THE BUDDHA IS BACK

And he's beter than before. Years ago, as a child, my ___________ had a girlfriend. She was Hungarian and lived in the east 60's. Every now and then her cook made Hungarian food for me and my sister and my mother would bring us over. We weren't fed well, so I looked forward to this like a holiday. Lots of meat. She collected exotic and rare Buddhas. The living room and apartment was covered in them. Jade Buddhas, gold Buddhas, diamond emerald and ruby encrusted Buddhas, all mostly Chinese. She always had me rub their stomachs for good luck. I think she knew that she was going to die soon because she asked me to pick one out to keep. I said no, because that's how I was taught to react, but she insisted. My mother gave the ok, so I did what I thought was polite ; I picked the smallest Buddha she had, which was a fairly sizable solid chunk of ivory. As it turns out it was one of the oldest and most precious in the collection. I had it for years, but when my __________ became ill in the past few years I gave it away to him. He collected and restored ivory and had glass cases of it. People told me that it was nuts to give it away, but it was a Buddha. You give those away. He died recently. The ivory Buddha just came back to me the other day and on the same day I had just given away a Buddha.


This was also passed to me with it. I've never seen it before. I found it tragic and upsetting in it's narrative, as ivory comes from the poor elephant. A predator is attacking the elephant from behind, but the elephant is picking up and attacking it's cub. Such a struggle. I found it sad and telling of nature, and ivory.

I shall bear harsh words,
As the elephant in battle endures arrows,
For I know that most people behave poorly.

It is the tamed elephant that men lead into a crowd.
A king mounts only a tamed elephant.
The man who has tamed himself,
And patiently bears harsh words,
Is also the best among men.

The tamed mules are good.
The well bred horses of Sindh are good.
The mighty elephants are good.
Best of all is the man who has tamed himself.

One does not ride tamed animals to nirvana.
Only the tamed person goes there,
On his well tamed self."

- The Dhammapada
Ananda Maitereya Translation


I hear you Mae.