About This Teaching
This section picks up as Ajahn Dtun sweeps his veranda and the day and a half of visions replays in his mind, followed by the insight that whatever arises must cease. Afterwards greed and anger had weakened, and attachment to material objects and sexual lust seemed completely gone. Everything appeared as mere elements, so that even a world turned to gold or diamonds would not stir the mind.
Doubting this, he paused formal practice for about ten days, and after two weeks or so lust began to ripple up again. He concluded that only the first, coarsest portion of attachment to the body had been let go. His insight had been into external things, not yet his own body. In standard terms, he explains, this corresponds to stream-entry.
Ajahn Chah's taped reply to his letter is also recalled, including a remark about his last life that Ajahn Dtun answered by saying it would depend on practice. Asked whether such dispassion felt bleak, the interpreter explains that his mind stayed cool and peaceful, and ill will was gone.