now on I shall be writing about what I myself witnessed in the
final years of Ãcariya Mun’s life. Although this part of the story
may not impress the reader as much as what has gone before, as
the author I feel relieved to be writing from personal experience.ÃCARIYA MUN SPENT the rains retreat at the Ban Khok forest mon-
astery with a small group of monks, all of whom remained healthy
and contented throughout the three months. Ãcariya Mun called
a meeting about once a week, both during the retreat period and
after it was over. Although his discourses usually lasted for two to
four hours, his audience was so completely absorbed in medita-
tion practice that thoughts of weariness and fatigue never crossed
their minds. For his part, Ãcariya Mun was completely absorbed
in delivering the Dhamma, expounding the nature of cause and
effect in a reasonable way that struck a chord with his listeners,
all of whom were genuinely searching for Truth. The Dhamma
he presented was delivered straight from a heart that had realized
this Truth with absolute clarity – leaving no room for doubt. Only
one doubt remained: Could the monks actually do the practice
the way he described it.
He delivered his discourses in a manner reminiscent of
times past when the Lord Buddha delivered a discourse to a gath-
ering of monks. We can be sure that the Lord Buddha’s discourses
were concerned solely with the great treasures of Dhamma; that
is, he spoke only on subjects directly related to magga, phala, and
Nibbãna. Thus, monks listening to him were able to attain magga,
phala, and Nibbãna one after another, in steady succession, right
up until the day of his final passing away. Because the Buddha’s