[178] "Here again, Udāyī, some clansmen (kulaputtā), when told by me, 'Give this up,' say: 'But what of such a trifling, insignificant thing to be given up, when the Blessed One tells us to give it up, when the Sublime One tells us to relinquish it?' They give that up, and they do not harbor displeasure toward me; and those bhikkhus who desire the training, having given that up, dwell with little concern, unruffled, subsisting on what is given by others, with a mind become like a wild deer's. For them, Udāyī, that is a feeble bond, a weak bond, a rotten bond, an insubstantial bond.
"Suppose, Udāyī, a king's bull elephant with tusks like chariot-poles, massive, of noble breed, accustomed to battle, were bound with bonds of stout leather thongs; by merely twisting its body a little, it would snap those bonds, burst them asunder, and go off wherever it wished. Now, Udāyī, would one who spoke thus be speaking rightly: 'Those bonds of stout leather thongs with which that king's bull elephant with tusks like chariot-poles, massive, of noble breed, accustomed to battle, was bound — bonds which, by merely twisting its body a little, it snapped, burst asunder, and went off wherever it wished — those are for it a strong bond, a firm bond, a stout bond, an unrotten bond, a thick block of wood'?"
"No indeed, venerable sir. Those bonds of stout leather thongs with which that king's bull elephant with tusks like chariot-poles, massive, of noble breed, accustomed to battle, was bound — bonds which, by merely twisting its body a little, it snapped, burst asunder, and went off wherever it wished — those are for it a feeble bond … an insubstantial bond."
"Even so, Udāyī, some clansmen here, when told by me, 'Give this up,' say: 'But what of such a trifling, insignificant thing to be given up, when the Blessed One tells us to give it up, when the Sublime One tells us to relinquish it?' They give that up, and they do not harbor displeasure toward me; and those bhikkhus who desire the training, having given that up, dwell with little concern, unruffled, subsisting on what is given by others, with a mind become like a wild deer's. For them, Udāyī, that is a feeble bond, a rotten bond, an insubstantial bond."
English translation from the Pali (Siam Raṭṭha edition) — under review, not for citation.