Interesting, I just read a
book by Paul Breiter who is the disciple mentioned in that excerpt from "No Ajahn Chah." He recounts that story and lots of others as well as his efforts to develop mindfulness (and survive the difficult conditions) during his 5 year stay at Ajahn Chah's monastery.
Frankly the book was a touch depressing as it makes it really obvious that alot of people, probably the majority, who try at this path (specifically the ajahn-chah style path of letting go of attachment to everything) fail. On the other hand there were some nice stories, a few practice tips, and a very well-detailed account of what Ajahn Chah was really like as a teacher and trainer... I never realized how much of his training consisted of basically torturing his students in all kinds of ways[1] to get them to let go of their attachment to stuff.
[1] for some examples: insulting them a lot, making them sit through really long talks, giving them shitty food, moving them to random branch monasteries when they got too comfortable, randomly changing the schedule at the monastery etc.
