Path One − Buddha Puja
“Big brother elephant, we wish to speak with you.” Clearly hearing this, the elephant suddenly swung around to face the monks. It stood stock-still, its ears fully extended. “Big brother elephant, we wish to speak with you. You are so very big and strong. We are just a group of monks, so weak and so very frightened of you, big brother. We would like to walk past where you are standing. Would big brother please move over a bit so that we have room to pass by? If you keep standing there, it really frightens us, so we don’t dare walk past.” As soon as he finished speaking, the elephant immediately turned to the side and thrust its tusks into the middle of a clump of bamboo, signalling its intention to let them pass unharmed. Seeing it facing the clump of bamboo, Ajaan Mun told the others that they could continue on as it would not bother them now. The two monks invited Ajaan Mun to walk between them, with Ajaan Khao walking in front and Ajaan Mahã Thong Sak following behind. They walked past in single file only six feet from the elephant’s rear end, without incident. But as they were walking away, by chance the hook on Ajaan Mahã Thong Sak’s umbrella got tangled in some bamboo just a few yards past the elephant. It defied all attempts to extricate it, so he was forced to struggle with it for quite some time. Terrified of the elephant – which was now looking right at him – he was soon drenched in sweat. Fighting desperately to disentangle the hook, he glanced up at the eyes of the elephant, which stood there like a huge stuffed animal. He could see that its eyes were bright and clear. In truth, its countenance inspired affection rather than fear, but at that moment his fear remained strong. When he finally did get free, his fear subsided, and he realised 25