heart – it just crouched by the path and continued to watch him.
He then resumed his meditation, taking no further interest in it.
Some time later he left the meditation track and walked to a small
bamboo platform situated close by to take a rest. He chanted suttas
there for awhile then sat peacefully in meditation until time to go
to sleep, which he did lying on the bamboo platform. During that
entire time the tiger remained crouched in its original position,
not far away. But when he awoke at three A.M. to resume his walk-
ing meditation, he saw no sign of the tiger anywhere – he had no
idea where it had gone. As it happened, he saw it only that once;
from then on until he left that place, it never appeared again.
This incident intrigued Ãcariya Sitha, so when he met with
Ãcariya Mun he described to him how the tiger had crouched
there watching him. He told Ãcariya Mun the tiger had roared at
the precise moment the thought arose wishing it to go away. He
recounted how, although he wasn’t conscious of any fear, his hair
stood on end and his scalp went numb, as if he were wearing a cap.
But soon he again felt quite normal, resuming his walking medi-
tation as though nothing had happened. Actually, there probably
was a subtle measure of fear buried deep inside that he was incapa-
ble of perceiving at the time. Although the tiger never returned to
his campsite, he often heard the sound of its roars echoing through
the nearby forest. Still, Ãcariya Sitha’s mind remained resolute and
he continued to practice contentedly, as he always had.
jacob rumans
(Jacob Rumans)
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