“Hmm… If I am to answer with honesty, even though I am known as a teacher with
many respected disciples, and some even consider me to have attained the highest
truth, until this day, I have not felt that highest state. I probably need to spend more
time in practice,” Master Bavari said, still lying on his bed.

“How much longer do you think it will take, Master?” Achita asked.

“My greatest desire is to not be reborn again. Nirvana is the highest state. I cannot say
when such a state will occur for me. I will consider this path as my destination in every
lifetime,” Master Bavari replied.

“Where do you think the state of Nirvana is located, Master?” Achita continued to ask.

“It must be somewhere, a perfect state, a place free from impurities. And the mind that
goes there must be free from all impurities consisting of defilements. One who goes
there must possess pure morality, must be free from sin, free from the dust of karma.
Therefore, I must hasten to bring about that purity.”

“And how do you think that purity arises, Master?” he asked further.

“You ask as if you don’t know. Have you forgotten that… it is the noble conduct
consisting of morality? All ascetics must strictly observe it, mustn’t they?” Master
Bavari countered.

“I know, Lord. I only want to emphasize what you understand,”

“Maintaining the Uposatha precepts throughout life is to close off the opportunity for
us to create sin, which causes defilement or impurity,” Bavari emphasized.

“Master… if what you have adhered to and practiced has not allowed you to reach your
goal at this moment, have you ever wondered if there might be something wrong? I
have one last question. What is the most important thing to purify?”

“Both body and mind, but the most important is the mind,” Master Bavari replied.

“Since you are certain that the most important thing is the mind, or the purity of the
mind, and you know that in reality, the ‘mind’ is what has the ability to think and feel, is
what you can determine yourself, but if you do not yet feel that purity, how much
longer will you have to search for that purity? Like the little firefly in the night, not
seeing its own light. And when you truly realize that you are that purity and you
already ‘are’ that purity, you will be able to ‘be’ immediately without going through any
training.”

“You mean we all are already Nirvana?”

“That is absolutely correct, Lord. But Nirvana is the state that is the result. The method
is that you must realize that you are Buddha, you are that highest purity first. When
you realize this, you no longer need to run after that purity,” Achita replied.

“I understand now…” Vajiravit exclaimed after listening quietly.

“I congratulate you, Vajira, that you are now known as one who knows the truth, or
knows the Dharma. From now on, please prove this knowing to be true, because it will
lead you to discover many wonderful things,” Achita turned to speak to Vajiravit.

“Thank you very much, Achita, for letting me know about this.”

“Vajira, you understand? How did you do it? What made you understand? Tell me,”
Master Bavari asked.

“This is not about doing or practicing, Lord. I think it is more about the decision to fully
understand this matter. When I understood and made the decision, it caused me to
exclaim,” Vajira said.

“That’s right. And from now on, it will be like starting to see things anew. From now on,
when you do anything, say anything, think anything, it will always be based on this
knowing. For example,

You will not give more faith to anyone than to yourself. At the same time, you will see
that everyone is important and equal. You will not transgress in body, speech, or mind
against anyone, especially spiritual transgression that comes from making them have
faith in us. We will know that everyone is a brother and sister, with the same worth and
meaning. And you will decide to do everything correctly, without hesitation or doubt,
because we know that in reality, we are all the same Buddha-mind, the same pure
mind,” Achita explained.

“Master, please don’t think I am teaching you, Lord. But this is not the time for us to
cling to those concepts anymore. We are all spirits that have come to share
experiences. We have no gender, no age, no lifespan, no status. I firmly believe that we
all came to know this. Just decide that you are Nirvana, you are Atman, you are the pure
soul, you are Buddha, you are the original, untainted soul. Change the mindset from
‘will be’ to feeling ‘you are.’ The distance will become closeness, merging into one
immediately, because in reality, we ‘are’ that already,” Achita explained.

“I understand now… I know now…” Master Bavari exclaimed with excitement, and tears
of joy flowed out.

“I rejoice with you, Lord,” Achita said, holding Master Bavari’s hand with a joyful smile.
As soon as Achita held his hand, he cried heavily, as if it were not crying from joy.

“Master, is there something on your mind?” Achita asked.

“I am very happy to know this before I die, but that happiness is still less than the
sadness that arises at the same time,” Master Bavari said with a trembling voice.

“What are you sad about, Master?” Vajiravit asked.

“I am sad that I know this too late, because I will not have enough time to use the
wisdom that arises during facing various situations to purify my soul, to make it pure
and untainted. Now, I should be in the final stage of my life. If I had known this when I
was young like you, I would have had time to create many good things to arise in this
world and have time to rejoice in the work of the Buddha-mind, the work of the spirit
that I just discovered a few moments ago. I feel so regretful for the time I have spent. I
feel ashamed for leading you to do such useless things. I apologize to all of you, please
forgive me,” Master Bavari said with a trembling voice, and after speaking, he cried
again.

“Please don’t blame yourself, Master. It’s all because we didn’t know. Let’s consider it a
joyful thing that we have the opportunity to know today, even though we have wasted a
lot of time,” Achita comforted him.

“I am thinking about the past, when I was a high priest in the capital. Every day, many
things came into my life, meeting people who were conditions for me to make
decisions. Sometimes I inadvertently became angry, hateful, loving, biased. I didn’t see
that they were valuable, didn’t see that they were things that allowed me to learn,
correct, and create new things to appear as beauty. I saw them as suffering, obstacles to
the purity I was seeking, so I had to escape them. I must thank you greatly for making
me see the truth that in reality, those things are tools to test whether I can be truly
pure, whether I can be purity that arises from acting with true purity, purity that arises
from purifying and creating new things, not from escaping. I was so foolish,” Master
Bavari said.