Pure Inspiration

Ven. Ñāṇadīpa Thera – 75
In ‘Spending Time with Venerable Ñāṇavimala’, Hiriko says that
Ñāṇavimala ‘refused to study’ after the first period as a young monk.
That is not so. When he returned from his first cārikā in ’69, he picked
up Warder’s ‘Introduction to Pāli’ (which would not have been
available when he was a new monk) and also some other sutta books.
He also sometimes picked up some sutta books when he was at
Vajiramama (at least in the earlier period).
Guttasīla says in ‘Recollections of Venerable Ñāṇavimala’ that
Ñāṇavimala would walk only ten kilometres a day. This should be
corrected to ten miles. He told me that if he walked longer, the soles
of his feet would get worn out.
I read the article ‘Slowly-Carefully-Mindfully’ in Sinhalese some time
ago and one point has to be corrected. It is related that once
Ñāṇavimala was staying in an arañña (forest monastery) belonging to
a very learned monk. He was given the sīma (area/building designated
for Sangha acts) to stay in. it contained a lot of books that were not
properly arranged. Carefully, he put all the books in order. But before
leaving, he put them all back into the disordered arrangement he had
found them in. The learned Thera supposed that he had done so in
order to teach a lesson. I don’t think so. I heard a similar story from a
monk staying in another arañña. He was given a kuṭi and the first
thing he did was to rearrange all the things that were found in the kuṭi.
Before he left, he put all the things back in the original order. The
monk was amazed at his precise memory. He did so not to teach or
criticize, but for the sake of his own well-being. Things around him
had to be harmoniously ordered. It may have even been his habit to
rearrange things in kuṭis and rooms he was staying in, at least if he