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| This baby Dumbo will make a fine meal -- eaten alive and torn to bits by a gang of lions. |
Acharya Buddharakkhita, Naga Vagga (Dhammapada XXIII), Dhr. Seven (ed.)
Dhp. 320. As an elephant (naga, "powerful creature") in the battlefield withstands arrows shot from bows all around, even so shall I endure abuse. There are many, indeed, who lack virtue.
321. A tamed elephant is led into a crowd, and the royal leader mounts a tamed elephant. Best among people is the subdued one who endures abuse.
322. Excellent are well-trained mules, thoroughbred Sindhu horses, and noble tusker elephants. But better still is the person who has subdued him or herself.
323. Not by these mounts, however, would one go to the Untrodden Land (nirvana), as one who is self-tamed goes by one's own tamed and well-controlled heart/mind.
324. Musty during rut, the tusker named Dhanapalaka is uncontrollable. Held in captivity, the tusker does not touch a morsel, but only longingly calls to mind the wild elephant-forest.
325. When a person is sluggish and gluttonous, sleeping and rolling around in bed like a fat domestic pig, that sluggard undergoes rebirth [and suffering] again and again.
326. Formerly this mind/heart wandered about as it liked, where it wished and according to its pleasure, but now I shall thoroughly master it with wisdom as a mahout ("elephant tamer") controls with a restraint an elephant in rut.
327. Delight in heedfulness! Guard well your thoughts! Draw yourself out of this bog of harm, even as an elephant draws itself out of the mud.
328. If for company you find a wise and prudent friend who leads a virtuous life, you should, overcoming all impediments, keep company with that person joyously and mindfully.
329. If for company you cannot find a wise and prudent friend who leads a virtuous life, then, like a ruler who leaves behind a conquered kingdom, or like a lone elephant in the elephant forest, you should go your own way alone.
330. Better it is to live alone; there is no fellowship with a fool. Live alone and do no harm; be carefree like an elephant in the elephant-forest.
331. Good are friends when need arises; good is contentment with just what one has; good is merit accrued when life is at an end, and good is the abandoning of all suffering (through the gaining of enlightenment).
332. In this world, good it is to serve one's mother, good it is to serve one's father, good it is to serve Buddhist ascetics, and good it is to serve the holy persons.
333. Good is virtue until life's end, good is confidence (faith) that is steadfast, good is the acquisition of wisdom, and good is the avoidance of harm. More
Wild cat prowling near Disneyland, Paris
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| It looks like a tiger, a female lion, possibly a panther, but most likely an extinct lynx? |
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| If they eat elephants, will they eat mice? |
One theory is that it could be a lynx, an extinct cat that was reintroduced to France in the 1970s. But the public and Disneyland Paris, the main tourist attraction in the area, didn't seem too concerned on Friday by what officials were calling a security threat.
In fact, if the search doesn't capture the animal soon, locals could begin seeing it less as an invader and more like a harmless Pepé Le Pew, the French skunk. Officials who had identified the cat spotted near a grocery store in a Paris suburb on Thursday morning as a panther tigris are now ruling that out. More + CBC News video
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