ering the circumstances before speaking. From that day on, he
never cautioned people directly about the specific content of their
thoughts. He merely alluded indirectly to certain types of think-
ing as a means of helping people become aware of the nature
of their thoughts, but without upsetting their feelings. People’s
minds are like small children tottering uncertainly as they learn
to walk. An adult’s job is to merely watch them carefully so they
come to no harm. There’s no need to be overly protective all the
time. The same applies to people’s minds: they should be allowed
to learn by their own experiences. Sometimes their thinking will
be right, sometimes wrong, sometimes good, sometimes bad – this
is only natural. It’s unreasonable to expect them to be perfectly
good and correct every time.THE YEARS ÃCARIYA MUN spent living in Sarika Cave were fruit-
ful. He gained many enlightening ideas to deepen his understand-
ing of the exclusively internal aspects of his meditation practice
and many unusual insights concerning the great variety of exter-
nal phenomena he encountered in his meditation. He became so
pleasantly absorbed in his practice that he forgot about time: he
hardly noticed the days, the months, or the years as they passed.
Intuitive insights arose in his mind continuously – like water
gently flowing along in the rainy season. On afternoons when
the weather was clear, he walked through the forest admiring
the trees and the mountains, meditating as he went, absorbed in
the natural scenery all around him. As evening fell, he gradually
made his way back to the cave.
The cave’s surrounding area abounded in countless species