“One night while he (Ajaan Khao) was sitting in samãdhi bhãvanã, his citta dropped down into a subtle state of calm and reached the ground of samãdhi. It remained there resting for a long time before withdrawing to the level of upacãra samãdhi, where a nimitta arose in his citta and he saw the whole earth whirling round like a wheel. The more closely he examined that nimitta, the faster it went round, as though the earth and sky were about to collapse. He felt as though he was floating just above the ground and moving along parallel with the earth, though he wasn’t actually walking. In the nimitta it seemed that his body was floating along the caçkama path he normally used. It floated back and forth many times before it stopped. As soon as it stopped, a light appeared. It seemed to shine down from the sky above and enter into his heart, enabling him to see all the parts within his body quite clearly. He became engrossed in examining the various parts within his body, contemplating them in terms of the ‘basis for the seeing of their loathsomeness’ and in terms of the ‘three characteristics’, and the heart was joyful and bright with wisdom, faith and fearless determination.
He discovered many skilful ways and methods for extracting various kinds of kilesas, methods that came to him continually throughout that retreat period. During that vassa he practised with great energy and enthusiasm and he under¬stood things very clearly. He experienced none of the sombre moods that had troubled him often in the past. Instead, there was a firm resolve in the direction of samãdhi, and a clever skilfulness and nimbleness in the direction of mindfulness and wisdom, those two friends of a heart that’s striving relentlessly in every posture…
At the stage that Ajaan Khao had reached, all of his Dhamma weapons were becoming very powerful as they shone forth brightly. They really enjoyed digging up the kilesas, pulling them out and tearing them to pieces quite ruthlessly. It seems that the firmness of his intention to gain that realm where there is freedom from dukkha steadily gained strength until his striving reached a point of urgency where the practice was a matter of life and death. Whatever was good would remain, whatever was bad must be destroyed without any regrets. Birth and death are barbs and thorns which the kilesas always stab into the heart, where they have been the ruling power for countless ages. But they were longer allowed to have any power to rule, for from then on it was to be the supremely excellent pure Dhamma which alone had power to rule over the heart. Dhamma now ruled the heart where Ajaan Khao previously let the kilesas and the ‘wheel of saÿsãra’ rule. Instead of Dhamma being driven away and losing out to the kilesas every time, he refused to have the kilesas in his heart anymore.
After that vassa period, he left that place to go wandering in the Kammaååhãna way wherever he felt like going. He went to stay near a forest village in Chiang Mai province where a small hut had been built. In the past, Dhutanga Kammaååhãna Bhikkhus had stayed there to work at their practice, but now it was abandoned. It was a very peaceful and quiet place, far away from the village, so he stayed there to develop his practice. One day it started raining heavily in the middle of the day, so he could not go out to walk caçkama. He closed the door, the windows and the wall, and he sat in bhãvanã on the floor of the hut, which was raised well above the ground. While he was sitting doing meditation, it seemed to him that a red-hot burning pipe had been stuck into his butt. It stopped for awhile and then came up again. So he turned to investigate what it was all about. As soon as his citta turned to focus on the cause of the hot pipe which was burning him, he realised that the fire was actually the heat of sexual desire appearing from beneath his hut. He knew that it did not come from his own heart. He checked his investigation thoroughly and confirmed that it was in fact the fire of rãgataçhã coming from underneath his hut, for in his own citta there was absolutely no sign of rãgataçhã at all.
The whole time he was engaged in investigating this fire, he never paused to wonder where this fire came from. He was merely reflecting internally trying to work out in his heart: “How has this blaze of rãga been able to cling onto me? I have no fixed attachment to or desire for any man or woman, so my heart is normal – no rãga has arisen in it.” Every day when he went on piõðapãta in the village, he went fully self-controlled, having mindfulness present to watch cautiously every aspect and phase of all those emotional biases which had been enemies of the citta. His heart could never find any aspect of rãgataçhã that could be an emotional bias. When that ‘fire’ had calmed down and no longer showed itself, he opened his eyes and rose from his meditation seat, by which time the rain had stopped. Looking behind him, he saw a woman come out from under his hut and walk away. This made him connect the fire that had burned him with the woman who was just then walking away from under his hut. He realised then that the woman probably had bad thoughts about him, which caused that incident to happen. It’s something that he would never have imagined possible.
Actually that woman was quite young, about 25 years old, and most likely unmarried. She was probably out gathering edible plants or firewood, for she was carrying a basket. As she approached his hut it started to rain heavily, so she quickly took shelter under the hut until the rain stopped, after which she came out and walked away. When Ajaan Khao looked out the window, which was covered by a straw mat with many gaps in it, he could see the woman quite clearly.
When telling this story to the Bhikkhus and novices on suitable occasions, Ajaan Khao never implied that he was blaming or criticising the woman at all. He simply used the story of this woman as an example to explain to them about the flow of the citta. Whether focused externally or internally, it is something so subtle that we are normally unaware of it. It is only the process of investigation in the manner of the practice of citta bhãvanã that enables us to gradually come to know such things. He said that his citta was in a very subtle state at that time, and his mindfulness and wisdom were fast enough to keep up with such happenings. They were not as slow as they used to be when he first started to train himself, so when the rãga within his citta suddenly became active his mindfulness kept up with it, but his wisdom was still not able to cut it off at that stage. Later on, the ability of mindfulness and wisdom that he trained relentlessly reached the point where rãga could not stand against it, so it was bound to break up and disperse from the heart in a clearly evident way.
He felt at that stage that his striving was progressing very quickly and fearlessly. When performing the regular morning and evening chanting, he did it in a brief form, for his mind was in a hurry to get on to striving with mindfulness and wisdom. He even stopped reciting the various sutta texts, which he previously chanted, in order to put all his effort into developing his mindfulness and wisdom so as to gain freedom as quickly as possible while there was still time. He was afraid that he would die before he got to his desired goal – the Arahatta-dhamma.”
~ Ajaan Mahã Boowa Ñãõasampanno, Venerable Ajaan Khao Analayo, A True Spiritual Warrior
"Khao Khorata, born in 1888 in Baan Bo Chaneng in Ubon Ratchathani province in Thailand. Khao was a farmer. He worked hard to be wealthy, and was known as a person who was easy in social interaction. His personality was primarily characterised by honesty and generosity towards friends and family.
When he reached the age of twenty, his parents arranged a marriage for him. Khao and his wife – Nang Mee – had seven children. Though he had to work hard in order to provide for his family, yet his income was just enough to provide them with the basic necessities of life. Hence, for the sake of his family’s well being, he decided to go and look for a job in another province. Once he had gathered sufficient funds, he would return back home. However, when that time finally arrived, Khao found his wife sleeping with someone else.
Though Khao had previously already been informed by his friends, who told him about the adulterous behavior of his wife, yet he nearly lost his self control when he heard the news. Hence, armed with a machete, he went out to confront the unlawful couple. His rage and anger took complete control over him, and so he pointed the machete at the sleeping couple. However, coincidentally, his wife’s lover noticed what was going on, and saw Khao standing at a short distance with the machete in his hands. Terrified by what he saw, he immediately raised his hands and begged Khao to spare his life. The man then instantly admitted the grave mistake he had made to sleep with another man’s wife. Due to the man’s sincere confession, Khao suddenly changed his mind. His anger turned into compassion when he saw the anxiety in that man’s eyes. When Khao saw that man’s fear of death, his anger disappeared, and he regained his sense of reality again.
So, instead of killing the man, Khao called upon all the villagers as a witness to this scandal, and let them testify against the shameless act of the couple, so that in the future no doubt could remain about this matter. In the presence of the entire village community, among them were Khao’s relatives, he publicly accused the man of committing sex with his wife; the man admitted his faults, and agreed to pay a financial compensation to Khao. Khao then publicly announced that he hereby handed his wife over to her lover.
Before all this happened, Khao was merely concerned about how he could achieve his worldly ambitions. But because of the martital unfaithfulness of his wife, Khao was inspired to contemplate the Dhamma. Soon after that he understood that there are many hidden dangers in the life of a householder. And so he realized that his worldly dreams and wishes would only cause him to suffer even more in the future. This insight, of course, upset him so much until it became almost unbearable for him to carry on living this way. After a while he had lost the will to live, for he could not find any motivation to get his worldly life back on track.
Eventually Khao decided to renounce his worldly life in order to put an end to all his suffering. The Dhamma made him realize that there is in fact a way out of this suffering. Thus, Khao put all his trust and faith in the teachings of the Buddha, and went forth as a member of the saṅgha to put the Dhamma into practice. Through his dilligent practice, he found that the Buddha’s teachings are true in the sense that there is indeed a way to transcend beyond samsara, which leads to final liberation from suffering."
~ dharmathai.com
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