The Death of the Arahant
While Ãcariya Mun lived in Chiang Dao Cave, numerous nimittas
appeared in his meditation, some of them quite extraordinary. Here
I shall mention only a few. In the late hours of almost every night
he received a wide range of deva visitors from the upper and lower
celestial realms who arrived in groups of varying sizes at appointed
times. Arahants also came regularly to hold inspirational conver-
sations on Dhamma with Ãcariya Mun. Each Arahant showed
him the manner in which his passing away into total Nibbãna
had occurred.^29 Some were Arahants who had passed away in the
Chiang Dao Cave, while others had attained total Nibbãna else-
where. Such demonstrations were accompanied by an inspiring
explanation of the sequence of events that had taken place.
Hearing Ãcariya Mun talk about those Arahants, I felt dis-
mayed and somewhat discouraged by my own unfortunate cir-
cumstances. There I was a human being with eyes, ears, and
mental faculties just like Ãcariya Mun; yet, I couldn’t accomplish
the things that he did. On the one hand, I was elated to hear his
stories; on the other, I felt disheartened. I found myself laughing
and crying at the same time, but I kept my tears to myself for fear
that my fellow monks would think I was mad. In fact, at that time,
deep inside, I really was a bit mad.
The inspirational conversations that Ãcariya Mun had with
the Arahants were so captivating that it’s hard to find anything
else in the world that compares with them. I shall try to faith-
fully recreate the essence of those conversations here, though I
fear I may not do them proper justice. Here is the gist of what the
Arahants said to Ãcariya Mun.