Ja 197 Mittāmittajātaka
The Birth Story about Friends and Foes (2s)
In the present one monk places his trust in his teacher, only to be violently rebuffed by him. When the Buddha hears of it he tells a story of an ascetic who kept a wild elephant, and how it killed him, leading the Bodhisatta to show how to distinguish friend from foe.
The Bodhisatta = the teacher of a group (gaṇasatthā),
the Buddha’s disciples = the seer’s group (isigaṇa),
the preceptor = the elephant (hatthī),
the co-resident monk = the ascetic who kept an elephant (hatthiposakatāpasa).
Keywords: Confidence, Wisdom, Animals.
“He smiles not.” This story the Teacher told while dwelling at Sāvatthi, about a certain monk.
This monk took a piece of cloth, that had been given to his teacher, feeling confident that if he took it his teacher would not be angry. Then he made a shoe-bag of it, and took his leave. When this teacher asked why he took it, he replied he had felt confident, if he did, that his teacher would not be angry. The teacher flew into a passion,
This fact became known among the Saṅgha. One day the monks were all together talking about it in the Dhamma Hall. “Friend, young monk
In the past, when Brahmadatta was king of Benares, the Bodhisatta was born as a brahmin’s son in the realm of Kāsi. When he came of age, he renounced the world; he caused to grow in him the Super Knowledges and Attainments, and took up his abode in the region of the Himālayas with a band of disciples. One of this band of ascetics disobeyed the voice of the Bodhisatta, and kept a young elephant which had lost its mate. This creature by and by grew big, then killed its master and made off into the forest. The ascetics did his obsequies; and then, coming about the Bodhisatta, they put this question to him.
“Sir, how may we know whether one is a friend or an enemy?”
This the Bodhisatta declared to them in the following verses:
1. Na naṁ umhayate disvā, na ca naṁ paṭinandati,
Cakkhūni cassa na dadāti, paṭilomañ-ca vattati.
Having seen you he does not smile, nor does he give you a welcome, he does not give you his attention, and he speaks out against you.
2. Ete bhavanti ākārā amittasmiṁ patiṭṭhitā,
Yehi amittaṁ jāneyya, disvā sutvā, ca paṇḍito ti.
These are the dispositions that are established in a foe, from which, seeing and hearing, the wise one can know who his foe is.
In this connection, having seen you he does not smile, he who is a foe, having seen that person, does not smile, does not laugh, does not see any aspect of delight.
Nor does he give you a welcome, having heard his word, that person does not give a welcome, and does not rejoice in his good and well spoken words.
He does not give you his attention, turning eye from eyes, turning his back, not looking round, he takes his eyes off the other.
And he speaks out against you, because he does not approve of your bodily or verbal deeds, he takes hold of the opposite view, a conflictual view.
Dispositions means inclinations.
From which... his foe, for these reasons, after seeing and hearing these reasons, the wise person, can know: “This is my foe,” but from the inverse he can know who his friend is.
In these words the Bodhisatta declared the marks of friend and foe. Thereafter he cultivated the Divine Abidings, and entered the Brahma Realm.
When the Teacher had ended this discourse, he identified the Jātaka, “The monk in question was he who kept the pet elephant, his teacher was the elephant, the Buddha’s followers were then the band of ascetics, and I myself was their chief.”