A. He rises before daylight, washes, sweeps the vihāra, sweeps around the Bo-tree that grows near every vihāra, brings the drinking-water for the day and filters it; retires for meditation, offers flowers before the dāgoba, or relic-mound, or before the Bo-tree; then takes his begging-bowl and goes from house to house collecting food--which he must not ask for, but receive in his bowl as given voluntarily by the householders. He returns, bathes his feet and eats, after which he resumes meditation. 270. Q. _Must we believe that there is no merit in the offering of flowers (mala pūjā) as an act of worship?_ A. That act itself is without merit as a mere formality; but if one offers a flower as the sweetest, purest expression of heartfelt reverence for a holy being, then, indeed, is the offering an act of ennobling worship. 271. Q. _What next does the Bhikkhu do?_ A. He pursues his studies. At sunset he again sweeps the sacred places, lights a lamp, listens to the instructions of his superior, and confesses to him any fault he may have committed. 272. Q. _Upon what are his four earnest meditations (Sati-patthāna) made?_ A. 1. On the body, Kayānapassānā. 2. On the feeling, Vedanānupassānā. 3. On the mind, Chittānnpassānā. 4. On the doctrine, Dhammānupassānā. 273. Q. _What is the aim of the four Great Efforts (Sammappadhānā)?_ A. To suppress one's animal desires and grow in goodness. 274. Q. _For the perception by the Bhikkhu of the highest truth, is reason said to be the best, or intuition?_ A. Intuition--a mental state in which any desired truth is instantaneously grasped. 275. Q. _And when can that development be reached?_ A. When one, by the practice of Jñāna, comes to its fourth stage of unfolding. 276. Q. _Are we to believe that in the final stage of Jñāna, and in the condition called Samādhi, the mind is a blank and thought is arrested?_ A. Quite the contrary. It is then that one's consciousness is most intensely active, and one's power to gain knowledge correspondingly vast. 277. Q. _Try to give me a simile?_ A. In the ordinary waking state one's view of knowledge is as limited as the sight of a man who walks on a road between high hills; in the higher consciousness of Jñāna and _Samādhi_ it is like the sight of the eagle poised in the upper sky and overlooking a whole country. 278. Q. _What do our books say about the Buddha's use of this faculty?_ A. They tell us that it was his custom, every morning, to glance over the world and, by his divine (clairvoyant) sight, see where there were persons ready to receive the truth. He would then contrive, if possible, that it should reach them. When persons visited him he would look into their minds, read their secret motives, and then preach to them according to their needs.