agitation from a sense of despair and my loss of his sheltering influence. Both bodies were subject to the same principle of the Dhamma -- inconstancy -- and followed the teaching that says, 'uppajjitva nirujjhanti': Having been born, they are bound to die. There's no other way it could be. But as for Ven. Acariya Mun, he had taken a path different from that of conventional reality, in line with the teaching, 'tesam vupasamo sukho': In their stilling is ease. He had died in this lifetime, lying still for just this brief span of time so that his students could reflect with resignation on the Dhamma, but from now on he would never be reborn to be a source for his students' tears again. His mind had now separated from becoming and birth in the same way that a rock split into two pieces can never be truly rejoined. So I sat there, reflecting with despair. The problems in my heart that I had once unburdened with him: With whom would I unburden them now? There was no longer anyone who could unburden and erase my problems the way he had. I was left to fend for myself. It was as if he had been a doctor who had cured my illnesses countless times and who was the one person with whom I had entrusted my life -- and now the doctor who had given me life was gone. I'd have to become a beast of the forest, for I