well. In fact, the language of the heart
directly conveys the true feelings of the speaker, eliminating the
need for explanations to clarify further, as might be required in
conventional languages. Verbal communication is also a mecha-
nism of the heart; but, its nature is such that spoken words often
do not reflect the heart’s true feelings, so mistakes are easily made
in communicating its true intent. This incongruity will remain so
long as conventional language is used as a surrogate medium for
the heart’s expression. Since people are unfamiliar with the lan-
guage of the heart, their hearts cannot avoid using normal speech
as a mechanism to facilitate communication, even though it’s not
very accurate in expressing the heart’s true meaning. There is no
possible way to solve this common dilemma – unless people learn
the heart’s own language and expose its mysteries.^24
jacob rumans
(Jacob Rumans)
#1