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# Therigatha

## Chapter III -- The Threes

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III.2 -- Uttama {vv. 42-44}
[Thanissaro Bhikkhu, trans.]

> Four times, five, I ran amok from my dwelling,
> having gained no peace of awareness,
> my thoughts out of control.
> So I went to a trustworthy nun.
> She taught me the Dhamma:
> aggregates, sense spheres, & elements.
> Hearing the Dhamma,
> I did as she said.
> For seven days I sat in one spot,
> absorbed in rapture & bliss.
> On the eighth, I stretched out my legs,
> having burst the mass
> of darkness.

III.3 -- Dantika and the Elephant {vv. 48-50}
[Thanissaro Bhikkhu, trans. Read an alternate translation by C.A.F. Rhys Davids.]

> Coming out from my day's abiding
> on Vulture Peak Mountain,
> I saw on the bank of a river
> an elephant
> emerged from its plunge.

> A man holding a hook requested:
> "Give me your foot."
> The elephant
> extended its foot.
> The man
> got up on the elephant.

> Seeing what was untrained now tamed
> brought under human control,
> with that I centered my mind --
> why I'd gone to the woods
> in the first place.

* * *

III.3 -- Dantika and the Elephant {vv. 48-50}
[C.A.F. Rhys Davids, trans. From Taming the Mind: Discourses of the Buddha (WH 51), edited by the Buddhist Publication Society, (Kandy: Buddhist Publication Society, 1983). Copyright ©1983 Buddhist Publication Society. Used with permission. Read an alternate translation by Thanissaro Bhikkhu.]

> Coming from noonday-rest on Vulture's Peak
> I saw an elephant, his bathing done,
> Forth from the river issue. And a man,
> Taking his goad, bade the great creature stretch
> His foot: 'Give me thy foot.' The elephant
> Obeyed, and to his neck the driver sprang.
> I saw the untamed tamed, I saw him bent
> To master's will; and making inwardly,
> I passed into the forest depths and there
> I' faith I trained and ordered all my heart.

III.5 -- Ubbiri {vv. 51-53}
[Thanissaro Bhikkhu, trans.]

> "'Jiva, my daughter,'
> you cry in the woods.
> Come to your senses, Ubbiri.
> 84,000
> all named Jiva
> have been burned in that charnel ground.
> For which of them do you grieve?"

> Pulling out
> -- completely out --
> the arrow so hard to see,
> embedded in my heart,
> he expelled from me
> -- overcome with grief --
> the grief
> over my daughter.

> Today -- with arrow removed,
> without hunger, entirely
> Unbound --
> to the Buddha, Dhamma, & Sangha I go,
> for refuge to
> the Sage.

Revised: Fri 12 April 2002