his comprehensive knowledge of teaching methods, extensive as
the sea and sky. Such a one is never at a loss when teaching devas
and humans.
Because Ãcariya Mun lacked a sufficiently high level of spir-
itual perfection, he was denied the opportunity to open the cabi-
net, and had to be content with simply admiring its beauty. Con-
sequently, he would attain only the level of paåisambhidãnusãsana,
meaning that he had sufficient wisdom and expository skills to
elucidate to others the basic path of Buddhist practice, but not
its entire breadth and depth. Although he humbly stated that
his teaching was merely sufficient to show the way, those who
witnessed his practice and heard the profound Dhamma that he
taught throughout his life were so deeply impressed that no words
can describe it. It would certainly be difficult to witness or hear
anything comparable in this day and age – an age much in need
of such a noble person.The Sign
At one point during his meditation training at Wat Liap, Ãcariya
Mun’s citta ‘converged’ into a state of calm^11 and a vision arose
spontaneously. The mental image^12 was of a dead body laid out
before him, bloated, oozing pus, and seeping with bodily fluids.
Vultures and dogs were fighting over the corpse, tearing into the
rotting flesh and flinging it around, until what remained was all
scattered about. The whole scene was unimaginably disgusting,
and he was appalled.
From then on, Ãcariya Mun constantly used this image as