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nature. The worries of everyday life fell away from them. If they received food, they ate; if no food came, they fasted. They neither went high nor low; they exulted in the feeling of inner balance and equanimity. They lived the life of no demand; as a result, they came to love one another deeply and unconditionally. The mutual reverence they experienced for each other helped them to grow and blossom as well as to confront and uproot habits and conditionings as they arose. Wherever they went, the villagers admired these two soul brothers and felt for them a great respect.
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Munishree's silence was not without its moments of trial. At times, he noticed how the silence intensified his greatest inner enemy, anger. He had heard his teacher give many talks on anger, hatred, jealousy, and self-pity.
"When you give life to emotions, they become alive," Anand Sagarsuriji taught. "Without electricity, bulbs don't light up. In the same way, if you don't give energy to your negative emotions, they won't get fat. The less self-knowledge, the more fattening of the emotions."
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There was one monk in their group who had a domineering personality. He was large in body and irreverent in attitude. He was senior to Munishree, because he had become initiated one year ahead of him. Munishree was trying to ignore him, but in his heart, he held resentment towards him. Although the silence helped him swallow his urge to argue with this monk, inside he was accumulating a mountain of straw. At any moment it would ignite.
That moment came on the last day of a nine-day fast, the Ambil fast, in which the monks abstained from green vegetables, butter, oil, salt, spices, and sweets. According to custom, on the tenth day, forty-eight minutes after sunrise, the monks could break their fast by reciting prayers and mantras before an ancient symbol called the sthāpanāchārya. The symbol which resembled a five-pronged pitchfork represented the five pure elements in the universe: the Arihantānam or Conquerors of all weaknesses; the Siddhanam or Perfect Souls, the Ayariyānam or Masters; the Uvajjhāyānam or
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