Vipassana Meditation Master
Acharavadee Wongsakon
About five months ago, I bought a large Chiang Mai rose, about 60 cm tall, with many branches and nine beautiful orange blossoms. When I first brought it home, I looked at it with a joyful heart. After the flowers fell, I waited for it to bloom again. I waited and waited… and then it became just waiting. The most it ever produced was two small, shy little flowers.
Then I became busy with work, so busy I can’t even remember what I was doing. By the time I noticed it again, the rose had already died. Fungus had eaten it from the roots all the way to the tip.
When I reflected on this, I saw the truth. After I brought the rose home, I never truly cared for it. I only told the housekeeper to water it morning and evening. I never loosened the soil, never added fertilizer, and it never once saw the sun. The sunlight had changed direction, and no one noticed. And with the soil always damp… eventually, it simply returned to nature.
Neglect, just not paying attention, is enough to kill even something precious.
Letting fungus eat an entire plant is just like receiving the Dhamma, something so difficult to gain, and then abandoning it, not caring for it. The Dhamma declines, and our lives decline along with it.
For someone to overcome their own mind, to leave comfort or work behind in order to practice Vipassana meditation for eight days and seven nights, or even Anapanasati meditation course for four days and three nights, this is already a great victory over the Impurity Force. It is the first, important step that uncovers the merit and spiritual strength long buried within us, preparing us to go beyond all suffering.
But when we receive the Dhamma – this priceless jewel – and then let it be buried again under the dirt of the Impurity Force, it’s no different from letting a precious flower be swallowed by fungus until nothing is left.
The mind and a tree are the same. Both are part of nature. So we must take good care of our own mind. Keep checking the body and mind, seeing the conditions around us, so we stay attentive and careful in protecting the precious jewel in our hands.
It takes a lot for us to decide to enter meditation. Each of us has had to break through many obstacles. We must not forget that day: the day we broke every wall inside our hearts. And we must not let the hard-earned Dhamma slip away.
I am the same. When I found a new path in life, I had to support my mind gently until I became clear about how I wanted to live the rest of my life. That clarity led to a major change in my life’s direction. My spiritual partner had only one request: “Please don’t cut your hair.” They wanted me to keep it long, because in a world full of roughness and impurity, long hair brings a gentle feeling. I promised I wouldn’t cut it.
But when my mind could no longer tolerate my own hair, I tied it up high on my head, focused my mind, and snipped. One clean cut. Instantly, all the irritation disappeared. I had already cut the hair in the energy dimension. What remained on my head was only to honor my promise, and it became my Vipassana-teacher uniform.
From that day on, I never let my hair grow long again. Whenever certain elders asked me to let it down so they could see me “like before”. But no matter how they asked, I never did it. My level of life had changed. Even though I remained in the role they recognized, in truth, we were living in different worlds. I wanted to show them that I was no longer that old person. The refusal to let down my hair was my way of saying: the mind in this body is a new mind.
When we have a clear goal, it doesn’t matter where the impacts or pressures come from. If the mind is steady, we will always find a truthful, stable way to walk the path we’ve chosen.
For those with spiritual potential, the biggest obstacle is an unsteady mind; one that wavers, hesitates, and keeps finding excuses to avoid commitment. That is why the spiritual realm looks so empty, while the worldly realm is crowded and restless. Some people climb for ages, aeons even – but they still fall back to the same place because they keep making excuses and letting the mind waver.
During a short break from my spiritual duties, I returned to receive the energy of nature again. I want to share a small story about a dwarf Holland rose I found by chance. I loved its color. It looked like the sunrise at the meditation center. When I brought it home, wanting to be “free” for a moment, I turned toward healing my own energy.
After my previous mistake, I wanted to take good care of this new plant. Since it was a cool-climate plant, I used cold water instead of warm hose water. I filled three large pitchers with water and kept them in the fridge just for watering it. I added fertilizer, trimmed the old blooms, and in the evenings I dropped ice cubes into the soil.
After only a few days, it stood tall and began producing beautiful new blossoms. But because I opened the fridge so often, it started producing less ice. So I went and bought a small ice maker just for this. You could say I was very serious about it.
Whenever I watered the plants, I talked to it. When I saw new buds, I praised them, “Good job, good job… really amazing.” Sometimes I asked, “Do you like the cold water? Here you go. Nice and cold. Give me lots of flowers, okay?”
Later, when I turned most of the backyard into a Hollandrose garden, the old Chiang Mai rose finally bloomed again. Butthe new flowers didn’t lift their heads. They bent downward likesomeone sulking. It made me laugh. Actually, the rose wasn’tjealous of the newcomers. In terms of energy frequency, itsimply couldn’t handle the strong field created by the Europeanroses. The cool, gentle “Chiang Mai girl” couldn’t quite competewith the bold Holland varieties. She looked shy, embarrassed,and overwhelmed. So I gave her extra attention to help heradjust to her new friends.
Every plant has its own nature, its own vibration – auspicious or not – depending on its frequency. It’s no different from the spirit of human beings.
Roses are known for their beauty and uplifting quality. They are auspicious because when you see them, your heart brightens. This is different from certain plants that look eerie or confusing. You don’t know how to feel about them. A rose that blooms consistently shows the strength of its nature. With steady care, that strength grows even more.
Meditators are the same. A meditator with discipline has a strong inner force, something the world may overlook, but the Dhamma honors. That strength supports the building of spiritual perfection.
Any student who practices with discipline is capable. On the day your meditation becomes steady, if you faintly hear me say “Good job, good job”, don’t be surprised. Even though those words may have been spoken to a flower, your natural mind will receive them too.
“Good job… good job… really amazing.”
For meditators, you don’t need to bloom like flowers.
Just let your practice burn like a flame.
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