Basket of Conduct 11

Select any verse to keep it — saved passages go to your Dhamma Deck, the same one the app uses.

1. The Conduct Leading to Buddhahood
2. The Chapter on an Elephant
3. The Perfection of Ethics (1st)
4. The Conduct of One Who Provided for His Mother
5. “Once I lived in the forest
6. as a elephant who provided for his mother.
7. At that time no-one on earth
8. could equal my virtues.
9. Seeing me in the forest, a forester
10. informed the king about me.
11. ‘Great King, an elephant that befits you
12. is dwelling in the forest grove.
13. No need to dig a moat around him,
14. nor tether him to a post in a pit.
15. Taken by the trunk,
16. he will come here by himself.’
17. When he heard these words,
18. the king, elated,
19. sent an elephant-tamer,
20. a well-trained and expert tutor.
21. When the elephant-tamer reached there,
22. he saw me in a lotus pond,
23. pulling out lotus roots
24. to feed my mother.
25. Discerning my moral virtue,
26. he checked me for marks.
27. Saying, ‘Come, child’,
28. he took me by the trunk.
29. What was at that time
30. the natural strength of my body,
31. would equal a thousand
32. of the elephants of today.
33. If I had been upset
34. with those who came to capture me,
35. I would have had the power
36. to defeat even a kingdom of men.
37. Nevertheless, for the sake of guarding my ethics,
38. and fulfilling my perfection of ethics,
39. I did not let my mind change,
40. even as they caged me.
41. And even were they to beat me
42. with hatchets and lances,
43. I would never become upset,
44. for fear of violating my ethics.”