Dear Ipswich Sangha,
In this Chair’s letter I am going to share some reflections on the spiritual symbolism of elephants.
Sangharakshita describes a symbol as not a sign. He says, ‘A symbol does not stand for something that could be known in some other way. The whole point is that you can only get a sense of what a symbol represents, or get any feeling for it, through the symbol itself.’
Each Buddha in the Mandala of 5 Buddhas is associated with an animal. A Buddha always sits on a lotus because a fully opened lotus is a symbol of Enlightenment. Everything below the lotus represents samsara. The animals form a throne on which the Buddhas sit. So in this context the animals symbolise the last thing before Enlightenment. Maybe they symbolise the Bodhisattva who puts off Enlightenment and remains in samsara so as to help living beings. Maybe we can connect with Bodhisattva qualities through the qualities of the animals. We could also relate to the animals as supports to spiritual practice or protectors of the Enlightened Mind.
When I came across the Mandala of the 5 Buddhas nearly 40 years ago it was the Blue Wisdom Buddha Akshobhya seated on his throne of elephants that made a strong impression. I created a large blue shrine in my bedroom and below the Buddha I placed cards of elephants. On each card I wrote qualities that I saw in elephants that I wanted to develop.
During a Mandala of the 5 Buddhas retreat we created a huge mandala in the middle of the shrine room. Each participant made something symbolic for each Buddha, their colour, element, time of day, emblem or animal. I made a baby blue elephant out of chicken wire and covered it with blue tissue paper for the Akshobhya section. During this early retreat I became attached to the baby blue elephant and I assumed I would take it home. That was not be. On the final evening a bonfire was built and one by one all the symbolic items of the shrine were burned. I had self identified with the elephant, it was my pride and joy and I had to watch it go up in flames. It was an early direct teaching of impermanence that I was far from ready to accept. Elephants support a Wisdom Buddha. The loss of that elephant gave me an experience of impermanence and how getting fixed on possessing something causes pain. Bringing a mandala into being and then watching it pass away is a practice. It is like being engaged in a ritual of how conditioned things really are, they arise and pass away.
The title of the recent Sangha retreat arose from an activity at the Year of Akshobhya Day back in January. We split into 6 teams who each had the task of coming up with a title for the Sangha retreat and what themes they wanted to explore. Prajnakara and I chose 2 titles, Elephant in the room & Taking the plunge – Courage arising. Common themes that people wanted to explore were, depth of practice, what’s beneath the surface, revealing the unconscious with safety, uncovering potential, facing fear, developing courage and unshakability.
‘Elephant in the room’ made me smile. It was the opposite to the expression ‘elephants under the carpet’. It meant to me bringing one’s whole self onto the Buddhist path, not keeping aspects of oneself hidden, not hiding from our conditioned self. The elephants came out from under the carpet. Each person on the retreat had an elephant card to support and encourage them in their practice. We had a large elephant hanging in the Sangha room that had a very strong presence.
Prajnakara shared with us his association with elephants. He was aware of how the mind is distracted and so wants to get caught up in what is going on in the corners of the room, what’s going on out there. However there is this great big elephant standing right in front of you blocking your view. He is looking directly at you pointing you back towards your heart. You will find all you need within, ‘Look within’, he is saying.
As chair I am developing confidence in my own style of writing. This doesn’t come easily to me as I am more of an images person. However courage is arising which makes me want to take the plunge and share an experience of an elephant coming out from under the carpet in meditation.
I am sitting in my shrine room meditating with Akshobhya in front of me and Fran’s elephant to my left. Thank you Fran. The image of looking into the depths of the well at Vajrasana comes into my mind. Then an elephant memory becomes conscious. I am drifting across the African savannah looking over the edge of the basket of an air balloon. Suddenly there is a great trumpeting below from a parade of elephants, trunks and tusks raised up at us. It was an amazing sight and sound. However in the meditation my first instinct is to push the memory away. That holiday, which my dad generously took me on to visit my sister in Tanzania, was painful because I spent the whole of it struggling with depression. I regret that deeply because it was the only time the three of us ever had a substantial period of time together since our mother had died when we were children. The big elephant under the carpet of our family is that our mother’s absence goes unacknowledged. I hold that absence internally.
In the meditation I tried as best I could to turn towards the painful feelings rather than push away or get distracted by thought. Gently I surrounded myself with metta. Akshobhya has a light red aura. Metta becomes compassion when it responds to suffering. My core family are now no longer alive and I have no other family in East Anglia. This is at times painful.
However the Sangha is my family which is a beautiful blessing like the beauty of what you see at the depth of the well in Vajrasana, interconnected ever changing circlets of water.
Elephants symbolically can help open the heart and support us in overcoming any aversion to, or judgmentalness of, our experience. They can symbolise kindness and meditating on Akshobhya is the antidote to hatred. In the stillness of his Mirror-Like Wisdom we can turn towards and be with whatever is happening with kindness. We need a large field of metta to open to the unconscious minded and bring it into consciousness.
Sangha retreats are a beautiful opportunity to make new connections and friends and deepen existing friendships. This retreat was no exception. This final image shows a joyful elephant supporting friendship and generosity.
Next Sangha Retreat at Vajrasana 2-4th September 2026
I hope you can make it
Shubha
