Namaste, Welcome to SAM-VAD (Together In Conversation), This week let me bring to your attention another monumental work, ‘The JĀTAKAS – Birth Stories of the Bodhisatta (the one bound for, or to, enlightenment). A Jātaka is a story about a birth, and this collection of tales is about the repeated births – and – deaths of the Bodhisatta.
According to Sara Shaw only a selection of 26 stories have been included in this current translation out of the 547 stories with at least one story linked in one ancient source to each perfection.
The Ten Perfections (pāramis) are:
Generosity (dāna)
Virtue (síla)
Renunciation (nekkhamma)
Wisdom (paññā)
Effort (viriya)
Forebearance (khanti)
Truth (sacca)
Resolve (adhiţţhāna)
Loving Kindness (mettā)
Equanimity (upekkhā)
The characters in Jātakas inhabit an intricately meshed network of almost familial relationships. They are constantly interacting with each other, discussing their problems and giving advice on how to live. Links between characters extend far back into the past; events tend to recur as old habits are repeated in later lifetimes. Underneath it all is the assumption of the Jātakas that each being lives as an independent locus of consciousness, capable of choice and of finding enlightenment for him or herself.
The Cane Stalk story
Formerly, it is said, this woody thicket was a forest. And in this pool a certain water demon used to eat anyone who went down into the pool. At that time the Bodhisatta was a monkey king, as big as a red deer fawn. He had a retinue of eighty thousand monkeys, whom he protected as they lived in the forest. He gave advice to the tribe of monkeys: ‘Friends, in this forest there are poisonous trees and lakes haunted by non-humans. So before you eat any fruit which you have never eaten before or drink from any water where you have never drunk before, check with me first.’ They assented and one day came to a spot they had not visited previously. After a very long day of travelling they searched for water and saw a lotus pool. They did not, however, drink the water, but sat down and waited for the Bodhisatta to arrive. The Bodhisatta, came and said, ‘Friends, why are you not drinking the water?’ ‘We were waiting for you,’ they said. ‘Well done, my friends,’ said the Bodhisatta.
Then he walked all round the pool, examined the track of footprints and saw that they went down to the water, but that none come back. ‘There’s no doubt about it,’ he realized. ‘This is haunted by non-humans.’ He said to them, ‘You did well, my friends, in not drinking the water. It is haunted by non-humans.’
The water demon saw that they were not going down into his territory. Making himself quiet horrible to look at he divided the water into two, emerged with a dark belly, white face and bright red hands and feet and asked, ‘Why are you sitting there? Come down to drink the water.’ Then the Bodhisatta enquired of him, ‘Are you the water demon who lives here?’ ‘I certainly am,’ he replied. ‘And you take hold of anyone who comes down to the pool?’ ‘Yes I do. I do not let anyone go who comes to the water, even so much as a little bird. I will eat the lot of you.’ We’ll not see you eat us up,’ the Bodhisatta replied. ‘Yet you will drink the water?’ said the demon. ‘Yes we will drink the water. And we’ll not come down and be under your power either.’ So how are you going to drink the water?’ ‘Why do you think we need to come down to drink? We won’t come down to the water at all. One by one, the eighty thousand of us will take a cane stalk and drink from your lake easily as if through a hollow lotus stalk – and you’ll not be able to eat us.’
You can buy your copy from any of the bookstores near you or via any on-line portal selling books or also by clicking the following link:
I want to draw your attention to these wise words of a Storyteller which I have extracted from yet another monumental work which has been inspired from “The Panćatantra”:
My stories require, at this stage, no extra commentary, imaginings, or guesswork by you, me, or anyone else. The very worst would be that of moralizing. To explain away is to forget. Thus, let the stories which you can remember do their own work by their very diversity. Familiarize yourself with them.
Excerpt from Doctor’s orders:
Kalila Wa Dimna; Vol.1 – Ramsay Wood
Let us remember: Our life experience would ultimately amount to whatever we had paid attention to. Attention: is important and most of the times we are so indifferent to it. It is as fundamental as food; and we go blundering about, seeking ways to assuage the craving, instead of learning how to provide ourselves with what we need, sensibly and calmly. We feed the hunger blindly. Once the mechanism is brought to our attention and we begin to study it, it is as if a veil has been stripped off ordinary life, and we become freer in our action and choices.
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