Ascending the Mountain
Danger on the Hero's journey
The highest potential for a man is found at the summit of Mount Self-Mastery/Realization.
To reach that peak’s summit, one must begin in the jungle far below, there subject to the jungle’s law.
In the jungle there are many wild animals,
the most destructive of which is the wild elephant of the untamed mind,
maddened and in rut by the impulses of his senses.
Intoxicated by his own lust, desire oozing from his temples,
he cavorts through the jungle of saṁsāra,
oblivious to the destruction he leaves in his wake—
uprooting trees (lives) and creepers (beautifying qualities) in his pursuit of satisfaction,
which he feels as a deep drive for sexual fulfillment.
The maddened elephant tries to enjoy with as many she-elephants as he can.
He fears nothing; and delighting in the waters (action and reaction in conscious experience),
he is oblivious to the crocodiles (the jaws of death),
thinking they could never take him—
not knowing that one day there will be such a crocodile that he cannot escape.
This elephant is such a danger that almost no man ever leaves the jungle.
But some men, armed with the goad of knowledge and the noose of desire,
with the mouse of death’s whisper as their friend, learn to tame this elephant.
Upon its back, they begin moving swiftly through the deepest parts of the jungle.