The Hypercritical Nàga
At one point Ãcariya Mun spent some time living in Chiang Dao
Cave – not the long cave in the middle of the mountain that has
become popular with tourists, but one higher up the mountain.
This cave was home to a great nãga^27 who had kept guard over it
for a very long time. Apparently this nãga was rather conceited
and had a tendency to be overly critical of monks. During his
stay in the cave, Acariya Mun became the object of this nãga’s
constant criticism. It found fault with nearly everything he did. It
appeared incapable of accepting Ãcariya Mun’s thoughts of loving
kindness, probably as a consequence of its long-standing enmity
toward monks.
At night when Ãcariya Mun wore his sandals to do walking
meditation, the nãga complained about the sound of his footsteps:
“What kind of a monk are you, stomping around like an unbridled
race horse? The sound of your sandals striking the earth shakes
the whole mountain. Did you ever think you might be annoying
somebody with all that noise?”
It raised these complaints despite Ãcariya Mun’s composed
manner of pacing softly back and forth. Hearing the criticisms, he
took care to walk even more softly than before; but still, the nãga
wasn’t satisfied: “What kind of a monk are you, walking medita-
tion like somebody sneaking around hunting birds?” Occasion-
ally, Ãcariya Mun’s foot would stumble on a stone in the medita-
tion path, causing a slight thumping sound which elicited another
reproach: “What kind of a monk are you, bucking up and down
your meditation path like a chorus dancer?”
There were times when Ãcariya Mun leveled out the sur-