..续本文上一页k to the events just after 4:00 a.m. on October 30, 1983. That same condition of wilderness returned for a moment in Luang Pu”s room, for although he was seriously ill there wasn”t a single nurse, not a single drop of saline solution anywhere around. There were simply Luang Pu”s monastic students circled around him, as if protecting his total freedom to put down his body in a death that left no traces — completely pure, quiet, and calm.
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110. Even the timing was apt
The Buddha had searched for the truth for six years, and when he gained Awakening, he did so at the approach of dawn, i.e., after 4:00 a.m. Having gained Awakening, he taught for another 45 years, using the period after 4:00 a.m. each day to spread his awareness to see whom he should teach the next day. When the time came for his total nibbana, he chose the same time of day.
A bundle of fabrications that had arisen on October 4, 1888 in Praasaat Village, Surin province, grew and developed in stages, conducting his life in a way that was admirable and right. He remained in the ochre robe to the end of his days, practicing in an exemplary fashion, truly an "unexcelled field of merit for the world." He worked in a consummate way for his own true benefit and for the true benefit of others until October 30, 1983. That”s when Luang Pu dropped his body at 4:13 a.m. — just like that.
What was amazing was that his students — lay and ordained, city dwellers and forest dwellers — had already gathered to make merit in celebration of the beginning of Luang Pu”s 96th year, the completion of his eighth twelve-year cycle, as if in full preparation for this event.
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111. No bad karma with regard to the body
It was only then that I understood what Luang Pu had meant when he said that he had no bad karma with regard to the body.
For even though he had reached his 96th year, his body was strong, spry, clean, and calm. Always fully mindful and alert, he suffered no senility or forgetful lapses at all.
When the time came for him to die, he died quietly with no signs of pain or difficulty. He caused no trouble, mental or physical, for those who were looking after him: no waste of doctors, no waste of medicine, no waste of anyone”s time.
In the midst of the stillness near dawn, free of the noise of people or traffic — even the leaves of the trees were still, the air was cool, with a gentle drizzle falling like snow — Luang Pu, a member of the pure, noble Sangha, dropped his body, leaving us with only his virtues to remember and miss in a way that will know no end.
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Glossary
Ajaan (Pali: acariya): Teacher; mentor.
Appana samadhi: Fixed penetration, the strongest level of concentration.
Arahang (Pali: araham): Worthy; pure. An epithet for the Buddha.
Brahma: Literally, a "great one." A deva inhabiting one of the highest celestial realms. The Brahma attitudes are four qualities of mind that enable one to become a brahma after death: good will, compassion, appreciation, and equanimity.
Buddho: Awake; enlightened. An epithet for the Buddha.
Deva: Literally, a "shining one." A terrestrial spirit or an inhabitant of one of the many heavens.
Dhamma (dharma): Event; phenomenon; the way things are in and of themselves; their inherent qualities; the basic principles underlying their behavior. Also, principles of behavior that human beings ought to follow so as to fit in with the right natural order of things; qualities of mind they should develop so as to realize the inherent quality of the mind in and of itself. By extension, "Dhamma" is…
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