As an elephant in battle [must endure] arrows shot from bows, so must I endure abuse, for many people are badly behaved.

They lead a tamed [elephant] into the assembly. The king mounts a tamed [elephant]. One who is tamed, who endures abuse, is the best amongst men.

Mules are excellent when tamed; and so are the thoroughbred [horses] from the Sindh country; so are Kuñjara elephants and great Nāga elephants. But more excellent than these [when tamed] is one who has tamed himself.

Not by all these vehicles could one go to [that] Unvisited Quarter [i.e. nibbāna], as one would go on account of oneself being well-tamed. One who is tamed travels by means of what is well tamed.

The rutting elephant called Dhanapālaka is difficult to control. Being held captive he does not eat a morsel. He is remembering [his blind mother in] the elephant forest.

One who is sluggish, a big eater, a drowsy person rolling about in his sleep like a fat hog nourished on fodder, again and again ends up in a womb, the fool.

Formely this mind roamed where it wanted, where it liked, as it pleased. Now I shall control it properly, as a mahout controls an elephant in rut.

Take delight in diligence [in the practice]. Supervise your mind [with mindfulness]. Rescue yourself from the difficult road [of spiritual defilement] like the elephant sunk in the mud.

If one should find a mindful companion, a wise comrade of good disposition, then, overcoming all adversities, pleased and mindful, one should live the religious life with him.

If one does not find a mindful companion, a wise comrade of good disposition, then, like a king abandoning his conquered kingdom, one should live the religious life as solitarily as a Mātaṅga elephant in the forest.

Living the religious life solitarily is better: there is no companionship with fools. One should live the religious life solitarily and do no unvirtuous deeds. One should abide at ease like a Mātaṅga elephant in the forest.

Excellent are [good-hearted] friends when need arises. Excellent is contentment [with what is paltry and easily gotten]. Excellent is merit at the time of death. Excellent is the riddance of all suffering.

Excellent in the world is reverence for one’s mother. Excellent is reverence for one’s father. Excellent in the world is reverence for ascetics. Excellent is reverence for Brahmans.

Excellent is virtue [maintained] until old age. Excellent is unshakeable faith [in the perfection of the Perfect One’s enlightenment]. Excellent is the attainment of penetrative discernment. Excellent is the non-doing of unvirtuous deeds.