About This Teaching
This biographical reading tells how Ajahn Chah first heard of Ajahn Mun during a rains retreat, and of their meeting. It describes Ajahn Mun as a wandering forest monk who shunned fame, once disappearing into the mountains rather than accept an abbacy, and whose example largely shaped the Thai forest tradition as it is now known.
Ajahn Chah and companions walked some 240 kilometres north, paying respects at That Phanom, until only three monks and a layman reached Ajahn Mun's quiet monastery. Confessing he was discouraged by the many detailed rules of the Vinaya, Ajahn Chah was told to take hiri and ottappa, wise shame and wise fear of consequences, as his basic principles. Ajahn Mun then spoke on sila, samadhi and panna with growing force, and Ajahn Chah's weariness vanished. Most clarifying was the distinction between the mind itself and passing states of mind: happiness, for example, is a state on a different level from the mind, and seeing this, one can put things down.