border, something incredibly amazing happened to Ãcariya
Chob. Please reserve judgment on this incident until you have
read the whole story. As he crested the top of a mountain ridge,
he was so extremely hungry and exhausted that he thought he
couldn’t possibly go on. By that time he had been walking for
three days and three nights without any sleep or food. The only
breaks he had taken were short periods of rest to alleviate the
physical stress of such an arduous journey. While dragging his
enfeebled body over the ridge, a thought arose in his mind: I
have walked the entire distance to this point risking my life with
every breath I take, yet somehow I’m still alive. Since starting out
I’ve yet to see a single human habitation where I could request alms
food to sustain my life. Am I now going to die needlessly for lack of
a single meal? I’ve suffered enormous hardships on this trip – at no
other time in my life have I suffered so much. Is it all going to be in
vain? Have I escaped war, a sphere of death everyone fears, only
to die of starvation and the hardships of this trek? If, as the Lord
Buddha declared, there really are devas in the upper realms, pos-
sessing divine eyes and ears that can truly perceive at great distances,
can’t they see this monk who is about ready to die at any moment? I
do believe what the Lord Buddha said. But are the devas, who have
received kind assistance from so many monks, from the Buddha’s
time until the present day, really so heartless as this? If devas are not
in fact hardhearted, then let them demonstrate their kindness to this
dying monk so that their pure, celestial qualities can be admired.
No sooner had this thought occurred to Ãcariya Chob
than something incredibly strange and amazing happened. It was
almost impossible to believe. As he staggered along that remote
mountain trail, he saw an elegantly dressed gentleman, who bore
jacob rumans
(Jacob Rumans)
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