The Dark Side of Ajahn Mun's Biography
Ajahn Mun dark
Did Ajahn Mun say the Buddha congratulated him on the night he attained arahant? His biography books says it for sure.
Venerable Ācariya Mun Būridatta Thera is one of the most revered forest masters of the 20th century. He is the root guru of both the Dhammayut and Ajahn Chah monasteries. He popularized the monastic practice of living under an umbrella in the forest and his relentless energy is fascinating and inspiring. Although I quote controversial words from the book written about him, I still find his “way of life” inspiring. It is also not proven 100% that these are really the words of Ajahn Mun. On the other hand, I don’t believe his biographer would lie or is lying.
The biographical book on this great forest master is regarded as the Thai Forest Bible. It was written by Venerable Ācariya Mahã Boowa Ñãṇasampanno, the heir and leader of the Dhammayut sect who passed away not so long ago. He was a direct disciple of Ajahn Mun and publicly claimed to be fully enlightened. If you didn’t believe him, he would say you were just someone who read books, and didn’t practice meditation. Below is a quote from Ajahn Mun:
On the nights subsequent to Ãcariya Mun’s attainment of vimutti, a
number of Buddhas, accompanied by their Arahant disciples, came to
congratulate him on his vimuttidhamma. One night, a certain Buddha,
accompanied by tens of thousands of Arahant disciples, came to visit;
the next night, he was visited by another Buddha who was accompanied
by hundreds of thousands of Arahant disciples. Each night a different
Buddha came to express his appreciation, accompanied by a different
number of Arahant disciples. Ãcariya Mun stated that the number of
accompanying Arahant disciples varied according to each Buddha’s
relative accumulation of merit – a factor that differed from one Buddha
to the next.
You will surely not find any Theravāda scholar endorsing this quote. Further information can be found in this article here: “Does The Buddha Live In Nibbāna?”.
In either case, the other parts of the book leading up to this quote are very inspiring. The monastic way of life in some of the monasteries which continue with this legacy are inspiring too. So there is no need to throw the baby out with the bath water.
Links Below:
1. http://www.forestdhamma.org/ebooks/english/pdf/Acariya_Mun__A_Spiritual_Biography.pdf
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