to get told off for thinking like that. When those thoughts came
up, I forgot all about my fear of Ãcariya Mun and just felt full of
myself thinking such crazy thoughts. I deserved exactly what I got.
It will teach me a good lesson about losing my self-control.”
I would like to apologize to the reader because I don’t feel
very comfortable about writing down some of these matters. But
these stories are factual – they actually happened. The decision
to include them was a difficult one to make. But if what I recount
is the truth, it should be all right. It could be compared to a sit-
uation in which a monk confesses to a disciplinary offense as a
means of eliminating any sense of guilt or anxiety about its recur-
rence in the future. Thus, I would like to relate a few incidents
from the past to serve as food for thought for all of you whose
thoughts may cause you similar problems.
In most cases, practicing monks received a severe rebuke
from Ãcariya Mun because of affairs pertaining to external sense
objects. For example, sights and sounds are the most likely sense
impressions to cause trouble. And the most likely occasion for
monks to be scolded was the morning almsround. Walking to the
village for alms is an essential duty of every monk. On these occa-
sions, monks encounter sights and sounds, and are bound to think
about them. Some become so infatuated with what they encounter
that their thoughts swirl into disarray without their actual know-
ledge. These are the primary causes of mental distraction, enticing
the mind even when one has no desire to think about them. By
the time a monk regained mindfulness, it was time for the evening
meeting and the tongue-lashing he received would prompt him
to try to be more controlled. After a time, he again encountered
the same enticing objects and reopened the sore. Upon return-
jacob rumans
(Jacob Rumans)
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