Early Monastic Buddhism v1.c17.1

v1.c17.1

The second course of spiritual exercises prescribed for a monk is for attaining complete control over the mind (*citta*). In verse after verse in the *Dhammapada* and in passages after passages in the Nikāyas the difficulty of controlling the fickle *citta* has been dilated upon, and at the same time it has been emphasised that the only means of attaining *Nibbāna* is by curbing the *citta*, i.e., withdrawing it from all that is attractive in the world and directing it to the highest goal. There are endless *upakkilesas* like *rāga*, *dosa*, *moha* which never permit the *citta* to rest at peace, and the various meditational practices prescribed in the Buddhist texts have for their first object the steadying of the mind so as not to be affected by the weal and woes of the world. It is only with a steady mind that one is capable of comprehending the essential oneness or sameness and vastness of the beings of the universe—the *Nirvāṇa* of the Mahāyānic schools of Buddhist philosophy.