xxvBy 1960, the world outside the forest came to exert a signifi-
cant impact on the dhutanga tradition. The rapid deforestation of that
period caused dhutanga monks to modify, and eventually curtail, their
wandering lifestyle. As the geographic environment changed, teach-
ers like Ãcariya Mahã Boowa began establishing permanent monas-
tic communities where dhutanga monks could conveniently carry on
Ãcariya Mun’s lineage, striving to maintain the virtues of renunci-
ation, strict discipline, and intensive meditation. Practicing monks
gravitated to these forest monasteries in large numbers and trans-
formed them into great centers of Buddhist practice. At Wat Pa Ban
Tad, Ãcariya Mahã Boowa’s forest monastery in Udon Thani, a reli-
gious center arose spontaneously, created by the students themselves,
who came for purely spiritual motives in hopes of receiving instruction
from a genuine master. In the years that followed, the many Western
monks who came to Ãcariya Mahã Boowa were able to share whole-
heartedly in this unique religious experience. Some have lived there
practicing under his tutelage ever since, helping to spawn an interna-
tional following which today spans the globe.
Highly revered at home and abroad, Ãcariya Mahã Boowa
remains to this day actively engaged in teaching both monks and
laity, elucidating for them the fundamental principles of Buddhism
and encouraging them to practice those bold and incisive techniques
that Ãcariya Mun used so effectively. Like Ãcariya Mun, he stresses
a mode of practice in which wisdom remains a priority at all times.
Although ultimately pointing to the ineffable mysteries of the mind’s
pure essence, the teaching he presents for us is a system of instruction
that is full of down-to-earth, practical methods suitable for everyone
desiring to succeed at meditation. Studied carefully, it may well offer
direction to persons who otherwise have no idea where their practice
is taking them.