Eight lines that Tame a Raging Elephant

The Watercooler
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Eight lines that Tame a Raging Elephant

It is difficult to refuse to succumb to dismay at being jostled by news of the world. I have been casting about and found eight verses in the Madhuratthavilāsinī, Commentary on the Buddhavaṃsa in the chapter about the 13th of the 24 Buddhas from which the bodhisattva receives his prediction of Buddhahood, this prediction coming from the Buddha Piyadassiin.

It is here it is told of that Buddha’s taming with gentleness an out of control raging elephant. Does this bring anyone to mind? Does it bring two people to mind?

Those aforementioned eight lines were a Dharma teaching of sweetness and Metta to that elephant. This passage was pointed out in the introduction to the translation called the Clarifier of the Sweet Meaning by IB Horner. It comes on page 305 and 306.

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Verses of taming an angry heart

I just realized a reference to the pages of the Buddha’s teaching of loving kindness Goodwill to a repentance raging elephant just wasn’t enough so I read them into my Android cell phone

from the translation of the Madhuratthavilāsinī, called the Clarifier of Sweet Meaning, a commentary on the Buddhavamsa, called The Chronicle of the Buddhas, page 305 and 306:

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"Listen to what is said about the Glorious elephant and follow my words which are bent on weal and welfare. Then, putting away despoiling and addiction to slaughter, attain to peace, a giver of what is pleasant.

Lord of elephants, he who harms breathing things because of greed and hatred or confusion for long experiences terrible anguish in Niraya for killing breathing things.

Do not do a deed like this again, elephant, from negligence or vanity. For making onslaught on breathing things one gains anguish in Avīci enduring for an eon.

After experiencing terrible anguish in Niraya, if he goes on to the world of men, repeatedly he is of short life span, uncomely, cruel, a participant in excessive anguish.

And, in as much as breathing things are extremely dear to the Great populous, so, beautiful lordly elephant-naga, knowing that likewise they are dear to another, onslaught on breathing things is to be shunned.

Having found that there are special qualities in hatred and addiction to harming - as well as in refraining from onslaught on creatures, (then), shunning onslaught on creatures you may desire happiness in heaven hereafter.

Refraining from onslaught on creatures, well tamed, one becomes dear and liked in this World, and after the breaking up of his body Buddhas speak of him as dwelling in heaven. No one in the world desires coming to anguish; indeed, everything born seeks only happiness. Therefore, great naga, putting away harming, develop loving kindness and compassion all the time."

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Is this related to Nalagiri who we find in kd17.8? The Buddha again tames him with his metta

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It is a forerunner of that elephant in the time of the 13th Buddha.

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Thanks for posting the pic! I know several black-and-white pictures that show the path of taming the elephant/mind. I really like the rich imagery, the monkey, the rabbit, how the elephant changes its colour on the way - it really is fascinating!

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Thistle you may know its origins as a Tibetan thangka from centuries ago. I have it as a print on my wall. The picture is of that portion of the print. With no camera glare :slightly_smiling_face: Nine stages of calm abiding.

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Nice!! That sure is a good idea to have on one’s wall! :smiley:
The interesting thing is that I first encountered it in a book by a former monk from a Tibetan lineage and then again in talk by a dhamma teacher (Theravada originally). I guess it’s quite popular cross-Mahayana/Theravada because of it’s illustrative power.

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OH ! I have a laminated poster of this.

I had no idea my discovery of those verses of rage taming were illustrated in this portion of that poster.

Is there a jataka about each station in this path?
Only Bhante Sujato might know.

By the way. That elephant slaughtered dozens of men, women and childfen in a rampage leading up to these verses. The elephant was what they had for GODZILLA !

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An akin teaching

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The little study I’ve done on the Nine Stages of Calm Abiding speaks to taming the mind of a wild elephant who’s not so much in a state of rage…it seems more like a mind that’s not under control, i.e., wild. The monkey apparently distracts the elephant (not the meditator). Then when you watch the progression, the monkey submits first to the elephant, then to the meditator.

Nevertheless, everyone says “monkey mind” :sweat_smile:

MN125 and SN6.3 below are also nice references:

With peaceful mind, he has left the crowd, he wanders like a tamed elephant, unperturbed.

Eek!!!

In the negligible reading I’ve done of Chögyam Trungpa (namely Vol. 1 of his Collected Works), he speaks to his preference for the ten ox-herding pictures, compared to “the Tibetan tradition … [of] an analogy of elephant herding”:

[Elephant taming] refers largely only to the practice of shamatha… In the ox-herding pictures the evolutionary process of taming the bull is very close to the vajrayana view of the transmutation of energy. Particularly returning to the world as the expression of the compassion of the nirmanakaya shows that the final realization of Zen automatically leads to the wisdom of maha ati [sic?].

Nevertheless, I still love the Nine Stages.

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I had our angry public culture in mind when I sharred this sample of the Commentary to the Buddhavamsa.

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That makes two and can now be considered to be
a trend. I shall get one too for my appartment :smile:

Yeah, I know the ox-herding pictures as well. What I like about the elephant-taming stages is the rich imagery. The elephant changing its colour, the monkey, the leash or rope, the fire symbolizing the effort and last but not least…the rabbit. I mean how cool is it to come up with the rabbit sitting on the elephant’s back symbolizing a subtle form of sinking in too deep, a drowsiness or oscitancy.

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