Suddenly, he heard the roar of a huge tiger coming up behind
him, followed by the roar of another huge tiger moving toward him,
both calling out to each other as they quickly closed in on him.
The roaring sounds from both directions grew closer and louder
until suddenly both tigers emerged from the darkness at the same
moment – one, merely six feet in front of him and the other a mere
six feet behind. The sound of their roars had become deafening.
Seeing the gravity of the situation, Ãcariya Chob stood transfixed
in the middle of the trail. He saw that the tiger in front of him was
crouched and ready to pounce. Glancing behind him, he saw that
the tiger there, too, was crouched and ready to pounce. Fear arose
in him then, for he was sure that this signaled the end of his life.
Petrified with fear, he stood stock-still, rooted to the spot. But his
mindfulness remained strong, so he concentrated his mind intently,
and that prevented him from panicking. Even though he might be
killed by those tigers, he would not allow his mind to falter. With
that resolve, he turned the focus of his attention away from the
tigers and back within himself, thus excluding everything external
from his awareness. At that moment, his citta ‘converged’, drop-
ping quickly into a deep state of samãdhi. As this occurred, the
knowledge arose in him that the tigers could not possibly harm
him. After that, everything in the world simply vanished, including
himself and the tigers. Experiencing no physical sensations what-
soever, he was totally unaware of what then happened to his body.
All awareness of the external world, including his physical presence,
had utterly disappeared. Which meant that awareness of the tigers
had also disappeared. His citta had ‘converged’ completely, drop-
ping to the very base of samãdhi, and many hours passed before it
withdrew from that state.
jacob rumans
(Jacob Rumans)
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