Sometime in the fifth century, A.D., Buddhist monks in Ceylon committed the then still largely oral canon and related stories of Theravada Buddhism to writing. These texts were written in Pali, a language related to Sanskrit and based on an ancient vernacular, probably spoken in the western part of India. This sacred language of Buddhism is still in use in the religious literature of Thailand and Burma.
The Buddhist Canon, the Tripitaka (Three Baskets), has as its last section the Supplementary Doctrines, of which the Jataka, also named the Birth Stories (relating to the previous births of the Buddha) is part. The great doctor Buddhaghosa is commonly believed to have compiled a very important set of commentaries on many Buddhist scriptures in the fifth century A.D., including most of the Jataka. It is from this source that the Birth Stories are best known today. They teach the four cardinal virtues of Buddhism--friendliness, compassion, joy, and equanimity--through folktales set in the past, in which communications between humans and animals or plants are possible. In an entertaining way, these stories encourage the warm virtues of family love, brotherhood, and honesty in one's dealing with others.
Jataka in Sanskrit and Pali means birth. This collection of very popular stories of the former lives of the Buddha are preserved in all branches of Buddhism. Some of these tales are scattered throughout the Pali canon, but most of them are found in the Jatakatthavannana (or Jakatthakatha).
It is most common for these tales to reveal the circumstances that prompted a moral lesson, and end with the Buddha disclosing his identity in the present lives of the characters in the narrative. In often humorous and varied ways, the Buddha character may appear as a king, an outcast, a god, or an elephant--always showing and thus conveying to others an important moral virtue.
These popular birth stories have also been told in sculpture and painting throughout the Buddhist world. It is interesting to note that parallels of many of these stories can be found in non-Buddhist Indian literature and the ancient Greek Aesop's fables.
Once, in the long-ago days, there lived a king in a beautiful old palace. He was happy there, and ruled kindly, if not always wisely, over his people. But one day he chanced to hear that a neighboring ruler had built himself a splendid new palace, all of shining wood. And after that, his beautiful old palace seemed dull and ugly to the king. He could think of nothing but that shining wooden wonder.
"Enough of this," the king decided. "I shall have a new palace as well. It shall be all of shining wood. And it shall be twice as splendid as that--that wooden shack!"
"But it will hurt your people," said his councilors. "For it is they who will have to pay for your new palace. And the cost may be much more than they can afford. They may starve."
"Oh, nonsense!" the king replied lightly. "I've always been good to them. This once, let them be good to me!"
So he went with his courtiers and his servants and his
...
Read Full Article
|
