it here, but the more I tried to suppress it, the stronger this urge
became. So I finally gave in and, after writing it down, the urge
gradually subsided. I must confess that I’m at fault here, but I hope
the reader forgives me. Hopefully, it will provide everyone, caught
in the perpetual cycle of birth and death, something worthwhile
to think about.
This story concerns Ãcariya Mun’s longtime spiritual part-
ner.^17 Ãcariya Mun said that in previous lives he and his spiritual
partner had both made a solemn vow to work together toward the
attainment of Buddhahood. During the years prior to his final
attainment, she occasionally came to visit him while he was in
samãdhi. On those occasions, he gave her a brief Dhamma talk,
then sent her away. She always appeared to him as a disembodied
consciousness. Unlike beings from most realms of existence, she
had no discernible form. When he inquired about her formless
state, she replied that she was so worried about him she had not
yet decided to take up existence in any specific realm. She feared
that he would forget their relationship – their mutual resolve to
attain Buddhahood in the future. So out of concern, and a sense
of disappointment, she felt compelled to come and check on him
from time to time. Ãcariya Mun told her then that he had already
given up that vow, resolving instead to practice for Nibbãna in
this lifetime. He had no wish to be born again, which was equiv-
alent to carrying all the misery he had suffered in past lives indef-
initely into the future.
Although she had never revealed her feelings, she remained
worried about their relationship, and her longing for him never
waned. So once in a long while she paid him a visit. But on this
occasion, it was Ãcariya Mun who thought of her, being con-
jacob rumans
(Jacob Rumans)
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