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Dhp XXIII
PTS: Dhp 320-333
Nagavagga: Elephants
translated from the Pali by
Thanissaro Bhikkhu
© 1997
Alternate translation: Buddharakkhita
Alternate format:

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##### 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.

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