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Pali on T-shirt

TheswingisyellowTheswingisyellow Trying to be open to existenceSamsara Veteran
edited July 2011 in General Banter
Hey Sangha!
Can anyone tell me what the Pali script on this T-shirt means?
All the best,
Todd
http://www.cafepress.com/+buddhist_elephant_dark_tshirt,82440245

Comments

  • TheswingisyellowTheswingisyellow Trying to be open to existence Samsara Veteran
    picimage
    ele.jpg 13.8K
  • VincenziVincenzi Veteran
    edited July 2011
    it reads nāgavaggo, which probably is a gramatical case of nāgavat which means...

    drum roll...

    "consisting of serpents or of elephants"
  • JeffreyJeffrey Veteran
    :clap:
  • TheswingisyellowTheswingisyellow Trying to be open to existence Samsara Veteran
    Thanks so much!! So I got the t-shirt some time back and have been walking around in it and thought to myself maybe I should find out what I am wearing!
    Dhp XXIII PTS: Dhp 320-333
    Nagavagga: The Elephant
    translated from the Pali by
    Acharya Buddharakkhita
    © 1996–2011
    Alternate translation: Thanissaro← Previous chapter Next chapter →
    320. As an elephant in the battlefield withstands arrows shot from bows all around, even so shall I endure abuse. There are many, indeed, who lack virtue.

    321. A tamed elephant is led into a crowd, and the king mounts a tamed elephant. Best among men is the subdued one who endures abuse.

    322. Excellent are well-trained mules, thoroughbred Sindhu horses and noble tusker elephants. But better still is the man who has subdued himself.

    323. Not by these mounts, however, would one go to the Untrodden Land (Nibbana), as one who is self-tamed goes by his own tamed and well-controlled mind.

    324. Musty during rut, the tusker named Dhanapalaka is uncontrollable. Held in captivity, the tusker does not touch a morsel, but only longingly calls to mind the elephant forest.

    325. When a man is sluggish and gluttonous, sleeping and rolling around in bed like a fat domestic pig, that sluggard undergoes rebirth again and again.

    326. Formerly this mind wandered about as it liked, where it wished and according to its pleasure, but now I shall thoroughly master it with wisdom as a mahout controls with his ankus an elephant in rut.

    327. Delight in heedfulness! Guard well your thoughts! Draw yourself out of this bog of evil, even as an elephant draws himself out of the mud.

    328. If for company you find a wise and prudent friend who leads a good life, you should, overcoming all impediments, keep his company joyously and mindfully.

    329. If for company you cannot find a wise and prudent friend who leads a good life, then, like a king who leaves behind a conquered kingdom, or like a lone elephant in the elephant forest, you should go your way alone.

    330. Better it is to live alone; there is no fellowship with a fool. Live alone and do no evil; be carefree like an elephant in the elephant forest.

    331. Good are friends when need arises; good is contentment with just what one has; good is merit when life is at an end, and good is the abandoning of all suffering (through Arahantship).

    332. In this world, good it is to serve one's mother, good it is to serve one's father, good it is to serve the monks, and good it is to serve the holy men.

    333. Good is virtue until life's end, good is faith that is steadfast, good is the acquisition of wisdom, and good is the avoidance of evil.
    http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/kn/dhp/dhp.23.budd.html

  • this requires that you read devanagari (for those words that are written in that script); but it may be useful:

    http://spokensanskrit.de/

    ...the devanagari trainer is nice.
  • TheswingisyellowTheswingisyellow Trying to be open to existence Samsara Veteran
    Vincenzi,
    Pretty cool :D Thanks again.
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