consent to my going. I believe he was worried that my meditation
practice might deteriorate, so he tried to keep me under his tute-
lage the whole time.
“The thing that terrified me about him was, day or night,
whenever I decided to focus my citta’s attention on him, I saw him
staring back at me. It seemed he never took a rest! There were
nights when I didn’t dare lie down because I could visualize him
sitting right in front of me, scrutinizing me every moment. When-
ever I focused my citta on external objects, I invariably found him
there looking at me. Because of this, my mindfulness was con-
stantly alert.
“As his students, we were forced to be mindful. Following
him on almsround, we carefully kept our thoughts under control,
restraining our minds from straying beyond the confines of our
bodies. Were we careless, we could expect to hear about it – some-
times immediately. Consequently, we exerted mindfulness over our
thoughts – at all times. Even then, he could usually find some-
thing to lecture us about, and always with good reason. Inevitably,
at least one monk among us gave Ãcariya Mun cause to speak out.
During the evening meeting, Ãcariya Mun might speak in a scold-
ing tone about some rather strange affair that seemed to make no
sense. As soon as the meeting adjourned, the monks would quietly
ask around to find out whose thoughts he was censuring that day.
Eventually one of the monks confessed that, as strange as it might
seem, he actually had been thinking such nonsense. Living with
Ãcariya Mun was a wonderful experience, for fear of him always
promoted a mindful attitude within each of us.”
This ãcariya told me that when he first arrived in Chiang
Mai, he went to stay at one of the local monasteries. Having been
jacob rumans
(Jacob Rumans)
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