Caves

During my time at Wat Kow Chin Laa, I spent a lot of time in the caves for the first 6 weeks; after that, the rains came and the caves became rather too damp to stay in.

But caves really are good in the hot season. They are cool and silent, except for the bats, and a lot of them are quite dark inside, so that one needs a flashlight or a candle.

I found sometimes that a lot of nimittas arose, sometimes sound nimittas, but generally they were of little consequence.

Large, dark caves have a rather odd and eerie quality about them. We are familiar with rooms that have four walls, but caves have no familiar pattern about them: the floor, walls and roof being at all angles and shapes with odd holes and caverns in them.

It takes some time before one’s citta will settle down and accept this unfamiliarity and insecurity. Caves give one a feeling of vastness, emptiness and silence – and also timelessness, for one knows that unlike a building, the rocks of a cave were formed millions of years ago, and the whole of that area was under the sea at one time.

All of which helps one to feel insignificant and inspires one to contemplate anicca.

This reflection by Ajaan Paññāvaḍḍho is from the book, Dear Jane–Wisdom from the Forest for an English Buddhist, (pdf) pp. 174-175.