Is it possible, Lord Gotama, to lay down a gradual training, a gradual action, a gradual practice in this Dhamma and Discipline?
It is possible, brahmin, just as, brahmin, a skilled horse trainer obtains a fine thoroughbred and first trains it in the preliminary tasks, then further tasks; similarly, the Tathāgata, having obtained a person to be tamed, first trains him thus:
Come, disciple, be virtuous, restrained with the restraint of the Patimokkha, be endowed with conduct and resort, seeing danger in the slightest faults, undertaking the training rules.
When, brahmin, a disciple is virtuous... he further trains him:
Come, disciple, guard the doors of your sense faculties. Seeing a form with the eye, do not grasp at its signs and features... Similarly with the ear and sounds... nose and smells... tongue and tastes... body and touches... mind and mental objects, do not grasp at its signs and features.
When, brahmin, a disciple guards the doors of his sense faculties... he further trains him:
Come, disciple, 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 support and maintenance of this body, for avoiding harm, and for assisting the spiritual 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, a disciple is moderate in eating... he further trains him:
Come, disciple, be devoted to wakefulness. During the day, cleanse your mind of obstructive states... In the first watch of the night... in the middle watch of the night lie down on the right side in the lion's posture... in the last watch of the night, upon rising, walk back and forth and sit, purifying your mind of obstructive states.
When, brahmin, a disciple is devoted to wakefulness... he further trains him:
Come, disciple, be possessed of mindfulness and full awareness. Act with full awareness when going forward and returning... looking ahead and looking away... bending and stretching... wearing robes and carrying the outer robe and bowl... eating, drinking, chewing, and tasting... defecating and urinating... walking, standing, sitting, falling asleep, waking up, talking, and keeping silent.
When, brahmin, a disciple is possessed of mindfulness and full awareness...
Being endowed with clear knowing, the Tathagata further instructs him: Come, disciple, frequent a secluded dwelling - a forest, the root of a tree, a mountain, a cave, a cemetery, a forest haunt, an open space, a heap of straw.
He frequents a secluded dwelling - a forest, the root of a tree, a mountain, a cave, a cemetery, a forest haunt, an open space, a heap of straw. After his meal, on returning from his alms round, he sits down, folding his legs crosswise, setting his body erect, and establishing mindfulness in the body.
He lives with a mind free from covetousness, cleansing his mind of covetousness; he lives with a mind free from ill-will, compassionate for the welfare of all living beings, cleansing his mind of ill-will; he lives free from sloth and torpor, perceiving light, mindful and fully aware, cleansing his mind of sloth and torpor; he lives free from restlessness and remorse, with an inner tranquility, cleansing his mind of restlessness and remorse; he lives free from doubt, having crossed over doubt, unperplexed about wholesome states, cleansing his mind of doubt.
Having abandoned these five hindrances, imperfections of the mind that weaken wisdom, quite secluded from sensual pleasures, secluded from unwholesome states, he enters and remains in the first jhana, 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 and remains in the second jhana... With the fading away of rapture, he enters and remains in the third jhana... With the abandoning of pleasure, he enters and remains in the fourth jhana...
For those disciples who are trainees, who have not attained their mind's ideal, seeking the supreme sanctuary, I instruct them in this way.
But for those disciples who are Arahants, with taints destroyed, who have lived the holy life, done what had to be done, laid down the burden, reached their own goal, destroyed the fetters of being, and are completely liberated through final knowledge, these states conduce both to a pleasant abiding here and now and to mindfulness and clear knowing.