Ven. Acariya Mun - Spiritual Biography + photos

times, less so. In either case, he concentrated solely on his prac-
tice, unconcerned about how many hours passed or how much
energy he expended. Basically, his objective was to make sure his
mind remained focused on the meditation subject he had chosen
to control it until that focus of attention became a mental object
he could rely on to direct his heart toward peace and calm. Such
calm, in turn, helped him to concentrate his mental focus on
the cause and effect relationships inherent within whichever phe-
nomena his wisdom then chose to investigate, allowing him to
gradually attain increasingly more subtle levels of Dhamma as
he progressed toward the ultimate goal. While applying himself
assiduously, he always tried to make sure that his mode of prac-
tice was correct for the level of Dhamma he was working on.
It is extremely important that a monk have mindfulness
at every stage of his practice. It is also essential that a monk use
wisdom when his practice reaches those levels of Dhamma where
wisdom is indispensable. Mindfulness, however, is always indis-
pensable – at all times, in all activities. Whenever mindfulness is
missing, effort also is missing. Lacking mindfulness, walking and sit-
ting meditation are just empty postures void of anything that could
be called “right effort”. For this very reason, Ãcariya Mun stressed
mindfulness more than any other aspect of a monk’s practice. In fact,
mindfulness is the principal foundation supporting every aspect on
every level of meditation practice. Practiced continuously, it even-
tually develops into the kind of supreme-mindfulness that fosters the
highest levels of wisdom. Mindfulness must be used intensively at the
preliminary level of developing meditative calm and concentration.
In all succeeding levels of practice, mindfulness and wisdom must be
developed in tandem, working as a team.