He never described the mind as an enemy to be beaten.

He presented it as a wild and unruly horse. With calm, tenderness and a few stratagems, he said, a person tames it, and in the end rides it.

What is won is not domination. The rider gains the animal’s almost complete cooperation, and the benefit runs both ways. From then on it is he who directs the horse’s drive and its power.

Which is why the manner matters here as much as the method. Force will not tame a horse. Neither will indulgence. It takes patience, a light hand, and exactness about what is being asked.

He gave me the same instruction about prayer itself.