without regrets. Even when living apart from him, they continued
to feel an extraordinary sense of obligation to their teacher. No
matter how much hardship they endured, or how difficult their
training was, they were contented to persevere so long as their
teacher was supportive. They could manage to put up with the
deprivations they suffered daily – going without, as often as not
- because they were convinced in their hearts that Dhamma was
more important than anything else. There were times when they
had to sleep in the pouring rain through the night, shivering like
little birds. Still, their determination to endure adversity for the
sake of Dhamma never wavered.
It was always very interesting to hear dhutanga monks dis-
cuss their experiences of wandering through remote forest areas.
The way they practiced, the way they endured – it was pitiable
how, due to extreme deprivations, they lived in the forest like
wild animals, often sleeping on the ground without shelter. They
used a variety of techniques to intensify their meditation, exper-
imenting until they found the ones that best suited their charac-
ter. They tried: going without sleep; reducing the amount of food
they ate; fasting entirely for as many days as they could reasonably
manage; walking in meditation all night, from dusk until dawn;
sitting in samãdhi for many hours at a stretch; sitting in samãdhi
all night, from dusk to dawn; sitting in samãdhi on a trail used
by tigers when entering their lair; sitting in samãdhi at night on
forest trails frequented by tigers; sitting in samãdhi in a cemetery
on the day a corpse was being cremated; sitting in samãdhi at the
edge of a precipice; venturing deep into the mountains at night
looking for a particularly scary place to sit in samãdhi; sitting in
samãdhi late at night at the foot of a tree in a tiger-infested area,
