The grateful elephant : $b And other stories translated from the PāliBurlingame, Eugene Watson
Religion
The grateful elephant : $b And other stories translated from the Pāli
Burlingame, Eugene Watson
Buddhist legends
Thereupon Brahmadatta king of Kāsi exclaimed: “O how wonderful, O how
marvelous, that this Prince Dīghāvu should understand in its fulness a
matter which his father expressed so briefly!” And he restored to him
the army and vehicles and territory and treasuries and storehouses of
his fathers, and gave him his daughter in marriage.
“For, monks, of these kings who took the rod, who took the sword,
such is said to have been the patience and gentleness. How much more,
monks, should you, who have retired from the world under a Doctrine
and Discipline so well taught, let your light so shine in this world
as to be known of men as patient and gentle.” And for the third
time the Exalted One said this to those monks: “Enough, monks! No
quarreling! No brawling! No contending! No wrangling!”
_7. Antelope, Woodpecker, Tortoise, and Hunter._
_In union there is strength._
Jātaka 206: ii. 152-155.
On a certain occasion the Teacher related the following story:
In times past, when Brahmadatta ruled at Benāres, the Future Buddha was
an antelope and made his home in a certain thicket in a forest, not
far from a certain lake. Not far from that same lake, on the tip of a
certain tree, perched a woodpecker. Moreover in the lake a tortoise
made his home. Thus did those three live together as friends, kindly
affectionate one towards another.
Now a certain hunter, on his way through the forest, seeing the tracks
of the Future Buddha at the place where the animals went to drink, set
a trap, resembling an iron foot-chain, only made of leathern strips,
and went his way. In the very first watch of the night the Future
Buddha, coming to drink of the water, became entangled in the trap and
cried the cry of a captured animal.
When he made that sound, from the tip of the tree came the woodpecker
and out of the water came the tortoise. And they took counsel
together, saying: “What’s to be done now?” Then said the woodpecker,
addressing the tortoise: “Master, you have teeth; you saw this trap in
two. I’ll go and manage things in such a way that that hunter sha’n’t
come near. Thus, if the two of us do our very best, our friend will
save his life.” And explaining this matter, he uttered the first stanza:
Come, tortoise! use your teeth, and cut the leathern trap!
I’ll manage things in such a way the hunter shall not come!
The tortoise began to chew the strips of leather. The woodpecker went
to the village where the hunter lived. At the first signs of dawn,
the hunter took his knife and started to leave the house. The bird,
observing that he was leaving the house, shrieked, flapped his wings,
and struck him in the face just as he was coming out of the front door.
Thought the hunter: “I have been struck by a bird of evil omen.” So he
went back, lay down for a little while, and then got up again and took
his knife.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
The grateful elephant : $b And other stories translated from the Pāli — John Shaqi
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