เงื่อนไขการใช้งานบนแพลตฟอร์มดิจิทัล : หน้า 75/163

did as he was told and sat in earnest. He really wanted to attain Dhammakāya. After half-an-hour Bang peeked at Luang Phaw and saw him still sitting unmoved. He closed his eyes again and continued with his meditation. After an hour, he took another peek. His own body was bathed in sweat. Bang persevered. Just after the first hour was up, Bang began to shake. His arms and legs trembled because never before had he sat for extended meditation. Bang opened his eyes and looked up at Luang Phaw. Luang Phaw continued to sit unmoved. Bang was only forty or fifty years old. Luang Phaw was over seventy. Bang made up his mind, seeing the old monk unmoving, serene, with such a bright complexion, devoid of any sign of physical discomfort, to sit for another full hour in spite of the fact that his body was shaking uncontrollably. Suddenly the shaking stopped. Sweat no longer bathed his body. It must have been about half-past-three when Bang overcame his mind. Bang’s dark skin gained a certain radiance. All discomfort ceased. Tension disappeared and his body relaxed. Luang Phaw asked, “Can you see the brightness clearly?” “Sometimes clearly, sometimes not,” replied Bang. “Maintain your mind at a standstill at the seventh base of the mind in the centre of your stomach,” Luang Phaw explained. The rest of the audience who had joined Luang Phaw for meditation had dwindled, leaving only a few old regulars. After a while Bang said that everything was now clearer. Luang Phaw told him to rest his attention at the centre of the clear sphere at the centre of his stomach—that which is called the sphere of pathama magga. A little later Bang asked why he could see