Point 8
A Teacher Who Pointed the Way to True Peace
“It’s you whom Luang Por Wat Paknam asked me to find.”
Khun Yai answered simply, "They do. Heaven and hell exist. I have been there. I went there to help my father."
When Luang Por Dhammajayo met Khun Yai for the first time, Khun Yai was 53 years old. Physically, she looked like just an ordinary, slender nun. However, determination, strength, power, kindness and compassion radiated from her personality. Upon first seeing him, Khun Yai greeted Luang Por Dhammajayo by saying, “It is you whom Luang Por (later called Luang Pu) Wat Paknam asked me to find.” At first, Luang Por Dhammajayo did not understand what Khun Yai was talking about.
On the first day of meditation with Khun Yai, Luang Por Dhammajayo asked a question: “Do heaven and hell exist?” Khun Yai answered in a simple, matter-of-fact tone, “They do. Heaven and hell exist. I have been there to help my father. My father had gone to hell, because he had drunk alcohol every day. In my meditation, I kept my mind at the center of the Dhammakaya to help and send him to heaven. Do you want to go there? I can teach you. Then, we can go together.”
Khun Yai’s answer was different from every answer Luang Por Dhammajayo had ever heard, leading him to believe that Khun Yai must have really been there and seen it for herself. Being designated by Luang Pu Wat Paknam as second to none in terms of meditation, going to heaven and hell was certainly not difficult for Khun Yai as this was a routine task for the meditators in the Advanced Dhammkaya Meditation Workshop.
Even though Khun Yai had not gone to school and, consequently, could not read or write, she was still able to answer the most profound Dhamma questions, in a way that brightened the mind of those who asked thus enabling them to contemplate and become detached from worldly attractions. On the day Luang Por Dhammajayo met Khun Yai, he immediately felt that he had found the teacher he had been looking for all along. Therefore, he committed himself to being Khun Yai’s disciple with full confidence.