About This Teaching
Ajahn Maha Boowa recounts a night when, coming out of samādhi, he was overwhelmed by severe pain throughout his body. He resolved not to rise from his seat until dawn and to understand pain even at the risk of death. He describes the pain as a fire for which every bone and joint was fuel. Cornered with no way out, he found that mindfulness and wisdom became sharp and relentless, like a warrior who never retreats.
He investigated body, pain and citta (the knowing mind) as separate things. The skin stays skin and the flesh stays flesh, while pain comes and goes, and the citta itself remained calm. When he saw clearly that it was the citta that labelled the feeling as painful, the pain vanished. The body dropped out of awareness and only a pure, still knowing remained. When the pain returned, the old methods no longer worked and fresh tactics had to be found in the moment. The citta converged three times that night, and he came out of it fearless, no longer afraid of death.