When his citta finally withdrew, he found that he was still
standing in the same position as before. His umbrella and alms bowl
were still slung over his shoulder, and in one hand he still carried
a candle lantern, which had long since gone out. So he lit another
candle and looked around for the tigers; but they were nowhere to
be found. He had no idea where they had disappeared to.
Withdrawing from samãdhi that night, he felt no fear what-
soever. His heart was full of such remarkable courage that even
if hundreds of tigers appeared at that moment, he would have
remained completely unperturbed; for, he had seen with abso-
lute clarity the extraordinary power of the citta. He felt amazed
to have escaped the gaping jaws of those two tigers – a sense
of amazement defying description. Standing there alone in the
forest, Ãcariya Chob was suddenly overcome by a feeling of com-
passionate affection for the two tigers. In his mind they became
friends who, having provided him with a lesson in Dhamma, then
miraculously disappeared. He no longer feared them – in fact, he
actually missed them.
Ãcariya Chob described both tigers as being enormous:
each was about the size of a racehorse, though its body length
well exceeded that of a horse. Their heads would easily have
measured sixteen inches from ear to ear. He had never in his life
seen tigers that were so grotesquely large. Consequently, when
he first saw them he stood petrified, stiff as a corpse. Fortunately,
his mindfulness remained strong throughout. Later, after his citta
had withdrawn from samãdhi, he felt joyful and serene. He knew
then that he could go wherever he wished without fearing any-
thing in the world. Believing wholeheartedly that the citta, when
fully integrated with Dhamma, reigns supreme in the universe,
jacob rumans
(Jacob Rumans)
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