1. Nāga Sutta
Once, when the Buddha was seated under the Ajapāla Banyan
tree, soon after his Enlightenment, Māra assumed the form of a fearsome elephant
and tried to frighten him. But the Buddha recognised Mara and sent him away
discomfited. S. i.103f.
2. Nāga Sutta
A certain novice was in the habit of upending too much
time in clansmen's houses. When warned against this, he answered that he could
not understand how he was to blame when he saw many senior monks acting in the
same way.
He was reported to the Buddha, who related the story of an elephant
who dwelt by a great lake. He plunged into the lake, pulled up lotus stalks,
cleaned them and then, by eating them, gained strength and beauty. But when the
baby elephants tried to follow his example, they could not clean the stalks, and
eating them with mud and dirt, they grew sick, some of them even dying
(S.ii.268).
3. Nāga Sutta
Snakes which dwell in the Himālaya, when grown and strong,
find their way into the sea, where they grow even greater. Even so do monks, who
develop the Noble Eightfold Path (S.v.47).
4. Nāga Sutta
An elephant, to be fit for the royal stalls, should have
four qualities: he should be a good listener (sotā), a good slayer (hantā), full
of patience (khantā), and a good goer (gantā). A monk should have the
corresponding qualities in order to be fit for the respect and gifts of the
world. A.ii.116.
5. Nāga Sutta
The Buddha goes to the bathing place near the
Migāramātupāsāda with Ananda, bathes there, and, while drying his limbs, sees
Pasenadi's elephant, Seta, coming out of the bathing place, attended by great
ceremony. People, seeing him, express their wonder and admiration of the noble
animal.
Udāyī (Kāludāyī, says the Commentary, AA.ii.669), who is near by, asks
the Buddha if it is only the elephant whom people praise for his bulk or do they
praise other bulky things as well? They do, says the Buddha., praise all huge
things - horses, bulls, snakes, brew, and big men, calling them Nāgas,
but really, the best Nāga is he who commits no enormity in word or thought (āgun
na karoti, tamnāgo). Thereupon Udāyi breaks forth into song, praising the
Buddha's teaching, comparing the Buddha to an elephant, each limb representing a
different virtue (A.iii.345).
This sutta is also called Nāgopama Sutta.
ThagA.ii.7.
6. Nāga Sutta
Sometimes it happens that a forest dwelling elephant gets
bored with the company of his fellows, his women folk and the young elephants
who get in his way and interfere with his freedom. Thereupon he breaks away from
them and retires into solitude. So should the monk, wearied of the haunts of
men, resort to loneliness and there rid himself of the Āsavas. A.iv.435.
Nāga Vagga
The twenty third chapter of the
Dhammapada.
Nāga Samyutta
The nineteenth section of the
Samyutta Nikāya. S. iii.240-6.

|