Untitled : หน้า 89/163

and monks. The left-hand room contained nuns and laywomen (upāsikā). Luang Phaw had a place at the front of the building, on the right-hand side next to the partition. Luang Phaw gave instructions for the meditation group through a slit in the wall allowing the upāsikā to hear his words without being able to see the speaker. Again, the entrances to the two sides of the room were separate. Luang Phaw designated that this hall be used by meditators, for twenty-four hours-a-day, seven-days-a-week. The abbot selected only the most gifted of the meditators. Their 'brief' was to devote their lives to the investigation of the spiritual world that lies beyond the path to Dhammakāya. The workshop meditators gave up everything — even their own free-time. They had almost no time to sleep, especially Luang Phaw who had to keep up his public appearances for the general welfare of the temple. During the War, Luang Phaw divided his gifted meditators into two shifts. They would take alternate turns at sitting for twelve hours of meditation each day, six hours at a time, from midnight to 6.00 a.m., 6.00 a.m. to noon, noon to 6.00 p.m. and 6.00 p.m. to midnight. After the War, Luang Phaw began to deploy three teams in six shifts — each shift of four hours’ duration. Each shift had its own leader — chosen by Luang Phaw for their discipline. When changing shifts, the incoming meditators would arrive half-an-hour early to ‘warm up’ their minds and benefit from the spiritual energy generated by the outgoing shift. Luang Phaw’s advanced Dhamma teachings were suitable only for those disciples who had accumulated sufficient perfections over the course of many lifetimes. Such teachings were not suitable for everybody, be-