Dantabhūmisutta

mn125:12.1 “Suppose, Aggivessana, an anointed aristocratic king was to address his elephant tracker,

mn125:12.2 ‘Please, my good elephant tracker, mount the royal bull elephant and enter the elephant wood. When you see a wild bull elephant, tether it by the neck to the royal elephant.’

mn125:12.3 ‘Yes, Your Majesty,’ replied the elephant tracker, and did as he was asked.

mn125:12.4 The royal elephant leads the wild elephant out into the open;

mn125:12.5 and it’s only then that it comes out into the open,

mn125:12.6 for a wild bull elephant clings to the elephant wood.

mn125:12.7 The elephant tracker informs the king,

mn125:12.8 ‘Your Majesty, the wild elephant has come out into the open.’

mn125:12.9 Then the king addresses his elephant trainer,

mn125:12.10 ‘Please, dear elephant trainer, tame the wild bull elephant. Subdue its wild behaviors, its wild memories and thoughts, and its wild stress, weariness, and fever. Make it happy to be within a village, and instill behaviors congenial to humans.’

mn125:12.11 ‘Yes, Your Majesty,’ replied the elephant trainer. He dug a large post into the earth and tethered the elephant to it by the neck, so as to subdue its wild behaviors, its wild memories and thoughts, and its wild stress, weariness, and fever, and to make it happy to be within a village, and instill behaviors congenial to humans.

mn125:12.12 He spoke in a way that’s mellow, pleasing to the ear, endearing, going to the heart, polite, and likable and agreeable to the people.

mn125:12.13 Spoken to in such a way by the elephant trainer, the wild elephant wanted to listen. It actively listened and tried to understand.

mn125:12.14 So the elephant trainer rewards it with grass, fodder, and water.

mn125:12.15 When the wild elephant accepts the grass, fodder, and water, the trainer knows,

mn125:12.16 ‘Now the wild elephant will survive!’

mn125:12.17 He sets it a further task:

mn125:12.18 ‘Pick it up, worthy sir! Put it down, worthy sir!’

mn125:12.19 When the wild elephant picks up and puts down when the trainer says, following instructions, the trainer sets it a further task:

mn125:12.20 ‘Forward, worthy sir! Back, worthy sir!’

mn125:12.21 When the wild elephant goes forward and back when the trainer says, following instructions, the trainer sets it a further task:

mn125:12.22 ‘Stand, worthy sir! Sit, worthy sir!’

mn125:12.23 When the wild elephant stands and sits when the trainer says, following instructions, the trainer sets the task called imperturbability. He fastens a large plank to its trunk; a lancer sits on its neck; other lancers surround it on all sides; and the trainer himself stands in front with a long lance.

mn125:12.24 While practicing this task, it doesn’t budge its fore-feet or hind-feet, its fore-quarters or hind-quarters, its head, ears, tusks, tail, or trunk.

mn125:12.25 The wild bull elephant endures being struck by spears, swords, arrows, and axes; it endures the thunder of the drums, kettledrums, pipes, horns, and tom-toms. Rid of all crooks and flaws, and purged of defects, it is worthy of a king, fit to serve a king, and reckoned a factor of kingship.