🌹From the discourses of Sayagyi U Ba Khin
I want to talk about the difficulty of controlling the mind and the way to do it.
You must have seen in the movies, cowboys trying to tame the wild horses.
The horses are always kicking and jumping and struggling and are never staying still for very long.
🌷Well the mind is also like those wild horses, never staying still for very long on any particular object.
Also it never dwells within the body for long.
This is because ever since birth our mind have always dwelled on external objects perceived through the senses, as sights, sounds, scents, tastes, touches, and thoughts.
🍁In Anapana meditation the purpose of noting each and every incoming and outgoing breath is to provide a means whereby the restless fleeting mind can be drawn back to a particular object or base thus bringing the mind under control.
🌻Just as an untamed calf must be tied to a stake to prevent it from wandering away, so also the mind must be tied down to the stake(the base of the nose) by the rope(the knowing of each incoming and outgoing breath) to make it calm and steady.
🌼When such a state has been attained to a certain extent then one has achieved samadhi.
Only when samadhi has been achieved can Vipassana Bhavana be practised.