The disciple of the practice of calm abiding is to keep bringing your mind back to the object of meditation, for example, the breath. If you are distracted, then suddenly, the instant you remember, you simply bring your mind back to your breathing. nothing else is necessary. Even to ask, how on earth did I get so distracted? is just another distraction. the simplicity of mindfulness, of continuously bringing your mind back to the breath, gradually calms it down. Gradually, mind will settle, in the mind.
As you perfect the practice of calm abiding and you become one with the breath, after a while even the breath itself as the focus of your practice dissolves and you find yourself resting in nowness. This is the one pointedness that is the fruition and the goal of Shamatha, Or calm abiding. Remaining in nowness and stillness is an excellent accomplishment, but to return to the example of the glass of muddy water - if you keep it still, the dirt will settle and it will become clear, and yet the dirt will still be there, Deep down. One day if you stir it, the dirt will rise again. As long as you cultivate stillness you may enjoy peace, but whenever your mind is a little bit disturbed, deluded thoughts will set in again. Remaining in the nowness of calm abiding cannot lead us to enlightenment or liberation. Nowness becomes a very subtle object, and the mind that dwells in nowness a subtle subject. Asl long as we remain in the domain of subject object duality, the mind is still within the ordinary conceptual world of Samsara.
