{"collection":"Buddhism","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/bud/dhp/23.htm","path":"bud/dhp/23.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/bud/dhp/23.htm","text":"320:\nI -- like an elephant in battle,\nenduring an arrow shot from a bow --\nwill endure a false accusation,\nfor the mass of people\nhave no principles.\n321:\nThe tamed is the one\nthey take into assemblies.\nThe tamed is the one\nthe king mounts.\nThe tamed who endures\na false accusation\nis, among human beings,\nthe best.\n322-323:\nExcellent are tamed mules,\ntamed thoroughbreds,\ntamed horses from Sindh.\nExcellent, tamed tuskers,\ngreat elephants.\nBut even more excellent\nare those self-tamed.\nFor not by these mounts could you go\nto the land unreached,\nas the tamed one goes\nby taming, well-taming, himself.\n324*:\nThe tusker, Dhanapalaka,\ndeep in rut, is hard to control.\nBound, he won't eat a morsel:\nthe tusker misses\nthe elephant wood.\n325:\nWhen torpid & over-fed,\na sleepy-head lolling about\nlike a stout hog, fattened on fodder:\na dullard enters the womb\nover &\nover again.\n326:\nBefore, this mind went wandering\nhowever it pleased,\nwherever it wanted,\nby whatever way that it liked.\nToday I will hold it aptly in check --\nas one wielding a goad, an elephant in rut.\n327:\nDelight in heedfulness.\nWatch over your own mind.\nLift yourself up\nfrom the hard-going way,\nlike a tusker sunk in the mud.\nIf you gain a mature companion -- \na fellow traveler, right-living, enlightened --\novercoming all dangers\ngo with him, gratified,\nmindful.\nIf you don't gain a mature companion -- \na fellow traveler, right-living, enlightened -- \n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 go alone\nlike a king renouncing his kingdom,\nlike the elephant in the Matanga wilds,\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 his herd.\nGoing alone is better,\nthere's no companionship with a fool.\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Go alone, \ndoing no evil, at peace,\nlike the elephant in the Matanga wilds.\n331-333 :\nA blessing: \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 friends when the need arises.\nA blessing: contentment with whatever there is.\nMerit at the ending of life is a blessing.\nA blessing: the abandoning of all suffering\n& stress.\nA blessing in the world: reverence to your mother.\nA blessing: reverence to your father as well.\nA blessing in the world: reverence to a contemplative.\nA blessing: reverence for a brahmin, too.\nA blessing into old age is virtue.\nA blessing: conviction established.\nA blessing: discernment attained.\nThe non-doing of evil things is\na blessing.","title":"Dhammapada XXIII: Elephants","type":"page"}