Lessons In Practical Buddhism - Sirimangalo.Org

further refine their observation; they will then generally fall
away from that state and have to begin again to cultivate the
habit anew.
Just as a pilot must always be on the alert, adjusting the
airplane’s trajectory when necessary to keep it on course, so
too a meditator whose practice is progressing smoothly must
never fail to keep up the practice of objective observation. If
they are diligent in this way, they will find their minds
beginning to quiet down naturally, becoming more amenable
to clear observation and recognition. This quietude of mind
is called “passadhi”, and it is the fifth factor of
enlightenment.
With the cultivation of quietude, one’s mind will become
focused. As one continues to apply oneself to the
meditation, the mind will no longer jump chaotically from one
object to another, and one’s observation will proceed with
greater and greater ease as one’s focus becomes further and
further developed.
In the Visuddhimagga, this process is likened to the taming
of a young calf:
For this bhikkhu’s mind has long been dissipated among
visible data, etc., as its object, and it does not want to
mount the object of concentration-
through-mindfulness-of-breathing; it runs off the track like
a chariot harnessed to a wild ox. Now, suppose a cowherd
wanted to tame a wild calf that had been reared on a wild
cow’s milk, he would take it away from the cow and tie it
up apart with a rope to a stout post dug into the ground;
then the calf might dash to and fro, but being unable to
get away, it would eventually sit down or lie down by the
post. So too, when a bhikkhu wants to tame his own mind
which has long been spoilt by being reared on visible
data, etc., as object for its food and drink, he should take
it away from visible data, etc., as object and bring it into
the forest or to the root of a tree or to an empty place and
tie it up there to the post of in-breaths and out-breaths
with the rope of mindfulness. And so his mind may then
dash to and fro when it no longer gets the objects it was
formerly used to, but being unable to break the rope of
mindfulness and get away, it sits down, lies down, by that
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