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Death Watch

Ajaan Chah's Account of the Eleventh Austere Practice

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forest feature winter 1998In late 1947, the great meditation master Ajaan Chah (1918-1992) arrived at Khrong Forest Monastery. He found that if he wanted to stay at this wat, he would have to follow the traditional thudong (dhutanga) practice of dwelling in a cemetery. He forced himself to try.

If I tried to reason with myself I'd never go, so I grabbed a pha-khaw [white-robed novice] and just went…The pha-khaw wanted to camp right next to me but I wouldn't have it…I made him move away, otherwise I'd have counted on him for support. Well, just as it was getting dark…in they came carrying a corpse. I couldn't even feel my feet touch the ground, I wanted to get out of there so badly…they had buried the corpse right next to my spot, making the bamboo used for carrying it into a bed for me to stay on.

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