you believe it is true? If you don’t, perhaps you suppose the
Buddha was lying to us. A person like you, who ordains
as a dhutanga monk but still refuses to trust the Buddha
and his Dhamma, is someone devoid of intrinsic human
value. Your opinions make you no different than a breath-
ing corpse – a living, stinking corpse that somehow man-
ages to keep breathing from one day to the next. What do
you say? Which path are you going to choose for your own
safe passage? I have no better path to offer you than the one
I have already specified. It is the path that the Lord Buddha
and all the Arahants have taken. There is no easier, more
esoteric path. I have followed this path from the time of
my ordination up to the present, and it is the source of the
Dhamma that I teach to all my disciples.”This was one of the most impassioned declamations ever given
by Ãcariya Mun – right to the point and full of fireworks. What
I have recreated here is merely a sample, not the full substance of
what he said by any means. Those listening were so shaken and
intimidated they nearly sank through the floor. Never in their
lives had they heard anything like it. By going straight to the
point, these fiery expositions caused his audience to see the truth
of his words, and thus submit to it, even as they felt frightened to
death of him.
Realizing the truth of what he heard, the monk, whose
thoughts provoked this barrage, gradually acquiesced until he
accepted it totally and without reservations. As that happened,
the intensity in Ãcariya Mun’s voice gradually subsided until he
sounded quite conciliatory. When he was convinced that the