Dear Members,
This morning..I read this news:
Elephant Attacks Car In South Africa
[By CHRISTOPHER TORCHIA]
JOHANNESBURG -- An elephant overturned a vehicle carrying two tourists, injuring both, on Monday, said South African officials.
The tourists are of "Chinese origin," according to a statement from Kruger National Park. One of the tourists said he was from Hong Kong, according to a hospital official.
An elephant in the park attacked the vehicle on a road at 6:30 a.m. Monday, and a medical team in a helicopter rushed to help the injured male driver, said the statement. He was taken to Clinix Phalaborwa Private Hospital, near the park.
An official at the hospital said the man was in critical condition with multiple rib fractures, and that his female companion was also being treated there for a pelvis fracture. He said officials planned to transfer the pair to a hospital in the Pretoria area.
The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.
It is unclear why the elephant became aggressive, said the park spokesman William Mabasa. He is appealing to the public to be alert in Kruger park and try not to get too close if they see an elephant approaching on the road.
The vast Kruger park lies in South Africa's northeast, next to Zimbabwe and Mozambique.
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And suddenly..I think of this JATAKA*******************
MITTĀMITTA-JĀTAKA: The Kind Ascetic And His Wicked Pet
[Translated from the Pali by Dr.C.B.Varma]
This story the Master told whilst dwelling at Sāvatthi, about a certain Brother.
One day the brothers were all together talking about it in the Hall of Truth. "Friend, young Brother
felt so confident of his teacher's friendship, that he took a piece of cloth, and made it into a shoe-bag. Then the teacher asked him what confidence there was between them, flew into a passion, jumped up, and gave him a blow." The Master came in, and asked them what they were talking of as they sat there together. They told him. Then he said, "This is not the first time, Brothers, that this man has disappointed the confidence of his fellow. He did the same before." And then he told an old-world tale.
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Once upon a time, when Brahmadatta was king of Benares, the Bodhisatta was born as a brahmin's son in the realm of Kāsi. When he came of age, he renounced the world; he caused to grow in him the Supernatural Faculties and the Attainments, and took up his abode in the region of Himalaya with a band of disciples. One of this band of ascetics disobeyed the voice of the Bodhisatta, and kept a young elephant which had lost its mother. This creature by and by grew big, then killed its master and made off into the forest. The ascetics did his obsequies; and then, coming about the Bodhisatta, they put this question to him.
"Sir, how may we know whether one is a friend or an enemy?"
This the Bodhisatta declared to them in the following stanzas:--
"He smiles not when he sees him, no welcome will he show,
He will not turn his eyes that way, and answers him with No.
"These are the marks and tokens by which your foe you see:
These if a wise man sees and hears he knows his enemy."
In these words the Bodhisatta declared the marks of friend and foe. Thereafter he cultivated the Excellences, and entered the heaven of Brahma.
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When the Master had ended this discourse, he identified the Birth:--"The Brother in question was he who kept the pet elephant, his teacher was the elephant, the Buddha's followers were then the band of hermits, and I myself was their chief."
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Love Buddha's dhamma
yawares/sirikanya