And the Buddha said: "Suppose a man has been wounded by an arrow thickly smeared with poison, and his friends and companions, relatives and kinsmen call a physician - a surgeon. And the physician, the surgeon, widens the wound with his knife and searches for the arrow point with the probe. Having found the arrow point, he extracts it and completely removes the poison until he thinks that nothing of it is left. This simile have I given to make the meaning clear. And its significance is this: 'The wound' is a name for the six internal sense bases. 'The poison' is a name for ignorance. 'The arrow' is a name for craving. 'The probe' is a name for mindfulness. 'The knife' is a name for noble wisdom. 'The physician, the surgeon' is a name for the Perfect One, the Holy One, the Fully Enlightened One."
"Suppose a large crowd of people has gathered on hearing the news that a beauty queen has come. And if that beauty queen is also highly gifted in dancing and singing, a still larger crowd would gather. Now a man comes who wishes to live and not die, who desires happiness and abhors suffering. And the people say to him: 'Here, friend, is a vessel filled to the brim with oil. This you must carry through the large crowd to the beauty queen. A man with a drawn sword will follow behind your back, and if you spill even a little of the oil, he will cut off your head!' "Now, what do you think, monks? Will that man carry the oil vessel carelessly, without paying heed to his environment?" "Certainly not, Lord." "This simile have I given to make the meaning clear. And its significance is this: 'The vessel filled to the brim with oil' is a name for Mindfulness concerning the body. Hence, O monks, you should train yourselves thus: 'We shall cultivate Mindfulness concerning the Body, we shall practice it regularly so that it may become a vehicle of progress and a firm possession of our minds; so that it may be consolidated, strengthened and perfected in us!' Thus, O monks, should you train yourselves!"