Editor’s note: Continuing on the Forest Monk theme, I was looking into the followers of Ajahn Mun and came across Ajahn Thate (1902 – 1994), a contemporary of Luang Pu Dune, born in the same geographical area. There is a short e-book: “Steps Along the Path” by Phra Ajaan Thate Desaransi (Phra Rajanirodharansi) translated from the Thai by Thanissaro Bhikkhu in 1994. When Ajahn Thate was active (1930s), the whole of the North – North East of Thailand was a vast area of original forest, stretching across the borders of Burma and Cambodia.
I’ve selected a few paragraphs and excerpts from the book here, that are insightful re: meditation development, in particular one-pointedness:
(2) “… train the mind to develop concentration (samādhi) and absorption (jhāna) through the practice of tranquillity meditation. Once the mind is adept at maintaining a steady focus, we can then develop clear insight (vipassanā) based on an understanding of the Three Characteristics of inconstancy (aniccā), suffering (dukkhā)), and (anattā) not-self. This will lead us to pure knowledge and vision of things as they actually are, and thus to release from all things detrimental and defiling.
3. For Buddhism, the true aim in developing concentration and absorption is to gather one’s mental energies and make them steady and strong in a single point. This then forms the basis for the knowledge and discernment capable of gaining true insight into all conditions of nature and eliminating all that is detrimental and defiling from the heart. Thus, stillness of mind is developed not simply for other, external purposes, such as the various fields of science. Instead, it’s meant specifically for use in cleansing the heart of such defilements as the five Hindrances (nivarana) But when you have practiced to the point of proficiency, you can use your stillness of mind in any way you like, as long as that use isn’t detrimental to yourself or to others.
4. In training the mind — which is a mental phenomenon — there is tutoring, first by listening to the explanations of those who are already skilled. Followed by a determination to practice in line with those explanations, basing your initial efforts on a sense of trust and conviction if your own independent explorations into cause and effect don’t succeed.
By and large, people who start out by exploring cause and effect on their own don’t reach their desired goal because they lack the proper approach. They miss the true path, tending instead to be biased in favor of their own opinions. To develop first a sense of trust in the individual giving the training and in the practices in which one is being trained until the mind is firm and unwavering, and then to begin exploring and figuring things out, in line with the way they really are: This is what will give satisfactory results.
This is because any beginning exploration of cause and effect is usually a matter of looking at things from the outside, following external influences — i.e., “This person says that… That person says this.” But to investigate and explore cause and effect exclusively within the bounds of the body — i.e., “What is this body of mine made of? How does it come about so that its parts are complete and able to perform their functions well? What is it to be used for? What keeps it going? Is its fate to develop or to deteriorate? Is it really mine?” — and then, going on to mental phenomena — “Do greed, anger, delusion, love, hatred, and so forth, arise at the body or at the mind? What do they come from? When they arise, are they pleasant or stressful?” — to reason and explore things strictly internally in this way is, in and of itself, training the mind.
But if your stillness of mind isn’t yet strong enough, don’t go reasoning in line with the books you may have read or the things you may have heard other people say, because even though you may think things through, it won’t lead you to the truth. In other words, it won’t lead you to a sense of dispassion and detachment. So instead, explore and investigate things in line with the causes and effects that actually arise from the mind in the present.
5. The mind investigating and figuring things out in line with its own personal reasonings in this way will tend to focus exclusively on examining a single spot in a single object. This is called one-pointed concentration. This is a gathering of the mind’s energies so that they have great strength, able to uproot attachments — mistaken assumptions — and to cleanse the mind so that it is, for the moment, bright and clear. At the very least, you will experience peace — an extreme sense of well-being in body and mind — and perhaps knowledge of one sort or another: knowledge of a strange and striking sort, for it arises, not from mental imaginings, but from the causes and effects of the truth acting in the present, in a way that has never happened before. Even if it is knowledge of something you may have suspected all along, only now is it your own, making your mind bright, driving away all doubt and uncertainty about matters that may have been occupying your thoughts. You will say to yourself with a sense of deep satisfaction and relief, “So that’s how it is!”
Those whose sensitivities are dull, though, won’t be convinced and delighted with their knowledge until someone else confirms it or they see teachings of the Buddha in books bearing witness to what they have learned. This is in line with the fact that the Buddha’s followers are of various sorts.
This type of knowledge — no matter how much or how wide-ranging it is — won’t weigh on your nerves. On the contrary, it’s a form of calm and true well-being that will greatly brighten and refresh your nerves. At the same time, it will refine your mind and manners in a way that will be very inspiring to others. Whatever you say or do, you will do mindfully, with hardly any careless lapses. Once this happens to you, you should then try to maintain all these traits and not grow careless or complacent.
[Note: We can pause the text here in order to investigate “one-pointedness.” Some Dhamma Footsteps’ readers may remember Ajahn Brahm’s reference to the subject in “Mindfulness, Bliss and Beyond.” Click on this Link:https://dhammafootsteps.com/2022/05/06/the-second-and-third-jhanas/
Buddhasassana Link to another commentary on “one-pointedness of mind” (ekaggatā). Click here:https://www.budsas.org/ebud/bd8p/bd8p_17.htm
Link to the original text:https://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/thai/thate/stepsalong.html
Details about the image of Ajahn Thate, above: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Statue_of_Luang_Pu_Thet_
dhamma footsteps 
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