the subject of Ãcariya Mun, who had been his teacher. In the past,
he lived under Ãcariya Mun’s tutelage in the remote mountains
of Chiang Mai, training with him at a forest retreat that was sev-
eral days walk from the nearest town. It’s hard to find words to
describe the many remarkable, amazing stories he told me that
day. I shall relate the ones I feel are appropriate here, while the
others I shall skip, for reasons I explained earlier.
This ãcariya said that, besides his undoubted purity of heart,
Ãcariya Mun also possessed many unique abilities that inspired
awe in his students and assured their vigilance at all times. He
said he couldn’t possibly remember all of the strange, unusual sto-
ries he had heard from Ãcariya Mun; so, I urged him to tell me
what he could remember. His words would serve as a memorial
- a source of inspiration for future generations. This is what he
said:
“Ãcariya Mun knew everything I was thinking – what more
can I say? I felt as though I were on a tight leash day and night,
such was the vigilance I applied to observing my mind. Despite
my best efforts, he could still catch my errant thoughts, publicly
exposing them for everyone to hear. My meditation was actu-
ally quite good while staying with him, but I couldn’t always pre-
vent stray thoughts from arising. We should never underestimate
the mind’s ability to think incessantly, day and night – non-stop.
How many of us can catch up with our thoughts long enough to
restrain them effectively? So I was constantly on guard, for he was
better at catching my thoughts than I was! Sometimes, he brought
up thoughts that I’d forgotten having. Suddenly, I was made to
recall thoughts that had long since past.”
I asked the ãcariya if Ãcariya Mun had ever scolded him.
