Text of Confucianism Part 02

SR No.: 007676
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: James Legge
Publisher: Oxford
Publication Year: 1882
Total Pages: 2405
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 43 MB

Page 807

X, 4, 7.
SCHISMS AMONG THE SAMGHA.
313
dwelt also a noble elephant, who was surrounded by a crowd of elephants, she-elephants, elephant-calves, and young elephants; the grass blades he ate had their tips broken; the branches he broke down (the other elephants) ate; the water he drank was turbid; and when he waded into the river and plunged down, the she-elephants came and rubbed up their bodies against him. Now that noble elephant thought : 'I am surrounded by a crowd of elephants (&c., down to :) and rub up their bodies against me. What if I were to live alone, far away from those crowds.'
7. And that noble elephant left the herd behind, and went to Pârileyyaka, to the Rakkhita grove, to the foot of the Bhaddasâla tree, to the place where the Blessed One was. Having approached him, he administered with his trunk to the Blessed One (water to) drink and food, and removed the grass from that place. And that noble elephant thought: *Formerly I did not live at ease, surrounded by that crowd of elephants (&c., down to :) and rubbed up their bodies against me. But now, being alone and without a companion, I live pleasantly and at ease, remote from those elephants, she-elephants, elephant-calves, and young elephants.
Then the Blessed One, both regarding his own retirement, and understanding by the power of his mind the thoughts which had arisen in the mind of that noble elephant, on this occasion pronounced this solemn utterance :
Thus the noble one and the noble, the elephant tusked with tusks like cart poles (and the noble
· Isådanta; see Böhtlingk-Roth, sub voce fsha.
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