Taming the Mind and Heart (Part 1)

Amber Larson, CC Liu, Wisdom Quarterly; Touristing (flickr); F.L. Woodward (trans.), PTS

Bathing the Buddha, backed by deva, at Saturday Station, Shwedagon Pagoda (Touristing)

 

The Book of the Ones

Numerical Discourses (Anguttara Nikaya)

Burmese bhikkhus on Shwedagon stupa

The Buddha made these declarations to meditative audiences of laypeople and monastics (monks and nuns). They were recorded by monks, who remembered them as being directed at them as bhikkhus. It is clear from the context as well as the meaning that they are addressed to all "hearers" (savakas), all Buddhists, and all people who would practice and strive for enlightenment no matter what other teachings they follow. So we translate the opening word, bhikkhave (lit. "O, bhikkhus!"), to reflect this.
 

Meditating sayadaw (Touristing)

31. "Meditators, I know not of any other single thing so intractable as the untamed mind [heart]. The untamed mind [heart] is indeed an untractable thing. 

 

32. "Meditators, I know not of any other thing so tractable as the tamed mind. The tamed mind is indeed a tractable thing.

 

33. "Meditators, I know not of any other single thing so conducive to great loss as the untamed mind. The untamed mind indeed conduces to great loss.

 

34. "Meditators, I know not of any other single thing so conducive to great profit as the tamed mind. The tamed mind indeed conduces to great profit.

 

39. "Meditators, I know not of any other single thing that brings such woe as the mind that is untamed, uncontrolled, unguarded, and unrestrained. Such a mind indeed brings great woe.

40. "Meditators, I know not of any other single thing that brings such bliss as the mind that is tamed, controlled, guarded, and restrained. Such a mind indeed brings great bliss."

— Gradual Sayings, "The Book of the Ones," Chp. IV translated by F. L. Woodward

Taming the Mind
PTS edited by BPS (further editing and Dhr. Seven), "Discourse to Ganaka-Moggallana" (MN 107)

The Enlightened One (Chngster/flickr.com)

Thus I have heard. At one time the [Buddha] was staying near Savatthi in the palace of Migara's mother in the Eastern Monastery.
 
Then the Brahmin Ganaka-Moggallana approached, exchanged greetings and, having conversed in a friendly and courteous way, sat down at a respectful distance.

Sitting there, the Brahmin Ganaka-Moggallana spoke thus to the venerable one: "Just as, good Gotama [Sanskrit Gautama], in this palace of Migara's mother there can be seen a gradual training, a gradual doing, a gradual practice, that is to say, as far as the last flight of stairs [in a seven-storied palace, explains the Commentary, which is not to be built in a day] so, too, good Gotama, for these Brahmins:

"There can be seen a gradual training, a gradual doing, a gradual practice, that is to say, in the study [of the three three Vedas, which cannot possibly be done in a day] so, too, good Gotama, for these archers there can be seen a gradual... practice, that is to say, in archery. 

"So, too, good Gotama, for us whose livelihood is calculation [ganana, which is this Brahmin's profession, giving him the name Ganaka-Moggallana, explains Editor of The Wheel], there can be seen a gradual training, a gradual practice, that is to say, in accountancy.

"For when we get a pupil, good Gotama, we first of all make him [it was only offered to males] calculate: 'One one, two twos, three threes, four fours, five fives, six sixes, seven sevens, eight eights, nine nines, ten tens,' and, good Gotama, we also make him calculate a hundred.

"Is it possible, good Gotama, to lay down a similar gradual training, gradual doing, gradual practice in respect of this Dharma and discipline?" Continued in Part 2: "The Gradual Training"