110. Even the timing was apt

The Buddha had searched for the truth for six years, and when he gained Awakening, he did so at the approach of dawn, i.e., after 4:00 a.m. Having gained Awakening, he taught for another 45 years, using the period after 4:00 a.m. each day to spread his awareness to see whom he should teach the next day. When the time came for his total nibbāna, he chose the same time of day.

A bundle of fabrications that had arisen on October 4, 1888 in Praasaat Village, Surin province, grew and developed in stages, conducting his life in a way that was admirable and right. He remained in the ochre robe to the end of his days, practicing in an exemplary fashion, truly an “unexcelled field of merit for the world.” He worked in a consummate way for his own true benefit and for the true benefit of others until October 30, 1983. That’s when Luang Pu dropped his body at 4:13 a.m.—just like that.

What was amazing was that his students—lay and ordained, city dwellers and forest dwellers—had already gathered to make merit in celebration of the beginning of Luang Pu’s 96th year, the completion of his eighth twelve-year cycle, as if in full preparation for this event.