“It is possible, brahmin, to describe gradual training, gradual practice, and gradual progress in this Dhamma and Discipline.
Just as, brahmin, when a clever horse-trainer obtains a fine thoroughbred colt, he first makes him get used to wearing the bit, and afterwards trains him further, so when the Tathāgata obtains a person to be tamed he first disciplines him thus:
'Come, bhikkhu, be virtuous, restrained with the restraint of the Pātimokkha, be perfect in conduct and resort, and seeing fear in the slightest fault, train by undertaking the training precepts.
'When, brahmin, the bhikkhu is virtuous... and seeing fear in the slightest fault, trains by undertaking the training precepts, then the Tathāgata disciplines him further:
'Come, bhikkhu, guard the doors of your sense faculties, On seeing a form with the eye, de not grasp at its signs and features. Since, if you were to leave the eye faculty unguarded, evil unwholesome states of covetousness and grief might invade you, practise the way of its restraint, guard the eye faculty, undertake the restraint of the eye faculty,
(On hearing a sound with the ear...
On smelling an odour with the nose...
On tasting a flavour with the tongue...
On touching with a tangible with the body...
On cognizing a mind object with the mind are expounded in the same repetitive formulas.)
"When, brahmin, the bhikkhu guards the doors of his sense faculties, then the Tathägata disciplines him further:
'Come, bhikkhu, be moderate in eating, Reflecting wisely, you should take food neither for amusement nor for intoxication nor for the sake of physical beauty and attractiveness, but only for the endurance and continuance of this body, for ending discomfort, and for assisting the holy life, considering: "Thus I shall terminate old feelings without arousing new feelings and I shall be healthy and blameless and shall live in comfort."
"When, brahmin, the bhikkhu is moderate in eating, then the Tathāgata disciplines him further:
'Come, bhikkhu, be devoted to wakefulness.
During the day,
while walking back and forth and sitting purify your mind of obstructive states. In the first watch of the night,
while walking back and forth and sitting, purify your mind of obstructive states.
In the middle watch of the night,
you should lie down on the right side in the lion's pose with one foot overlapping the other, mindful and fully aware, after noting in your mind time for rising.
'After rising, in the third watch of the night, while walking back and forth and sitting, purify your mind of obstructive states.'
"When, brahmin, the bhikkhu is devoted to wakefulness, then the Tathāgata disciplines him further:
'Come, bhikkhu, be possessed of mindfulness and full awareness.
* Act in full awareness when going forward and returning;
* act in full awareness when looking ahead and looking away;
* act in full awareness when flexing and extending your limbs;
* act in full awareness when wearing your robes and carrying your outer robe and bowl;
* act in full awareness when eating, drinking, consuming food, and tasting;
* act in full awareness when defecating and urinating;
* act in full awareness when walking, standing. sitting, falling asleep, waking up, talking, and keeping silent.
"When, brahmin, the bhikkhu possesses mindfulness and full awareness, then the Tathāgata disciplines him further:
"Come, bhikkhu, resort to a secluded resting place: the forest, the root of a tree, a mountain, a ravine. a hillside cave, a charnel ground, a jungle thicket, an open space, a heap of straw.'
In "He resorts to a secluded resting place: the forest the root of a tree, a mountain, a ravine, a hillside cave, a charnel ground, a jungle thicket, an open space, a heap of straw.'
On returning from his almsround, after his meal he sits down, folding his legs crosswise, setting his body erect, and establishing mindfulness before him Abandoning covetousness for the world, he abides with a mind free from covetousness;
He purifies his mind from covetousness.
Abandoning ill will and hatred, he abides with a mind free from ill will, compassionate for the welfare of all living beings; he purifies his mind from ill will and hatred.
Abandoning sloth and torpor, he abides free from sloth and torpor, percipient of light, mindful and fully aware; he purifies his mind from sloth and torpor.
Abandoning restlessness and remorse, he abides unagitated with a mind inwardly peaceful; he purifies his mind from restlessness and remorse.
Abandoning doubt, he abides having gone beyond doubt, unperplexed about wholesome states; he purifies his mind from doubt.
"Having thus abandoned these five hindrances, imperfections of the mind that weaken wisdom, quite secluded from sensual pleasures, secluded from unwholesome states, he enters upon and abides in the first jhāna, which is accompanied by applied and sustained thought, with rapture and pleasure born of seclusion. With the stilling of applied and sustained thought, he enters upon and abides in the second jhāna, which has self-confidence and singleness of mind without applied and sustained thought, with rapture and pleasure born of concentration.
With the fading away as well of rapture, he abides in equanimity, and mindful and fully aware, still feeling pleasure with the body, he enters upon and abides in the third jhāna, on account of whích noble ones announce 'He has a pleasant abiding who has equanimity and is mindful. With the abandoning of pleasure and pain and with the previous disappearance of joy and grief, he enters upon and abides in the fourth jhāna, which has neither-pain-nor-pleasure and purity of mindfulness due to equanimity.
"This is my instruction, brahmin, to those bhikkhus who are in the higher training, whose minds have not yet attained the goal, who abide aspiring to the supreme security from bondage.
But these things conduce both to a pleasant abiding here and now and to mindfulness and full awareness for those bhikkhus who are arahants with taints destroyed, who have lived the holy life, done what had to be done, laid down the burden, reached the true goal, destroyed the fetters of being, and are completely liberated through final knowledge."
