Masterpiece 014 · Attention Training

The elephant path of calm abiding, drawn in the manner of a Himalayan painting. A golden path circles the rug inward, and a short rainbow bridge carries it to a seat of light. A band of rainbow and fire rings it all.

The path begins at the edge, beside a white stupa. There the elephant is black, a black monkey runs ahead, and fire burns by the path. A monk follows with a hook, then a rope.

The path goes almost all the way round, turning inward. At each stage the fire is smaller, the monkey pales and falls back, and the elephant grows white from the head down, as if it were walking into light.

Then the monk walks ahead and the elephant follows by itself. It lies down, white, beside a man sitting still. Where the path ends, a rainbow lifts them on, and they come down at the edge of the centre: a ring of sixty breaths, and light deepening from blue to gold around a golden lotus at the heart.

On a round rug the winding road becomes a spiral. The golden path starts at the stupa and runs clockwise, each part a little closer to the centre. A short rainbow bridge then drops to the seat, at the sitter's front, just beneath the stupa where the journey began. The same ground is walked again and again, each time a little closer.

The elephant is the mind. It begins dark, which is dullness, and whitens as the mind becomes clear. The monkey is distraction. The monk is the one who practises. The rope is remembering the chosen object. The hook is noticing when attention has slipped. The flames are effort, large at the start and gone once none is needed. A small rabbit is the dullness that is hard to see.

Nine stages run clockwise. Placing the mind. Placing it a little longer. Placing it again and again. Placing it closely. Taming. Calming. Fully calming. One-pointed. Resting evenly, where the monk sits and the white elephant lies beside him.

The edge is the body: a five-coloured rainbow, a ring of sixty flames, and a night-blue band set with gold dots. The field is the mind: the golden path circling inward, the work of bringing attention back. The centre is the soul: the seat holds no figures. Sixty gold breath marks ring a light that steps inward to a gold heart seed.

Beauty and presence.