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Translated
from the Pali by I.B. Horner.
For free distribution only.
From Taming the Mind: Discourses of the Buddha (WH
51), edited by the Buddhist Publication Society, (Kandy: Buddhist Publication
Society, 1983). Copyright ©1983 Buddhist Publication Society. Used with
permission.
Thus
I have heard: At one time the Lord was staying near Savatthi in the palace of Migara's mother in the Eastern Monastery. Then
the brahman Ganaka-Moggallana approached the Lord; having approached he
exchanged greetings with the Lord; having conversed in a friendly and courteous
way, he sat down at a respectful distance. As he was sitting down at a
respectful distance, Ganaka-Moggallana the brahman spoke thus to the Lord:
"Just as, good Gotama, 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,1 so, too, good Gotama, for these brahmans
there can be seen a gradual training, a gradual doing, a gradual practice, that
is to say in the study [of the Vedas];2 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 calculation3 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 calculate: 'One one,
two twos, three threes, four fours, five fives, six sixes, seven sevens, eight
eights, nine nines, ten tens,' and we, good Gotama, also make him calculate a
hundred. Is it not possible, good Gotama, to lay down a similar gradual
training, gradual doing, gradual practice in respect of this dhamma and
discipline?"
"It
is possible, brahman, to lay down a gradual training, a gradual doing, a
gradual practice in respect of this dhamma and discipline, Brahman, even
a skilled trainer of horses, having taken on a beautiful thoroughbred first of
all gets it used to the training in respect of wearing the bit. Then he gets it
used to further training -- even so brahman, the Tathagata, having taken on a
man to be tamed, first of all disciplines him thus:
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