On elephants

From Ayya Khema:

Once Pessa, an elephant trainer’s son, came to see the Buddha and said to him: ‘I have no problems with elephants. They do exactly as they appear to want to do. They have an intention and I can see that intention and then they follow through with it. But I have a lot of problems with people. They say one thing and do another.’ The Buddha said, ‘That’s right. The elephant lives in the jungle, but the human being lives in a mental jungle.’ People say one thing and mean or do another. The worst of it is that we’re not even aware of it. We think that is the way it ought to be done. We think that this is convention, custom or tradition, and we don’t thoroughly examine our thoughts, speech or actions.

(“Being Nobody, Going Nowhere: Meditations on the Buddhist Path“, 1987, pp. 37-8)

For various reasons this quote has been on my mind a lot over the past few days (the book, incidentally, is also a lovely introduction to Buddhism/meditation for those looking to get better acquainted with either or both). It is not only that intentionality works differently with different sorts of beings, but also that the environment – for humans, the mental jungle – can sometimes seem poised to ‘scramble’ the relation between intention, speech, and action.

Less of a problem if you’re an elephant, I guess.

Here’s a longer snippet – also important to pay attention to the distinction between pity and compassion, the first, Khema says, the feeling of being sad for, the latter being sad – as well as, conversely, happy, joyful, etc. – with.