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## Dhammapada XXIII

# Elephants

Translated from the Pali by Thanissaro Bhikkhu.
For free distribution only.

Read an alternate translation by Acharya Buddharakkhita

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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.

Revised: Wed 16 May 2001