- As an elephant in the battlefield withstands arrows shot from bows all around, even so shall I endure abuse. There are many, indeed, who lack virtue.
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A tamed elephant is led into a crowd, and the king mounts a tamed elephant. Best among men is the subdued one who endures abuse.
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Excellent are well-trained mules, thoroughbred Sindhu horses and noble tusker elephants. But better still is the man who has subdued himself.
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Not by these mounts, however, would one go to the Untrodden Land (Nibbana), as one who is self-tamed goes by his own tamed and well-controlled mind.
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Musty during rut, the tusker named Dhanapalaka is uncontrollable. Held in captivity, the tusker does not touch a morsel, but only longingly calls to mind the elephant forest.
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When a man is sluggish and gluttonous, sleeping and rolling around in bed like a fat domestic pig, that sluggard undergoes rebirth again and again.
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Formerly this mind wandered about as it liked, where it wished and according to its pleasure, but now I shall thoroughly master it with wisdom as a mahout controls with his ankus an elephant in rut.
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Delight in heedfulness! Guard well your thoughts! Draw yourself out of this bog of evil, even as an elephant draws himself out of the mud.
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If for company you find a wise and prudent friend who leads a good life, you should, overcoming all impediments, keep his company joyously and mindfully.
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If for company you cannot find a wise and prudent friend who leads a good life, then, like a king who leaves behind a conquered kingdom, or like a lone elephant in the elephant forest, you should go your way alone.
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Better it is to live alone; there is no fellowship with a fool. Live alone and do no evil; be carefree like an elephant in the elephant forest.
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Good are friends when need arises; good is contentment with just what one has; good is merit when life is at an end, and good is the abandoning of all suffering (through Arahantship).
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In this world, good it is to serve one’s mother, good it is to serve one’s father, good it is to serve the monks, and good it is to serve the holy men.
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Good is virtue until life’s end, good is faith that is steadfast, good is the acquisition of wisdom, and good is the avoidance of evil.
“Nagavagga: The Elephant” (Dhp XXIII), translated from the Pali by Acharya Buddharakkhita. Access to Insight (BCBS Edition), 30 November 2013
https://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/kn/dhp/dhp.23.budd.html
Nagavagga: Elephants
320
I — like an elephant in battle,
enduring an arrow shot from a bow —
will endure a false accusation,
for the mass of people
have no principles.
321
The tamed is the one
they take into assemblies.
The tamed is the one
the king mounts.
The tamed who endures
a false accusation
is, among human beings,
the best.
322-323
Excellent are tamed mules,
tamed thoroughbreds,
tamed horses from Sindh.
Excellent, tamed tuskers,
great elephants.
But even more excellent
are those self-tamed.
For not by these mounts could you go
to the land unreached,
as the tamed one goes
by taming, well-taming, himself.
324
The tusker, Dhanapalaka,
deep in rut, is hard to control.
Bound, he won’t eat a morsel:
the tusker misses
the elephant wood.
325
When torpid & over-fed,
a sleepy-head lolling about
like a stout hog, fattened on fodder:
a dullard enters the womb
over &
over again.
326
Before, this mind went wandering
however it pleased,
wherever it wanted,
by whatever way that it liked.
Today I will hold it aptly in check —
as one wielding a goad, an elephant in rut.
327
Delight in heedfulness.
Watch over your own mind.
Lift yourself up
from the hard-going way,
like a tusker sunk in the mud.
328-330
If you gain a mature companion —
a fellow traveler, right-living, enlightened —
overcoming all dangers
go with him, gratified,
mindful.
If you don’t gain a mature companion —
a fellow traveler, right-living, enlightened —
go alone
like a king renouncing his kingdom,
like the elephant in the Matanga wilds,
his herd.
Going alone is better,
there’s no companionship with a fool.
Go alone,
doing no evil, at peace,
like the elephant in the Matanga wilds.
331-333
A blessing: friends when the need arises.
A blessing: contentment with whatever there is.
Merit at the ending of life is a blessing.
A blessing: the abandoning of all suffering
& stress.
A blessing in the world: reverence to your mother.
A blessing: reverence to your father as well.
A blessing in the world: reverence to a contemplative.
A blessing: reverence for a brahman, too.
A blessing into old age is virtue.
A blessing: conviction established.
A blessing: discernment attained.
The non-doing of evil things is
a blessing.
“Nagavagga: Elephants” (Dhp XXIII), translated from the Pali by Thanissaro Bhikkhu. Access to Insight (BCBS Edition), 30 November 2013
https://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/kn/dhp/dhp.23.than.html
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