devas consider ourselves especially blessed to have met you,
venerable sir, having the precious opportunity to pay our
respects to you and to receive your beneficent teaching. We
are grateful to you for expounding the Dhamma to brighten
our hearts, leading us on the path of practice so that we can
gradually become aware of how to improve ourselves.”When the assemblies of devas finally returned to their respective
realms, Ãcariya Mun began to reflect on the tremendous diffi-
culties he had experienced in his effort to realize this Dhamma.
Because his practice had entailed such exceptional hardship, he
regarded it as Dhamma at the threshold of death. Had he not come
so close to death, while struggling to reach freedom from dukkha,
then surely he would never have attained that freedom.
The Spiritual Partner
Sitting in meditation after his final attainment, Ãcariya Mun
recalled a certain personal matter from his past – one which he
had not taken much interest in before. Here I would like to tell a
story relevant to Ãcariya Mun’s past. I feel it would be a shame to
leave out such an intriguing story, especially as this type of rela-
tionship may be following every one of you like a shadow, even
though you are unaware of it. Should the story be deemed in
any way unseemly, please blame the author for not being prop-
erly circumspect. As you may already have guessed, this is a pri-
vate matter that was discussed only by Ãcariya Mun and his inner
circle of disciples. I have tried to suppress the urge to write about