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If there is anyone in Theravadian tradition that commands as much of the Thai Buddhists' respect as Ajahn Chah, it is Ajahn Maha Boowa, who is reputed to be an Arahant. I place my highest respect to him. I extracted some paragraph's from a book; title, publisher and copyright as detailed below. You see, even Theravadians have their own enlightened masters. I have no doubt in Ajahn Maha Boowa's accomplishments. He left the worldly life at the long age of 97 years. I have extracted these few paragraphs in the hope that this will inspire faith in people and enable us to exert more effort to achieve the same.
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By the time I reached my 16th
rains retreat, my meditation was progressing to the point where mindfulness and
wisdom were circling around all external sensations and all internal thought
processes, meticulously investigating everything without any aspect unexplored.
At that level of practice, mindfulness and wisdom acted in unison, like a Wheel
of Dhamma, revolving in continuous motion within the mind. I began to sense that
the attainment of my goal was close at hand. I remembered my earlier vision
predicting attainment in that year and accelerated my efforts.
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| Luangta Maha Boowa |
Fortunately,
the current of Dhamma that flowed through my meditation had reached an irreversible
stage. By May of the next year, my meditation had arrived at a critical phase.
When the decisive moment arrived, affairs of time and place ceased to be
relevant. All that appeared in the mind was a splendid, natural radiance. I had
reached a point where nothing else was left for me to investigate. I had
already let go of everything – only that radiance remained. Except for the
central point of the mind’s radiance, the whole universe had been conclusively
let go.
At that time, I was examining the mind’s central point of focus. All other matters had been examined and discarded; there remained only that one point of “knowingness”. It became obvious that both satisfaction and dissatisfaction issued from that source. Brightness and dullness – those differences arose from the same origin.
Then, in one spontaneous instant,
Dhamma answered the question. The Dhamma arose suddenly and unexpectedly, as
though it were a voice in the heart: “Whether it is dullness or brightness,
satisfaction of dissatisfaction, all such dualities are not-self.” The meaning
was clear: Let everything go. All of them are not-self.
Suddenly, the mind became absolutely
still. Having concluded unequivocally that everything wihtut exception is
not-self, it had no room to maneuver. The mind came to rest – impassive and
still. It had no interest in self or not-self, no interest in satisfaction or
dissatisfaction, brightness or dullness. The mind resided at the center,
neutral and placid. It appeared inattentive; but, in truth, it was fully aware.
The mind was simply suspended in a still, quiescent condition.
Then, from that neutral,
impassive state of mind, the nucleus of
existence – the core of the knower- suddenly separated and fell away. Having
finally been stripped of all self-identity, brightness and dullness and everything
else were suddenly torn asunder and destroyed once and for all.
In the moment, when the mind’s fundamental
delusion flipped over and fell away, the sky appeared to come crashing down as
the entire universe trembled and quaked. When all delusion separated and
vanished from the mind, it seemed as if the entire world had fallen away and
vanished along with it. Earth, sky – all collapsed in an instant.
On May 15th of that
year, the 9-year prediction from my earlier vision was fully realised. I
finally reached the island of safety in the middle of the great wide ocean.
- Extracted from “Samana – Luanta Maha Boowa” copyright
by Bhikku Dick Silaratano, published by Forest Dhamma Books. 2011.
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