Chapter 10 - The Practice of the Dhutangas

The thirteen Dhutanga observances are necessary forms of Dhamma for the kind of Bhikkhus as described in the last chapters and they are an essential part of the way of life of those whose aim is to progress towards the Path, Fruition and Nibbāna. This is no different from the way in which the Dhutanga observances were necessary forms of Dhamma for the Bhikkhus at the time of the Lord Buddha.
Some Bhikkhus like to live under the shade of a tree in the dry season, until their mosquito nets and klods all go mouldy and discoloured after becoming wet by the dew every night in their exposed unprotected position. For in the cold season the dew is very heavy and the mosquito nets and klods become completely soaked every night. In the morning they must lay everything out to dry in the sun every day, but even so they still go mouldy.
Wherever the mould grows in the cloth it makes a small black spot which cannot be washed out and remains there until the cloth is destroyed. But no way has been found to prevent fungus moulds from becoming established in cloth which is out in the open for a long time, becoming saturated with dew every night and drying before it can be put in the sun to dry.
These Bhikkhus also do the practice of walking caṅkama in a true and genuine manner so that they can attain calm and happiness from it. Each time they do it they may go on for three to five hours, until they feel genuinely tired. Then they stop walking caṅkama and go and sit in meditation practice for several hours, after which they stop and rest.
Those who resolutely practise the Dhutanga Kammaṭṭhānas while being completely committed to them, will see the value of each Dhutanga practice and how much benefit they can attain from them. For each Dhutanga is a means of assisting those who practise them to reach the higher levels of Dhamma step by step. Not one of them is ever an obstacle in the way of the Path, Fruition and Nibbāna. They are all forms of Dhamma as the means of training those who practise to become courageous and full of cheer in Dhamma, and also to become “warriors” who fight in every way that weakens and drives the kilesas from their hearts.
Those who have only lived in houses or buildings and have never gone out to the forest are not likely to have seen the kinds of things that happen in the forest. They have probably seen only the things that happen where people live in houses - which are ordinary kinds of things which all of us have come across and which we are all quite familiar with. But it is also likely that they never think in such a way as to see what disadvantages come from these kinds of things, and how they may extricate themselves and go free from them. Day by day they are bound to run into the same things that they have met in the past, and they get the dukkha that comes from them every hour of every day without exception. But they have no interest in searching for the reason why, even only to the extent of being able to avoid them.
To live in the forest in the right way, which accords with the true purpose of the Dhutangas, a person must be a “warrior”, a fighter in order to extricate himself truly from the various obstacles which are in his own heart. He does not merely live there like an animal in the forest, which has always lived there and is completely familiar with the forest life. But he lives there for the purpose of examining things which are within himself and which arise in various circumstances, with Dhamma as his ultimate goal.