directly revealing ones own or another's attainments to laypeople while that person is still alive, Ajahn Maha Bua wrote in Ajahn Mun's posthumous biography that he was convinced that Ajahn Mun was an arahant. Thanissaro Bhikkhu remarks that this was a significant change of the teaching etiquette within the Forest Tradition. Ajahn Maha Bua's primary metaphor for Buddhist practice was that it was a battle against the defilements. Just as soldiers might invent ways to win battles that aren't found in military history texts, one might invent ways to subdue defilement. Whatever technique one could come up with—whether it was taught by one's teacher, found in the Buddhist texts, or made up on the spot—if it helped with a victory over the defilements, it counted as a legitimate Buddhist practice. Ajahn Maha Bua is widely known for his teachings on dealing with physical pain. For a period, Ajahn Maha Bua had a student who was dying of cancer, and Ajahn Maha Bua gave a series on talks surrounding the perceptions that people have that create mental problems surrounding the pain. Ajahn Maha Bua said that these incorrect perceptions can be changed by posing questions about the pain in the mind. (i.e. "what color is the pain? does the pain have bad intentions to you?" "Is the pain the same thing as the body? What about the mind?") There was a widely publicized incident in Thailand where monks in the North of Thailand were publicly stating that Nirvana is the true self, and scholar monks in Bangkok were stating that Nirvana is not-self. (see: Dhammakaya Movement)At one point, Ajahn Maha Bua was asked whether Nirvana was self or not-self and he replied "Nirvana is Nirvana, it is neither self nor not-self". Ajahn Maha Bua stated that not-self is merely a perception that is used to pry one away from infatuation with the concept of a self, and that once this infatuation is gone the idea of not-self must be dropped as well. Related Traditions Related Forest Traditions are also found in other predominantly Buddhist Asian countries, including the Sri Lankan Forest Tradition of Sri Lanka, the Taungpulu Forest Tradition of Myanmar, and a related Lao Forest Tradition in Laos. See also Early Buddhist schools Early Buddhist texts Dhammayuttika Nikaya Maha Nikaya Forest Tradition of Ajahn Chah Galduwa Forest Tradition Sri Lankan Forest Tradition Notes References Sources Printed sources Primary sources ,