until, finally, he emerged victorious. Wherever he found the kile-
sas still having the upper hand, he made an effort to upgrade his
arsenal – mindfulness, wisdom, faith, and perseverance – increas-
ing their strength with each new challenge until it exceeded that
of his archenemy. Triumphant at last, as we already know, the
world inside his heart shook – maggañãõa had destroyed the king
of the vaååa-citta.^2
This was how Ãcariya Mun applied himself in the ulti-
mate battle. He did not place any time constraints on his walk-
ing and sitting meditation as he strove day and night, wield-
ing mindfulness and wisdom to secure victory. Having finally
cleared through the dense jungle of kilesas, supreme-mindfulness
and supreme-wisdom, that were his weapons of choice in this
campaign, ceased to be meaningful or relevant. Mindfulness and
wisdom became routine faculties to be engaged in normal mental
processes. He used them to think about one of the many aspects
of Dhamma or to engage in other mental activities, letting them
fade away when their services were no longer required. Previously,
they needed to be in a constant state of alert to combat the kile-
sas. Once victory was achieved, if nothing came along to stim-
ulate his thoughts, he existed much as though he were mentally
idle – a simpleton. Mindfulness and wisdom, which had been
caught up so long in the heat of intense struggle, were nowhere
to be found. All that remained was a timeless tranquillity that
nothing could disturb, eclipsing everything else in his heart. Left
totally to itself, free of all external influences, his heart did not
think about affairs of the past or the future. It was as though
everything had disappeared along with the kilesas – only empti-
ness remained.
jacob rumans
(Jacob Rumans)
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