He has severed craving...

[Esho]

The removal of distracting thoughts, the case of the Vitakkasanthana Sutta (MN20) is a central teaching for the development of a peaceful mind, seemingly not needing meditation. The Buddha depicts five methods to get ride of disturbing thoughts while we are in our daily duties of everyday life. Each method increases its intensity in accordance to the force of the arising evil thoughts -desire, hate and delusion-.

I think that for those who practice some kind of specific meditation and still they can not bring meditation into daily life this teaching is a good support for the holy life that the Buddha taught. It is a way to sever craving -the third noble truth- making an end of suffering.

"Now when a monk... attending to another theme... scrutinizing the drawbacks of those thoughts... paying no mind and paying no attention to those thoughts... attending to the relaxing of thought-fabrication with regard to those thoughts... beating down, constraining and crushing his mind with his awareness... steadies his mind right within, settles it, unifies it and concentrates it: He is then called a monk with mastery over the ways of thought sequences. He thinks whatever thought he wants to, and doesn't think whatever thought he doesn't. He has severed craving, thrown off the fetters, and — through the right penetration of conceit — has made an end of suffering and stress."

That is what the Blessed One said. Gratified, the monks delighted in the Blessed One's words.