Ajahn Karuniko | |
Question: You met him again? Answer: Well, after he went away to the States, I saw him at Oakenholt; they had a big ordination at Oakenholt. I went up to say Hello, and he held my hand and talked to me a little bit—very friendly. That’s how I saw him, and then he went away. The next time I saw him I was a monk. I saw him at his kuti when he was in this wheelchair, and I pushed his wheelchair around the kuti. That was the last time I saw him. Question: How did you feel when you saw him and he couldn’t speak, couldn’t talk? Answer: Well, it was interesting, because from the front, his mouth was like this (illustrates physically), but when I was pushing him around, from the back it was as though ... it felt like he was smiling. The feeling was, if you didn’t know, you’d think there was a smiling face—somehow, something about the feel of it was that there’d be a smiling face on the other side of that head. That was a wonderful feeling just to be able to push him around the kuti. I was very grateful to Ajahn Jayasaro for inviting me. He said, “Come on, you can push him around the kuti”. I was so grateful to give something back. That was a very inspiring time for me, meeting him. I was very new to many things in meditation, and just meeting someone like him was a very big inspiration. | |