sustenance to the Lord Buddha each first Sunday of the month. In a small cabinet next to where she sat to receive guests were various sorts of medicines she would dispense to those who came to her with medical problems. The medicine bottles were arranged in neat lines. Almost in the centre of the room there was the so-called 'headless' pillar which didn't quite reach the ceiling. The third storey (or second floor of the house) was like a landing one metre higher than the first floor. The second floor was in fact the ceiling of the downstairs kitchen which had been made high enough to stand up in.
Early in the day, at 04.00 a.m. she would get up early to meditate for herself until breakfast time. At about 08.30 a.m. she would sit again for meditation, but this time in order to teach others. Whether the people attending were many or few, she would teach meditation. No matter who was visiting her that morning, she had a stock phrase which she always used:
"If you're in no particular hurry, put aside your other commitments. Let's sit and clarify our minds for a moment and *then* talk."
Newcomers would agree to meditate reluctantly. Most of the people who came to visit her in those days were middle-aged people with their own families. Most were of working age. She used thirty years of meditation experience to teach others to meditate. Some of her visitors who had a baseline of virtue in their lives and who had some experience of meditation with the Great Abbot attained inner brightness of mind immediately with her. Finally, if those people needed any advice from her, she would