Meetings with a Dhamma Master : หน้า 18/164

Meetings with a Dhamma Master the greatest possible goodness to humanity, the destruction of Mara, which is the behind-the-scenes influential power of evil in existence. For Christians, I suppose, this would be the same as destroying or nullifying Satan. Luang Por, "It works like this. Our boss is our mind. Our mind is not so clear. We must practice clarifying our mind. We must clarify our own mind first. Each mind must become clear in order to help. Kilesa is within your mind. We must clear our own mind and then we will be able to stop Mara. Each person must do this for himself or herself. We must always work on ourselves before we try to work on others." Then Jon says, "Do you think that Jesus and Buddha are in the same place, talking to one another?" Luang Por actually looks surprised at the question, "If our minds are refined enough, we all can communicate on the same plane. The inside core, our true self, is the Dhammakaya, or body of enlightenment. Each core is unique because each person is unique. Therefore, Jesus and Buddha do not have the same Dhammakaya body. Because the Buddha and the Arahants do not have defilements, their Dhammakaya body is brighter, happier – and the brightness of the Dhammakaya body depends on the clarity of each mind. Through meditation, each person can see this for him or herself. And that is exactly why meditation is so important!" Our "chat" has lasted about three hours. When we wind down with the questions, he smiles. And then says, "We will save the other questions for the next time." My eyes immediately avert to the people in the room and silently think, "Did I hear that correctly? Did he just say 'Next time?' Can anyone verify that for me?" No one is looking at me, however. They are all just looking at Luang Por and smiling. We pay our respects to him as he rises, adjusts his robes in a wave, looks at each of us with a twinkle of his eye, and leaves the room. Feeling as though the sunshine has just left, I sit there for a few minutes bathing in the atmosphere of the Ashram. Although I am not so sure I want a "next time", I revel in the experience of being taught by someone so knowledgeable, and so willing to talk about the Dhamma. Lucky us, I think, as I look around the room at the people who are now leaving. 5 Parts of this chapter are Copyrighted, 2010, *Finding Buddha*, Shires Press, Manchester, Vermont.