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The Venerable Phra Acharn Mun Bhuridatto

Meditation Master


What follows is an excerpt from his biography, as compiled by
The Venerable Phra Acharn Maha Boowa Nyanasampnno


 

PhraAcharnMun wandered throughout the Northeastern villages andtowns from the beginning of his practice until he had the necessary strength to resist the internal temperaments characteristic of his ultra-dynamic mind as well as external stimuli. After that he journeyed down to the central part of Thailand and stayed for a Rains Retreat at WatPathoomwan where he regularly went for instruction and advice from His Eminence PhraUpaliGunupamacariya (Siricando) of WatBoromnivasin Bangkok.


 

After the Rains Retreat he journeyed up to the town of Lopburi and stayed at various caves as Phaikwang Cave, Mount KhaoPhraNgarm, and Singto [Lion] Cave. In all these places he speeded up his efforts, regularly developing meditation and insight. His mind proved to be steadi­ly strengthened against internal and external influences, with meditation well-developed and insight correspondingly deepened. To such a mind, everything offered itself as morals and lessons for higher growth and profounder insight. Occasionally he would travel down to WatBorom­nivas to seek the advice of PhraUpali, after which he would once again set out for a place of solitude, this time Sarika Cave in KhaoYai[The Great Mountains] in the town of NakhornNayok.

Adventures at the Sarika Cave

He stayed one year atSarika Cave, and what happened during that period is quite remarkable, both with regard to external occurrences and internal developments. When he arrived at the village near to the cave, a village whose name was perhaps BahnKluey, he requested the villag­ers to take him to the cave in the mountain. The villagers, however, were quite unwilling to do so. They said that that cave was a terrible place and told him about the many bhikkhus who had gone to stay there before him and who were known to have been stricken by serious diseas­es which had driven them away.Some had even been killed by those diseases. That cave was believed to be possessed by a Great Demon with terrible powers who had taken it over as his own. He was known to have wielded his powers indiscriminately against all those who had gone to dwell in 'his' cave, sometimes even frightening them to death. He seemed to prefer to challenge any bhikkhu who dared intrude into his domain, no matter how clever that bhikkhu was in mysticism or black magic, and it often resulted in that bhikkhu being suddenly struck down with illness or his dying a premature death. The villagers were thus unwilling to take him to that cave lest he too be killed like some of those before him.


 

PhraAcharnMun then asked the villagers how this Great Demon made himself known. They said that even during the first night who­ever was staying in that cave would see in his dreams a tall black Demon coming at him, his face contorted into a frightful look and giving every impression of his intent to kill. The Demon would then announce that he was the owner and protector of that cave, thus being the sole ruler of that territory. He tolerated no intruders and would immediately set about driving them away, getting rid of anyone who trespassed into his kingdom, and in most cases, those who had ventured there would not be able to stay there for long. Some were known to have left after the first night, faces contorted with fear and bordering on madness, vow­ing never to go back to that cave again. Others had died there. Not long before this four bhikkhus, boasting of their mystical powers when they arrived, went up to the cave and were never seen again.


 

Such was the story of Sarika Cave which was also reputed to have contained a piece of magical metal which possessed mystical powers, rumors of which often tempted many to go to the cave but of which there has been no account of discovery.

                                                                             
 

PhraAcharnMun was not discouraged by the villagers' story and made up his mind to go to the cave and to face whatever would happen there. Instead of being overwhelmed with fear, he looked at it as an oppor­tunity to develop his mindfulness and to learn some valuable lessons. He modestly told the villagers that it was a horrible story which they had related to him, but that he would still like to go up there for a time. He said that if he found it too horrible, then he would come back, but that he would like the villagers to take him there. He said that he had made up his mind a long time ago to come here and to admire the beauty of the place, and therefore, at his insistence, the villagers finally agreed to take him up to the cave.

The First Sign of Illness

His first two or three nights in the cave were uneventful, his body and mind both satisfactorily rested due to the perfect quietness and seclusion of that place. The only noises to be heard were those of the oc­casional wild animals roaming about the area. On the following night, however, he was stricken with a stomach ache that had troubled him before, but this time it seemed to be much more serious. He sometimes passed blood with his stool and he appeared not to be able to digest food at all, it passing out of his system in exactly the condition it was when it was eaten. He was reminded of the villagers' account of the four bhikkhus who had already died there. He thought to himself that if this illness continued in this way, he could very well be the fifth. When in the morning some villagers stopped by to pay him a visit, he asked them to prepare a herbal medicine from the roots or cores of some nearby trees, but it was all in vain. The condition of his stomach steadily worsened, his body became enfeebled and his will power obviously waned. While taking the medicine he tried to encourage himself, thinking that there ought to be some curative effect if the medicine were to be helpful, but after many days it proved useless. What was the use in depending on it?


 

When he had thought about this, he decided to stop taking such con­ventional medicines and to resort to thetherapeutical effect of the dharma alone, no matter what happened to his body. 'Let this body die here in this cave if the power of dharma fails to cure this illness. "I have pro­gressed far enough to be fairly certain of the Path, Fruition and Nirvana,' he told himself, 'Why should I become disheartened and enfeebled by this pain and suffering? If I were to be defeated by this amount of suf­fering at this stage, what hope would I have when the moment of the dissolution of the body arrived, when wave after wave of suffering would pound to pieces my lines of defense?'


 

Thinking thus he stopped taking herbal medicines and began his medi­tation for the therapeutical effect of the dharma alone. Attachment to life was then abandoned, whereupon the body was allowed to undergo its natural curing process. Mindfulness and wisdom together with faith and exertion then hammered on the mind which does not die but which is always death-stricken. No attention was paid to the disease as to whether or not it could be cured or whether it would destroy the body. The dissecting eye of wisdom was directed at vedana [the sensation or feeling of suffering], with the other aggregates [khandha] ruthlessly ana­lysed. The body [rupa], sensations [vedana], perception [sanna], and mental formations [sankhara]: were all brought before the supreme tribu­nal of scrutinizing mindfulness and wisdom, which continuously dug and uncovered more profound truths. The pitched battle raged from dusk to midnight and ended with the mind being considerably empowered and able to realize the nature of the aggregates, including the gripping painwhich had been fully manifesting itself. The illness totally disappeared and the mind withdrew into absolute, unshakable one-pointedness.


 

At that point came the threefold cessation: pain, disease, and respon­siveness of mind. When the mind later emerged to a less profound and more responsive level called upacara, there seemed to be a light radiating from his body and which revealed a tall black man about ten meters high. He was carrying a club about four meters long and as big around as his leg. He threateningly approached the Venerable Acharn and said, 'If the Venerable does not leave this place, I will crush you to death with my huge club, which can crush an elephant to the ground with one blow.'


 

The Venerable Acharn communicated with him telepathically and asked, 'Why do you want to kill me? I appear to have done no wrong. Why should I deserve such capital punishment when I haven't harmed anyone up here?'
 

The Demon answered, 'I have long been authorized to safeguard this mountain and will not tolerate anyone who dares to challenge me or at­tempt to overpower me.'


 

'But I challenge no one, nor do I attempt to overpower anyone,' the Venerable Acharn said. 'It is just to challenge and overpower the defile­ments which rule human minds that I have come here. It is highly inadvisable that you should harm me, a bhikkhu and a disciple of the Buddha whose power of loving-kindness encompasses the Three Realms of Existence.' The Venerable Acharn continued, 'If you are some­one who really possesses skilful powers, as you have boasted about, do you have power beyond karma and dharma which are the great laws ruling the masses of beings in the three realms ?'

 
 

'No,' the Demon answered.
 

'The Buddha possessed the power of eradicating from his own mind the desire to dominate and to harm others,' the Venerable Acharn con­tinued. 'Do you have such a power?'


 

'No,' .the Demon confessed.


 

The Venerable Acharn began to admonish the Demon, pointing out that his power, if any, was primitive and savage, being detrimental only to himself. 'Such powers bring only fiery results, because you don't realize that in consuming others you only consume yourself as a result. This is indeed heavy unwholesome karma. I am a bhikkhu following the Path of Righteousness, and this is both for my own benefit as well as others. This is my genuine desire. And now here you come planning to hurt and kill me thinking nothing of the evil that will drag you to the realm of woe. I care little for my own life but I do take pity on you since you will be consumed by your own power delusion, Just stop and consider whether there is any power in the world which can counteract the result of the evil karma which you are about to perform! Is there any power which you possess over this mountain realm that can supersede dharma and karma? If you do, then you may do to me whatever you wish. I do not fear death because I will die anyway when the time comes, whe­ther or not you try to kill me. This world is a place of mortals, which includes yourself, who are deluded by power complexes.'
 

All the while the Venerable Acharn was thus admonishing this Demon, the Demon appeared to be frozen, unable to move or speak. As a human being he would have been terribly afraid and ashamed in his defeat. He was spellbound and at the end of the Venerable Acharn's reprimand, he threw down his club in submission, changed himself into a gentle and pious Buddhist the size of an ordinary human being, and then apologized to the Venerable Acharn for his rude manners and evil intention.


 

'I was struck with wonder and surprise the moment I saw you a few days ago,' the Demon said. 'I seemed to have been struck by a ray of light, powerful and wonderful, which appeared to have been radiating from you. It had such a strange effect on my aggressive intentions, both weakening and paralyzing. The moment I was enveloped in that im­pressive light I was discouraged from doing you any harm. I don't under­stand why that should have happened. I have never seen anything like it before. You can be sure of one thing, however, my threats were feign­ed, not real. I have been recognized by the other demons around here as their chief. My threats sprang out of this sense of superiority. We have been used to wielding our powers in evil ways, and as their chief I was bound to do something to preserve my dignity, in spite of myself. I had no harmful intentions after having been bathed in that light. May the Venerable Acharn please forgive whatever indecent actions I have done towards you today. Forgive me that the burden of guilt may be lifted from my shoulders, a burden already too heavy to bear.'


 

The Venerable Acharn then asked him, now a pious gentleman, if he too experienced suffering, possessing as he did a non-material body, nei­ther bulky nor heavy like that of a human being. Besides that, he is also not burdened with earning a living or seeking shelter, as is the case with man.

 


  Our pious gentleman answered, 'Superficially speaking it would appear to be that way, but strictly speaking, there isn't one plane of existence which is absolutely free from suffering. It differs in degree rather than in kind.'


 

The dialogue between the Demon and the Venerable Acharn still went on regarding this mystical subject, but it was so profound that the writer is unable to quote here every passage and would like to apologize to the readers for this deficiency.


 

At the end of their dialogue the mysterious gentleman, formerly a fero­cious Damon, was impressed in the dharma and declared himself a lay devotee, taking the Triple Gem as his Refuge, along with the Venerable Acharn as his material witness and personal Teacher. He promised to give all protection to the Venerable Acharn and expressed his earnest wish to have the Venerable Acharn stay there forever. He would be the Venerable Acharn's guardian and would allow nothing to harm him. In fact, he was not really the tall black Demon in whose guise he had appeared to the Venerable Acharn in his meditation vision. He was really chief of the terrestial angels [rukkhadeva—literally meaning tree spirits] with a great company of followers in the vast mountain area of many towns in that region, such as the town of NakhornNayok.


 

It was around midnight when the Venerable Acharn's mind withdrew into the unshakable state of appana-samadhi. Upon emerging from this stale, his dialogue with the demon-gentleman continued until about four o'clock in the morning. When he had emerged from the level of media­tion [upacara] in which the dialogue had taken place, the disease which had raged during the early stage of his practice had totally disappeared. There was now no need for conventional medicine since his illness had been completely cured by the therapeutical effect of the dharma. He spent the remaining hours before dawn in continued meditation efforts, there being no need for sleep since whatever weariness or tiredness there was had been replaced by strength and vitality.


 

The Venerable Acharn was thus moved to realize and understand many wonderful things simultaneously: firstly, the power of the dharma which could bring that invisible being to his senses and convert him to the Right Path; secondly, his mind had withdrawn into the unshakable bliss of peace for hours, during which the wonders of such a lofty state were overwhelmingly evident to him; thirdly, the chronic illness which had troubled him for so long was completely aired; fourthly, his mind had attained to a level where many doubts were cleared away; fifthly, his meal taken later in the morning was normally digested; and lastly, many kinds of knowledge occurred to him which he had never dreamed of before, both for the eradication of defilements and on how to apply such methods of eradication to various individuals with different dispositions or tendencies.

 

 

The following nights were marked by peaceful efforts and a blissful condition of mind, the body being in perfect health and not troubling him anymore. In the wee hours of the night he received a large group of terrestial angels who came from various places in that region. They were led by the gentleman-demon, their chief, who introduced them to him. Whenever there were no visitors, he delighted himself with meditation efforts.

 
   

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