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brought the sermon to an end with the word "evam" and everyone looked for the casualty. Luang Phaw himself had been the target of the shoot­ing. That night an assassin had hidden in the shadows at the front of the pavillion. The bullet had ripped into Luang Phaw's robe and the assassin had made off into the darkness. Luang Phaw remained unmoved. He said, "Such people only strengthen my pursuit of the perfection of patience," and returned to his kuti to change robes. Luang Phaw's robe exhibited two large holes, but miraculously, even though monk's robes are worn snug against the body, his person remained completely unscathed. It was as if the bullet knew the gravity of harming a personality of such importance to humanity, tearing only his robes but refusing even to graze Luang Phaw's body - Luang Phaw's time had not yet come. The police soon arrived on the scene. They took away the tatters of Luang Phaw's robe as evidence and later caught the culprit, a local villain named 'Rod'. Later Luang Phaw was called to testify in court. With the uncommon compassion of this great master, Luang Phaw attended the trial with his usual impartiality and freedom from anger. He even appealed to the magis­trate to lighten the sentence of the accused. The brush with death was only one of many prob­lems. Luang Phaw dealt calmly with the responsibility for reforming the temple with the resolve, "obstacles are to be overcome" and "difficulties are the grist of perfection." "Being a monk," he proclaimed, "I win every battle without even a fight!" The pressure was on for Wat Paknam to change. Luang Phaw made it look as if he didn't know what was going on - he made no unnecessary fuss about