The next day Bagyi Thwin and I went to the living room where he usually teaches me mathematics. He was a very strict master but he had a very kind heart. I enjoyed taking lessons from him because he had the knack of explaining difficult things to me in an easy manner. After the lesson in mathematics, he said it was now time for meditation.

Bagyi Thwin opened by saying, "there are three things that you have to keep in mind when you do meditation. First you have to donate your mind and body to the Buddha, the Dhamma and the Shanga. This is for your protection. When you do this you belong to the Buddha and being something that has been donated to the Buddha, all the powerful devas and nats who protect the sasana will give their protection. There are four deva kings who rule the four quarters of this earth. They are King Dathta-rathta, King Virulaka, King Virupekkha and King Kuvera."

"Does that mean that I will not be haunted by ghosts and evil spirits if I do this protection", I asked.

"Yes of course, that is the idea", replied Bagyi Thwin.

"The next thing that you should keep in mind is to fix your attention to the meditation object. You should keep your body still. Do not move unnecessarily. When you do "ana pana" meditation, you have to keep your mind on the in-breath and the out-breath. This breathing will calm you down. The objective is to keep your mind on one object so that your mind will not wander from one thought to the other", he looked at me straight in the face as if expecting an answer from me.

I was dying to ask him a question. How on earth could I do that, I thought to myself. My mind is very restless. It flies from one object to the other. One minute it was thinking of the mosquito that was biting my toes and the next minute it was thinking of the fishing trip that my father had promised me on Sunday. It was just like a small calf tied to a pole. I also wandered how this exercise had anything to do with me gaining super natural powers that would allow me to fly in the air or vanish into thin air at will. How was it possible, I wondered.

'Now now, young man, you seem to be dozing off. Keep alert for there is much work to be done", Bagyi Thwin's words brought me back to the present moment.

"The last thing you have to do is to empty your mind of all other thoughts except the object of meditation. This is to purify your mind. Your mind in the natural state is full of many thoughts. It is full of want, fear, hatred etc. It is full of different types of emotion. Your mind in the pure state is like clear water. All kinds of emotions give color to your mind. You have to try to make your mind clear as water again."

I answered with a heavy heart, "Yes Bagyi Thwin,  I will try. But I can tell you it won't be easy."

'Clear as water, clear as water", I repeated to myself trying to understand what Bagyi Thwin meant to say.

(to be continued)