..续本文上一页oderate level: Go deep into the forest alone and meditate in earnest for three months with no worries or responsibilities.

　　c) The highest level: Tie a red cloth around my neck for seven days. In other words, within seven days I would try to do good in one of two ways: (1) attain all of the eight cognitive skills (vijja) to use as tools in my work of spreading the Buddha”s teachings. (2) If I can”t succeed at (1), may I go all the way on the seventh day, at the same time relinquishing my life with no hope of return. Only in this way would I have done with the karma I dreamed about having made with my friends in the past.

　　By the end of 1956 the time for the festival was drawing near, but I had already made some advance preparations, such as producing the "Bodhi leaf" Buddha amulets copied from an image I had seen in Benares when I was traveling through India. I had materials gathered from scores of places: earth from the Buddhist holy places in India; fragments of votive tablets once cached away in old chedis, donated by friends and followers from various provinces — Lopburi, Phitsanuloke, Phijit, Sukhothai, Suphanburi, Ayutthaya, Phetchabun, Songkhla, Ubon Ratchathani, Thaad Phanom district and Bangkok. I had fragments of ancient Buddha images from Prajinburi and ancient lustral water made by wise men in the past. These I mixed into a paste along with powdered dried flowers and ashes of burnt paper on which Dhamma passages had been written.

　　Using this paste we cast two types of images by (1) pressing the paste into a mould and then allowing it to dry; (2) mixing the paste with clay, pressing it into a mould and baking it in a kiln. I thought to myself, "We”re going to have to produce at least one million images." When we were finished at the end of the rains in 1956, we counted to see how many we had. Altogether there were more than 1,100,000.

　　Late one night when it was quiet, a strange vision appeared to me. I was sitting pressing Buddha images from a mould when a relic of the Buddha came and displayed a sign over my bed. It was similar to the Bodhi leaf image I was making, but the image I was making represented the Buddha delivering the Dhammacakka sermon — i.e., with both hands raised. But in the vision, the Buddha had both hands in his lap. I had a new mould made patterned after the vision and named it the "Bodhicakka." I still have this relic with me, and haven”t yet enshrined it. Later another relic the shape of a Buddha image sitting in meditation came as well. This I also still have with me.

　　Another time, when I had been sitting in meditation at Lopburi, in the quiet just before dawn, another Buddha relic had appeared; and at around 5 a.m. a statuette of King Asoka made of dark, pinkish gray cut glass came falling down in front of me, so I sketched a copy of it. This, too, I still have with me.

　　After a number of strange events like this had occurred, I called together the monks who were my closest disciples and announced, "We”re going to have to hold the festival celebrating 25 centuries of Buddhism right here in Wat Asokaram." I came to this final decision right then, during the middle of the rains, 1956.

　　Once I had made my decision, I checked to see how much money was in my account. There turned out to be a little more than 200 baht. Nevertheless, I made orders to begin construction: putting up temporary shelters, making ceremonial umbrellas, etc. As soon as we set to work, contributions started coming in. When we had finished two shelters, our money ran out. At the time, I had gone to Chanthaburi. When I returned to Wat Asokaram, Police Colonel Luang Wiraded Kamhaeng came to inform me, "We”re almost all out of money, Than Phaw. Where are we going to get more

　　"

　　I laid out the following plans for the festival:

　　"I.…

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