The power that Buddha attained in meditation gave him a penetrating vision into “everyday life.” A vision that was neither denial of nor escape from the world’s dual nature, but wise understanding of the freedom possible while living here.
Buddha’s many stories are teachings, rich with illustrations from animal and human life, helping us to discover and perceive as he did that the Eternal lives with us here on earth in companionable ways. In one Nirvana Sutra (teaching on self-realization) he brought to mind three ways of living by describing how three animals - a hare, a horse, and an elephant - cross a river. We can picture the animals and imagine how they each proceed. They bring to mind similarities in our own behaviors, linking us to other earthly beings with greater appreciation and compassion… and helping us to cross the “sea of samsara,” the ebb and flow in the currents of ever changing worlds.
In Buddha’s story, the hare must cross the river by skirting the flotsam, and hopping over the surface or else he will drown. Poor thing, he must be an escape artist in order to survive, nervously moving from here to there. There is nothing at all secure in his way of going.
The horse seemingly has an advantage over the hare. He can understand the current and stride deeper into the river, perhaps even crossing it safely because he can swim. He will have to struggle all the way, though, pushing and probing, while immersed in the currents, but he’s definitely better off than the hare!
The elephant is the only one of the three who moves forward steadily whatever the current, as his footing will always be solid and secure. Stride by stride, even if completely immersed in the flow of the waters, he is fearless, and will surely reach the other side.
In the story, the hare represents the most shallow way of human living, or one who lives as on the surface of life only; who is ever restless, afraid, and unable to bear any other responsible concern but his own physical survival, while traversing the ever-threatening river. He is helpless and continually changeable in his course, switching from one hope to another, ultimately ruled by external forces.
The human’s plight as typified by the horse, is only better than the hare’s by half. He will perhaps, “just get by” if he can swim, but the dual currents of life and death, joy and sorrow, fortune and misfortune, success and failure provide no stability to his course of crossing. Although he will be able to bear some weight of cares and responsibilities, the cycles of his crossing will be endless.
The elephant, the most noble of beasts in ths story, represents an enlightened soul, a bodhisattva who proceeds through whatever he encounters without trying to avoid difficulties, or desiring to escape them. He becomes ever stronger by his steady practice, and he penetrates into the depths of life‘s currents to cross the river without fear or suffering.
One who knows only the physical forms of earth, bound by their shapes, and colors, and words knows very little. His life remains shallow. But if he can go deeper, perceiving within them, the eternal thread of the ethereal web, he will find that all life is bound together in an essential unity.
By Srimati Kamala
The Forest of Forever