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 selectionof 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 Story of the Great King of Glory
At the time, when Mahāsudassana had descended from the palace of dhamma, Queen Subhaddā saw him on a suitable bed, made of the seven kinds of jewels, that had been laid out for him near the khadira forest. He was lying down on his right side with the intention of never getting up again. ‘Lord, there are these eighty four thousand cities, the foremost of which is Kusāvāti, the royal seat. Set your heart here.’ When she had said this Mahāsudassana replied, ‘Do not say this, queen, but advice me rather: give up your desire for this and do not have longing’. ‘Why is this?’ the queen asked. ‘Because today I am to die’. And then the queen, weeping wiped her eyes and with difficulty and in distress, said what he had asked, crying and grieving. And the other eighty four thousand wives cried and grieved, and not one amongst the ministers and the rest could endure it, and so they all wept too. The Bodhisatta, restraining everyone, said, Enough, to be sure! Do not make this noise.’ Addressing the Queen, he said, ‘Do not you cry and grieve, O queen. Even something as little as the fruit of seasame tree is compounded and not permanent. So all things are impermanent and subject to destruction’. Saying this he gave advice to the queen and spoke the following verse:
‘Impermanent indeed are conditioned things!
For they partake in birth and old age.
What arises, ceases;
Happy is the calming of these things’.
I end this tale here.
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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