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He paused and gazed at the ordinand with his penetrating eyes as though ascertaining whether he was concentrating on what he taught. Satisfied, he continued to preach on the qualities of the wisdom, purity and compassion of the Buddha, impressing the ordinand with depth of his analysis. He studied the ordinand over and over again, as if trying to impress his image into his memory—however, whenever the ordinand's eyes met Luang Phaw's the eyes of the ordinand invariably darted away from Luang Phaw's intense gaze. Luang Phaw continued to remind the ordinand of the great merit of this encounter and the merit of becoming heir to the Buddha's Noble Order through ordination. The ordinand shifted his weight to relieve his numbness—he had been kneeling with his hands in a gesture of prayer unmoving for a long time. The ordinand bore up to the discomfort, afraid that he would detract from the merit gained from the ordination. Luang Phaw seemed to understand the ordinand's distress and gazed at him with compassion, as he continued: "A bhikkhu must first understand what meditation is, because meditation is the means by which the mind can be tamed, guarding against wandering. It is the way whereby stillness of the mind arises and is the basis for wisdom." He went on to explain about the four elements—earth, water, wind and fire, which constitute the thirty-two characteristics of the human body which the ordinand must analyze and see as unwholesome. He reduced the formula to only five, giving the Pali words, kesa (hair), loma (bodily hair), nakha (skin),