old-path-white-clouds-thich-nhat-hanh

meditation. After a long final day in the palace and an autumn night spent on the back of a horse, Siddhartha now experienced a marvelous
ease. He sat in meditation to savor and nurture the feeling of release and freedom that had filled him the moment he entered the forest.
Sunlight filtered through the trees and came to rest on Siddhartha’s eyelashes. He opened his eyes and saw standing before him, a monk.
The monk’s face and body were thin and worn by a life of austerities. Siddhartha stood up and joined his palms together in greeting. He
told the monk he had only just abandoned his home and had not yet had the chance to be accepted by any teacher. He expressed his intent
to travel south to find the spiritual center of Master Alara Kalama and there ask to be accepted as a disciple.
The monk told Siddhartha that he himself had studied under Master Alara Kalama and that at present the Master had started a center
just north of the city Vesali. More than four hundred disciples were gathered there for his teaching. The monk knew how to get there and
said he would be glad to take Siddhartha.
Siddhartha followed him through the forest to a path which wound up a hill and entered another forest. They walked until noon, when the
monk showed Siddhartha how to gather wild fruits and edible greens. The monk explained that it was sometimes necessary to dig roots to
eat when there were no edible fruits or greens to be found. Siddhartha knew he would be living in the forests a long time and so he asked
the names of all the edible foods and carefully noted everything the monk told him. He learned that the monk was an ascetic who lived on
nothing but wild fruits, greens, and roots. His name was Bhargava. He told Siddhartha that Master Alara Kalama was not an ascetic and in
addition to wild foraging, his monks begged for food or accepted what was brought as offerings to them from neighboring villages.
Nine days later, they reached the forest center of Alara Kalama, near Anupiya. They arrived as Master Alara was giving a talk to more
than four hundred disciples. He looked about seventy years old and, though he appeared thin and frail, his eyes shone and his voice
resounded like a copper drum. Siddhartha and his companion stood outside the circle of disciples and quietly listened to the Master’s
teaching. When he finished speaking, his disciples scattered throughout the forest to pursue their practice. Siddhartha approached him and
after introducing himself, respectfully said, “Venerable Teacher, I ask you to accept me as one of your disciples. I wish to live and study
under your guidance.”
The master listened and looked intently at Siddhartha, and then expressed his approval. “Siddhartha, I would be happy to accept you.
You may stay here. If you practice according to my teachings and methods, you will realize the teachings in a short time.”
Siddhartha prostrated himself to express his happiness.
Master Alara lived in a straw hut made for him by several of his disciples. Scattered here and there in the forest were the straw huts of
his followers. That night, Siddhartha found a level place to sleep, using a tree root for his pillow. Because he was exhausted from the long
journey, he slept soundly until morning. When he awoke, the sun had already risen and the songs of birds filled the forest. He sat up. The
other monks had finished their morning meditation and were preparing to go down into the city to beg for food. Siddhartha was given a
bowl and shown how to beg.
Following the other monks, he held his bowl and entered the city of Vesali. Holding a bowl to beg for the first time, Siddhartha was
struck by how closely linked the life of a monk was to that of the laity—the monks were dependent on the lay community for food. He
learned how to hold his bowl properly, how to walk and stand, how to receive the food offerings, and how to recite prayers in order to
thank those who made the offerings. That day Siddhartha received some rice with curry sauce.
He returned with his new companions to the forest, and they all sat down to eat. When he had finished, he went to Master Alara to
receive spiritual instruction. Alara was sitting in deep meditation when Siddhartha found him, and so he sat down before the master, quietly
trying to focus his own mind. After a long time, Alara opened his eyes. Siddhartha prostrated himself and asked Master Alara to teach him.
Alara spoke to the new monk about faith and diligence and showed him how to use his breathing to develop concentration. He
explained, “My teaching is not a mere theory. Knowledge is gained from direct experience and direct attainment, not from mental
arguments. In order to attain different states of meditation, it is necessary to rid yourself of all thoughts of past and future. You must focus
on nothing but liberation.”
Siddhartha asked about how to control the body and the sensations, and then respectfully thanked his teacher and walked away slowly
to find a place in the forest where he could practice. He gathered branches and leaves and constructed a small hut beneath a sal tree where
his meditation practice could ripen. He practiced diligently and, every five or six days, he returned to ask Alara’s advice concerning
whatever difficulties he was experiencing. In a short time, Siddhartha made considerable progress.
While sitting in meditation he was able to let go of thoughts and even of clinging to his past and future, and he attained a state of
wondrous serenity and rapture, although he felt the seeds of thought and attachment still present in him. Several weeks later, Siddhartha
reached a higher state of meditation, and the seeds of thought and attachment dissolved. Then he entered a state of concentration in which
both rapture and non-rapture ceased to exist. It felt to him as though the five doors of sense perception had completely closed, and his
heart was as still as a lake on a windless day.
When he presented the fruits of his practice to Master Alara, the teacher was impressed. He told Siddhartha that he had made
remarkable progress in a short time, and he taught Siddhartha how to realize the meditative state called the realm of limitless space, in