advice of a good teacher can be invaluable, helping the medita-
tor to advance quickly and confidently without wasting time. For
this reason, it’s very important that meditators have a kalyãõa-
mitta. Ãcariya Mun personally experienced the drawbacks of not
having such a wise friend to give him timely advice, insisting that
it was a definite disadvantage.âcariya Sao Kantasãlo
In his early years of practice, Ãcariya Mun often wandered dhu-
tanga in the company of Ãcariya Sao,^18 comforted in the know-
ledge that he had a good, experienced teacher to lend him sup-
port. But when he asked his teacher to advise him on specific
problems arising in his meditation, Ãcariya Sao invariably replied:
“My experiences in meditation are quite different from yours. Your
citta is so adventurous, tending always toward extremes. One
moment it soars into the sky, only to plunge deep into the earth
the next. Then, after diving to the ocean floor, it again soars up
to walk meditation high in the sky. Who could possibly keep up
with your citta long enough to find a solution? I advise you to
investigate these matters for yourself and find your own solutions.”
Ãcariya Sao never gave him enough concrete advice to really help
him, so Ãcariya Mun was forced to solve his own problems. Some-
times, he nearly died before discovering a way past some of the
more intractable problems he faced.
Ãcariya Mun described his teacher as someone with a
smooth, serene temperament who inspired deep devotion. A rather
strange feature of Ãcariya Sao’s practice was his tendency to lev-