The Jataka Tales Abridged E-Book

Tim Bewer

• Herausgeber: WS
• Kategorie: Religion und Spiritualität
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 1382

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2024

Beschreibung

The Jataka tales compose a large collection of Buddhist morality stories in which the Buddha recounts some of his past lives on his long road to enlightenment. Even though they’re a part of the Pali Canon and contain words attributed to the Buddha himself, they’re more folktale than religious text, and their popularity stems as much from their entertainment value as their moral messages. Often compared with Aesop’s Fables, the Buddha-to-be is sometimes born as an animal, and he frequently overcomes difficult situations and solves problems in creative and comical ways.

This book features abridged, plain-language versions of all 547 classical Jataka tales, the first-ever complete collection of this sort in English. Much easier to read than the stodgy translations done by scholars more than a century ago, these concise stories are as enjoyable as they are enlightening and appeal to everyone, not just Buddhists.

“With these modern English renderings of Cowell's nineteenth century translations, Tim Bewer has offered freshly readable versions of the entire jataka collection . . . This enormous labor of love makes these delightful, but long obscured, texts elegantly accessible to modern readers. They will be valued by all lovers of Buddhist art and literature for their spiritual and aesthetic qualities, but also by those who simply admire the fabulous Indian imagination, for these tales make their wisdom charming with entertainment and fun.”—Stephen Jenkins, Professor Emeritus of Religion at Cal Poly Humboldt

“Easy to read and understand, these versions of the Jataka tales are a delight.”—Phra Saneh Dhammavaro, Founder of the Monk Chat Program and International Meditation Center at Wat Suan Dok, Chiang Mai

Leseprobe

Copyright © 2024 Tim Bewer

All Rights Reserved. Except for brief excerpts for critique, review, and discussion as provided by fair use, no part of this book may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means without prior written permission of the publisher.

ISBN (e-book) 978-616-94548-0-9

First edition published by

Meng Mountain Books

Udon Thani, Thailand

www.mengmountainbooks.com

Edited by Andrew Hirst and Michelle Rosquillo.

Cover Photo: Vessantara Jataka at Wat Nong Khrao Siri Mongkol, Nong Khai, Thailand. By Tim Bewer, 2022.

Epigraph from a translation by Bhikkhu Bodhi at https://suttacentral.net/mn4/en/bodhi.

When my concentrated mind was thus purified, bright, unblemished, rid of imperfection, malleable, wieldy, steady, and attained to imperturbability, I directed it to knowledge of the recollection of past lives. I recollected my manifold past lives, that is, one birth, two births, three births, four births, five births, ten births, twenty births, thirty births, forty births, fifty births, a hundred births, a thousand births, a hundred thousand births, many aeons of world-contraction, many aeons of world-expansion, many aeons of world-contraction and expansion: ‘There I was so named, of such a clan, with such an appearance, such was my nutriment, such my experience of pleasure and pain, such my life-term; and passing away from there, I reappeared elsewhere; and there too I was so named, of such a clan, with such an appearance, such was my nutriment, such my experience of pleasure and pain, such my life-term; and passing away from there, I reappeared here.’ Thus with their aspects and particulars I recollected my manifold past lives.

The Buddha, Bhayabherava Sutta (MN4)

Contents

Preface

The Basics of Buddhism

About the Jataka Tales

The Jataka Tales

Appendix A: What the Bodhisatta Was Born As in the Jataka Tales

Appendix B: Duplicate and Multiple Lives in the Jataka Tales

Notes

Glossary

Bibliography

About the Author

Landmarks

Title page

Title Page

Copyright Page

Epigraph

Preface

Body Matter

Appendix

Footnotes

Glossary

Bibliography

Preface

I did not write these stories for any religious or scholarly reasons. I am not a Buddhist, an academic, or a storyteller; and I wasn’t seeking moral guidance. I just love Thai Buddhist art. The Jataka tales are an important part of Buddhism in Thailand, where I live, and most Thai temples have mural paintings or other depictions of the last ten Jataka tales. So of course, I read them. I wanted to put a plot to the many iconic scenes (Temiya lifting the chariot over his head, the goddess rescuing Mahajanaka from the ocean, Jujaka sleeping safely in a tree while devas care for the children down below, etc.) that I saw so often. But it is quite rare for any of the other 537 Jataka tales to appear on temple walls, so I didn’t delve much further. But later, when I saw a painting of the Culla-Paduma Jataka (#193) (in which the Buddha-to-be eats his six sisters-in-law and is later rescued by a talking iguana after his wife tried to kill him because she fell in love with a thief who had no hands or feet) in the historic ubosot of Wat Thung Si Meuang in Ubon Ratchathani, I realized I should read all the others.

To my surprise, there was only one complete collection of the Jataka tales in English: The Jataka, or Stories of the Buddha’s Former Births, an academic book from the late 19th century. (Nearly all of my versions were adapted from this book, and all the quotes used in this preface and the About the Jataka Tales chapter come from it.) While the stories were entertaining, as I knew they would be, some were a chore to read. The English is outdated (“and she besought him to forbear”[1]), they can be rambling and repetitive, and the translators contorted the gatha (the specific parts of the stories attributed to the Buddha himself) into poems; mostly rhyming couplets such as these.

‘Tis hard to find such holy men, such brahmins, wise and good,

Who keep them spotless from all lust, that they may eat

your food.[2]

One mortal dies—to kindred ties born is another straight:

Each creature’s bliss dependent is on ties associate.

The strong man therefore, skilled in sacred text,

Keen-contemplating this world and the next,

Knowing their nature, not by any grief,

However great, in mind and heart is vext.[3]

What time the nearness of a bosom friend

Threatens your peace to end,

If you are wise, guard your supremacy

Like the apple of your eye.

But when your bosom friend does more increase

The measure of your peace,

Let your friend’s life in everything right through

Be dear as yours to you.[4]

After reading twenty or so Jataka, I started searching the web again, hoping to find I was mistaken and there actually was another complete collection of Jataka tales in English: one that would be more enjoyable to read. There wasn’t. Then I thought . . . why not me? I had enough of a background in Buddhism and Buddhist folklore to understand the religious references in the stories, so I believed I could do a good job. This led to me undertaking a three-year mission that, even just a few days before I began it, I would never have imagined. The pleasure of reading the stories spurred me along throughout the endeavor, and knowing this had never been done before was quite motivational. While I often wondered whether I had made a mistake starting such a time-consuming project, I rarely regretted it.

My Approach

My only goal for these stories was to make them as easy and enjoyable to read as possible. Primarily this meant two things: using modern English and condensing them. The latter was necessary, and usually quite easy, since the stories are often rambling, with lots of irrelevant incidents, pointless repetition, and flowery language. People in the stories frequently think something and then say it out loud, or the narrator describes the exact same thing that a person says:

For fear of him, the hermit grew thin; he became squalid, lost his colour, grew yellower and yellower, and the veins stood out upon his skin.

It happened one day that he paid a visit to his brother. “Why, brother,” said he, “what makes you thin? how did you lose your colour? why are you so yellow, and why do your veins stand out like this upon your skin?”[5]

Even the original scholars translating the Jataka tales to English sometimes skipped parts of the ancient Pali versions: one footnote reads, “Some 15 stanzas are here omitted, as they only repeat what has been said before.”[6] And as you would expect, the Buddha is frequently given excessive glorification. The original,

In stately dignity like Mount Sineru resting on the solid earth, the Master seated himself on the Buddha-seat, making a glory shine round him of paired garlands upon garlands of six-coloured light, which divided and divided into masses of the size of a platter, of the size of a canopy, and of the size of a tower, until, like shafts of lightning, the rays reached to the heavens above. It was even as when the sun rises, stirring the ocean to the depths.

With reverent obeisance and reverent hearts, the Brethren entered and took their seats around him, encompassing him as it were within an orange curtain. Then in tones as of Maha-Brahma the Master said . . .[7]

became simply “The Buddha preached . . .” in my version.

Also, with no scholarly or religious restrictions, I had the liberty to stray from the structure of the originals. Since they are irrelevant to the plot, I left out the introductory lines (e.g., “‘I saw one sitting,’ etc.—This story the Master told, whilst dwelling in Jetavana, about a certain landowner.”[8]) telling where the Buddha was when he recited the story and making a little catchphrase out of the first words of the gatha. Also, I chose to tell the stories in two parts, rather than three, by combining both of the “present” (i.e., those from the Buddha’s era) sections into one. But despite being abridged, these versions are all still complete tellings. No significant parts of the stories were cut; only trifles and tangents.

While condensing the stories often improved them, I resisted the urge to “fix” anything. The Jataka tales are entertaining, but as with many ancient fables, few stand as examples of good storycraft: Inconsistencies (in Jataka #54 we are told that eating a kimpakka fruit causes instant death, but the men who eat them do not even know they are poisonous until the Bodhisatta shows up later and tells them); contradictions (the present parts of both Jataka #272 and Jataka #481 tell the same story of a man who insults two of the Buddha’s top disciples and then tries to get them to return to his village: in the first he simply leaves the Buddha’s monastery disappointed, and in the second he is struck dead and sent straight to hell); exaggerations (in Jataka #177 eighty thousand monkeys sit eating fruit in a single tree); and lapses in logic (in Jataka #22 a dog sneaks into the palace to save other dogs by telling the king that it is impossible for dogs to sneak into the palace) are common.

To be clear, my intent in discussing the storytellers’ shortcomings is not to criticize—I would not have gone to all this effort if I didn’t love these stories—it is just to let readers know that these issues are not mistakes introduced during the abbreviation process; they lie in the originals. And also, when you wonder why, in Jataka #220, the Bodhisatta did not just go live in another city instead of walking into the forest to kill himself, or how, in Jataka #254, nobody had noticed the horse’s amazing superpowers before the Bodhisatta did; only the ancient storytellers know. All my versions of the Jataka tales remain fully faithful to the originals, problems and all.

Finally, as discussed in the “About the Jataka Tales” chapter, there are many duplicate stories. Sometimes entire Jataka tales are identical to others, and sometimes just either the present story or the past story is repeated and joined to a different companion. In the ancient texts it is common to just write that things were the same as another and give a cross-reference (“This story was told by the Master while at the Bamboo-grove, about a traitorous Brother. The introductory incident is the same as that told in the Mahila-mukha-jataka.”[9]) I followed this method when the entire Jataka tale, both the past and present parts, is exactly the same or differs merely in peripheral details, such as the brothers sticking around the palace to visit each other for a week in Jataka #8 and a month and a half in Jataka #462, and the pig having different names in Jataka #30 and Jataka #286. But, when only one part (either past or present) is the same, I wrote the stories out completely each time so there is no need to jump around to read a single Jataka tale.

The Basics of Buddhism

It is not necessary to know about Buddhism to enjoy the Jataka tales, but having a bit of background about the fundamentals will give you a better understanding of some of them.

Buddhism is built on the pan-Indian world view of continual rebirth guided by a cosmic system of cause and effect called karma. Buddhism’s version of this life-stream system says that the future status of our souls (it is important to note that the Buddhist soul is an impermanent, insubstantial one; completely different from the all-inclusive, unchanging soul of Abrahamic religions) depends on the cumulative good and bad we have done over our lifetimes: Karma is essentially like a scorecard for our lives. One’s fate is not fixed; people determine their own destinies through their intentional actions. But no matter how righteous a life one leads, death and suffering are inevitable. There is, however, a way to break out of the cycle of life, death, and rebirth and thus end suffering forever; and teaching it was the Buddha’s destiny.

The man we call the Buddha was born Prince Siddhartha Gautama sometime around the sixth century BCE in what is now Nepal. His extraordinary journey to enlightenment spanned over one hundred thousand lives, and stories from these compose the Jataka tales. A turning point in his final lifetime came when he was confronted with four sights. The prince lived a privileged life and his father sheltered him from all suffering and sadness until, as a young man, he witnessed for the first time an elderly man, a sick man, and a corpse. These troubled him greatly. Then when he saw a wandering ascetic, he resolved to follow his example in order to learn the cause of suffering and find a way to end it. The prince fled his palace in the dead of night (an event known as the Great Renunciation) to become a wandering ascetic and spent six years enduring self-denial. But, when he had not earned insight from either his life of luxury or from his pain and poverty, he realized that understanding could only come from following a middle path. And that very night, sitting in meditation under the Bodhi tree, he finally grasped the true nature of existence and became the Buddha, the “Awakened One.” He spent the rest of his life traveling around India, sharing his knowledge with others.

The universal truths that the Buddha unlocked are called dharma. At its core, dharma explains that the problems in people’s lives, both big and small, are ultimately a result of desire. This fundamental principle is encapsulated as the Four Noble Truths: 1) Suffering pervades life.[10] 2) Suffering is caused by desire. 3) Suffering can be ended. 4) This is accomplished by living according to the Noble Eightfold Path: right understanding, right thought, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, and right concentration. Dharma in total is, of course, much more complex than this, but the Eightfold Path provides a basic guide to living a good, karmically fruitful life; and the more you follow it, the more you become able to comprehend dharma’s higher concepts. Any amount of understanding and accepting dharma, no matter how small, purifies the mind and lets one live a calmer, wiser, and more righteous life. And someone who has freed their mind of all defilements, and is thus able to fully grasp dharma in all its intricacies, achieves nirvana, which is the release from the cycle of rebirth and its inherent suffering. Nirvana is the ultimate goal of all Buddhists.

Just what the state of nirvana is like is incomprehensible, the Buddha said, though we do know that life-streams of beings who reach nirvana are extinguished, but not annihilated, and they will feel goodness, purity, and peace. Because of the tremendous effort required to reach enlightenment, living as a monk or nun is the most conducive path. Most ordinary laypeople see nirvana as a goal for their future selves; in their present lifetimes, they seek only to do enough good to be reborn in a better status during their next human life. All living beings, depending on their karma, can be reborn in one of six realms: gods (heaven), demigods, and humans for those who lived a moral life; and animals, ghosts, and the damned (hell) for those who did not. But no matter their karmic heights, beings can only reach nirvana through the human realm.

While the Buddhist religion began two and a half millennia ago, dharma is universal and eternal: and Gautama Buddha is not the first person to have discovered and mastered it. Gautama is the fourth Buddha of five who will appear in the world’s present eon (next up is Maitreya Buddha), and over the trillions upon trillions of years before our time, an unknown number of other Buddhas have gone through a process of development, enlightenment, and teaching that differs little from all the others. New Buddhas come to reveal the path to salvation in times when dharma has been forgotten. During the long gaps between arrivals, some people reach enlightenment as private Buddhas. Private Buddhas are less spiritually developed than perfect (i.e., “perfectly enlightened”) Buddhas and do not teach the message of dharma, though they do serve as paradigms of virtue to inspire good conduct.

That Buddhas are flesh-and-blood humans, not gods, is a key aspect of Buddhism. And while Buddhism has no supreme creator deity, there are many powerful gods in the heavens who play prominent roles in all sorts of Buddhist stories, including the Jataka tales. While they sometimes help or hinder people, the principal gods of Buddhism—most derived from what we now call Hinduism, though their Buddhist forms have many differences from the better-known Hindu versions—are subject to the same laws of karma and rebirth as all other beings, and worshipping them in any way is unnecessary to the pursuit of righteousness and enlightenment. Nor is it necessary to employ any supernatural power: in fact, the Buddha prohibited his disciples from doing so in most circumstances.

Over the years, Buddhism has divided into many diverse forms, but most fall into one of two branches: Theravada (found primarily in Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia) and Mahayana (predominant across northern Asia from Tibet to Japan plus Vietnam), which differ mostly in practice rather than principle. Though these Jataka tales are part of the Theravada tradition, the older of the two, this description of Buddhism applies to all forms of Mahayana Buddhism as well.

About the Jataka Tales

The Jataka tales are birth stories from some of the many past lives of the being who would eventually become the Buddha. In them, the Bodhisatta (what a Buddha-to-be is called) is born variously as a human, an animal, or a deity (see Appendix A for a list), usually righteous and wise, and frequently with supernatural powers; but often he is just a completely ordinary man. Typically, he is the story’s hero, but very often he is only a minor player, sometimes nothing more than an observer who does nothing.

Many of the stories are fun, often with clever twists and humorous events letting the Bodhisatta save the day or overcome a problem or a foe. Most (but far from all) are morality tales, teaching the value of dharma principles like modesty, obedience, or perseverance to the Jataka tales’ two audiences: we the readers, and the people within the stories listening to the Buddha speak. Many, perhaps most, of the stories predate Buddhism and were made Buddhist by assigning the role of Bodhisatta to one of the characters. Several of the stories are universal folklore, with similar stories appearing across the globe and throughout history. Three notable examples are Jataka #136, which is similar to Aesop’s Fable, “The Goose that Laid the Golden Eggs;” Jataka #322, which is similar to “Chicken Little” (“The sky is falling!”); and one of the stories within Jataka #546, which is similar to the “Judgement of Solomon,” in which a baby is ordered cut in half to determine who is its true mother.

To the surprise of many, the Bodhisatta is not virtuous throughout: “Now the Bodhisattas, even though they are great beings, sometimes take the goods of others by being born as wicked men; this they say comes from a fault in the horoscope.” Some examples of his immoral behavior are rude speech (#536), hiring prostitutes (#425), gambling (#62), cannibalism (#193), adultery (#431), lying (#547), cheating (#243), theft (#318), assault (#89), owning slaves (#45), giving away his young children to work as slaves (#547), and murder (#152). He also often condones similar actions by others. And even when the Bodhisatta is perfectly righteous, the story can be a little risque, the most notable example being the very horny monkey getting into mischief in Jataka #273. Early scholars felt this Jataka tale was so improper they translated it into Latin, rather than English, so ordinary people could not read it. They also used Latin for a few short passages they judged offensive in other Jataka tales.

The Buddha tells his past-life stories to people for many reasons. In every Jataka tale, the past-life part is related to a present-life (i.e., the Buddha’s present) situation, some of which are entertaining stories on their own. Often the Buddha tells of his past life to teach a lesson to people or to help his disciples overcome difficulties on their quest for enlightenment. After listening to the Buddha, these people often have breakthroughs in their understanding of dharma: “His lesson ended, he preached the Truths, at the close whereof some won the First, some the Second, some the Third Path, while others again became Arahats.”[11]

But frequently there is no educational or motivational purpose. Sometimes the Buddha tells the past-life story to remind people there is no one greater than he. In Jataka #54 some of the Buddha’s disciples were impressed by a gardener’s knowledge of fruit, so the Buddha told them he was equally skilled at this in an earlier birth. If these were not religious documents, we would say he was bragging. Other times the Buddha just tells what happened to him in the past because it is similar or related to the present situation and the people he is with enjoy hearing the stories. In Jataka #146 a group of elderly disciples loudly lamented the death of a woman who always gave them delicious food for alms. Some other disciples were shocked at their indecency, and the Buddha told them that these same men had been crows in the past and were so upset when a fish ate one of their flock they foolishly tried to empty the ocean with their beaks to rescue her.

Most of the Jataka tales appear to have been intended for regular people, but monks are clearly the intended audience for stories about things such as renunciation and the inherent wickedness of women. (While women are praised and respected in many stories, overall the Jataka tales are deeply misogynistic.) Many Jataka tales are told specifically to convince wavering monks not to leave the sangha.

Composition

Theravada Buddhism has 547 formal Jataka tales. Called the Jatakatthakatha (aka Jatakatthavannana), they are found in the Khuddaka Nikaya (“Collection of Little Texts”) collection of the Pali Canon’s Sutta Pitaka (“Basket of Discourses”) section. There is ample evidence there used to be at least five hundred fifty, but some were lost.

These Jataka tales do not relate all the Buddha’s past lives, just the ones he recounted to other people and were later written in this particular format. The Buddha discusses other past lives in other parts of the Pali Canon, and he tells us that, as he reached enlightenment under the Bodhi tree, he remembered hundreds of thousands of former births. Additionally, there are apocryphal Jataka that are not a part of the Pali Canon but are nonetheless considered important and “real” by many Theravadans. In Thailand, the Pannasa Jataka collection contains sixty-one apocryphal past-life stories. Also, many people consider local folktales, such as the Thai epic Ramakien and the Lao-Isan Nang Phom Hom legend, to be past-life Buddha stories.

With just a few exceptions, such as Jataka #68 (explained in the next paragraph), the Jataka tales follow the same three-part structure. The first section is a “story of the present” that details the circumstances of when, where, and, most importantly, why the Buddha tells the past-life story: “When the Brethren became aware of this, they asked the Blessed One, saying, ‘Can there be any good in this, sir?’ The Blessed One told this story of the past.”[12] Next comes the past-life birth story itself (the actual jataka—literally “birth story” in Pali—section of the full Jataka tale), and this is usually the longest of the three sections. Then at the end of the story, the Buddha reveals who the various people in the past life are now: “His lesson ended, the Master shewed the connexion, and identified the Birth by saying, ‘Ananda was the king of those days, Sariputta the knight, and I myself the thorough-bred Sindh horse.’”[13] The person listening to the Buddha tell the past-life story is often one of the people in it.

The 547 past-life stories do not report only 547 past lives. There are actually about 3,500 total past lives in the whole collection, though the exact number cannot be known. The total is much higher than 547 because some Jataka tales discuss more than one past life, notably Jataka #68 in which the Buddha mentions three thousand past lives. On the other hand, many particular past lives are recounted in more than one Jataka tale. (See Appendix B for lists of Jataka with duplicate lives and multiple lives.) Sometimes these are undoubtedly the exact same lifetime: Jataka #8 tells us, “In this Jataka both the Introductory Story and the Story of the Past will be given in the Eleventh Book in connexion with the Samvara-jataka;—the incidents are the same both for that Jataka and for this, but the stanzas are different,” and Jataka #170 in its entirety reads, “This Kakantaka Birth will be given below in the Maha-Ummagga Birth.” But most are not so clear cut and it can only be said that several past lives seem to be recounted in more than one Jataka tale. The ancient texts do not address the matter, so there is no way to know for certain if these apparent duplicates are actually the same life told more than once or if they are different lives that just happen to have had the same circumstances. Removing the religious element of the Jataka tales, stories such as these obviously share an earlier origin and are told differently by various storytellers or by the same storyteller at different times. Clear examples of this are Jataka #372 and Jataka #410, which tell identical stories of an ascetic adopting an orphaned animal and treating it as a child, then later becoming depressed when the animal dies. The only notable difference is that in the first it was a deer and in the second it was an elephant.

Some of these similar life stories have the exact same plot, such as the monkey who dressed up as an ascetic hoping to get out of the rain in Jataka #173 and Jataka #250, the only differences being in the narration. But duplicate lives do not always mean duplicate stories. Sometimes two Jatakas telling the same past life focus on different events, such as a man and woman married against their will who live together as celibate ascetics in Jataka #443 (the Bodhisatta did not get angry when the king abducted his wife into his harem) and Jataka #328 (he showed no sorrow when she died). And some same-life stories include details not found in their matching Jatakas, like the man being executed for breaking into the royal park to steal safflower for his wife: Jataka #297 tells us he sent a crow to give a final message to his wife, but this is not mentioned in Jataka #147. Other past-life pairs, however, while being mostly the same, have significant differences, such as when some caravan workers ignored the Bodhisatta’s instructions and ate a poisonous fruit (in Jataka #54 they all recovered, but in Jataka #85 some of the men died) and the jackal working as a lion’s servant who dies trying to kill an elephant (in Jataka #143 the two hunted as a team, the jackal being a scout and finding the food that the lion went to kill, and in Jataka #335 the jackal just stays at home and eats leftovers).

Though it is unrelated to the number of past lives, there is also a lot of repetition on the other side of the timeline. Often more than one past-life story is told regarding the same event that happened during the Buddha’s life, such as the Buddha rebuking disciples who pestered laypeople to help them build new quarters in Jataka #253, Jataka #323, and Jataka #403, and the eleven stories told in relation to the Buddha’s Great Renunciation, the beginning of his path to enlightenment.

Mahanipata Jataka

The last ten Jataka tales form a chapter called the Mahanipata, and thus are sometimes referred to as the Mahanipata Jataka. They get special attention from most Buddhists, especially in Southeast Asia. Sometimes called the “Ten Great Birth Stories of the Buddha,” these long (from about 6,000 to 47,000 words in English) stories tell the ten earthly lives that preceded his final life in which he finally became the Buddha. (They are frequently misidentified as the final ten lives of the Buddha.) Each of the stories illustrates one of the ten paramitas (“perfections of character”) (#538 renunciation/nekkhamma, #539 endurance/viriya, #540 loving-kindness/metta, #541 determination/adhitthana, #542 patience/khanti, #543 virtue/sila, #544 equanimity/upekkha, #545 truthfulness/sacca, #546 wisdom/panna, and #547 generosity/dana) that need to be developed before one can become enlightened. And while total mastery is required for Buddhahood, they are also achievable moral goals for regular people to aspire to.

Paintings and relief sculptures of these final ten stories are common in Buddhist temples around the world. Typically there is a single panel for each of the ten, and often a series telling the Vessantara Jataka (#547), the Buddha’s penultimate life: frequently there are both. The Vessantara Jataka’s moral perfection is generosity, and by extension nonattachment; the latter being the most important principle of dharma. Listening to monks recite the story is an annual event around Thailand and Laos, plus parts of Cambodia and Myanmar. It is practiced most keenly in Thailand’s Isan region and neighboring Laos, where it is part of a multi-day celebration (called boon pha wet) that usually includes a parade with a long scroll depicting the whole story and costumed locals acting out parts of it around the village.

Origins

It is not known when the Jataka tales were created. Some seem to have originated as far back as the fifth century BCE (religious tradition says the Buddha was born in either 623 BCE or 563 BCE; historians can only say that in or around the sixth century BCE seems most likely) though, as a whole, they acquired their present form around the fifth century CE. But while the Jataka tales were written long after the Buddha’s time, they are all built around gatha, the parts of the text considered by Buddhists to be the actual words of the Buddha himself:

Hearing what the young brahmin had done, the master exclaimed that a fool’s doings had caused all the mischief, and repeated this stanza: “Learn thou from him who tore green branches down, That tasks deferred are wrought in tears at last.”[14]

In most of the stories the gatha are very brief, as little as two lines, but in some of the later Jataka, they tell the majority of the past-life story. Despite supposedly being the Buddha’s words, gatha are frequently recited by characters other than the Bodhisatta or Buddha.

It is also not known why the Jataka tales were created. They show us there was a long, difficult path to Buddhahood, which is an important aspect of Buddhism; but they clearly were not written or compiled into a single collection in order to show the Buddha’s progression along this path. Their order is neither chronological nor in any way related to plots, lessons, or any other aspects of the stories; rather they are arranged by the number of gatha verses they contain. And, as already mentioned, in many of them the Bodhisatta neither teaches a lesson nor performs a meritorious act. Considering both their format (a mix of canon and commentary) and their content, it seems probable that the main purpose was to present the Buddha’s greatness in an entertaining and relatable way. People can identify with a pre-enlightenment Bodhisatta in a way they cannot with the nearly infallible, god-like Buddha. Even today, Jataka tales are used in sermons and ceremonies, they have been made into books and videos (many produced for children), and they are as common in Buddhist temple mural paintings as scenes from the life of the Buddha.

Whether it was their intent or not, the creators of the Jataka tales did make a very entertaining collection of stories. And they appeal to all, regardless of culture or religion.

Apannaka Jataka (#1)

The Bodhisatta was once a merchant who led large oxcart caravans to trade with distant lands. As he prepared to leave on a long, dangerous journey through a vast desert, he heard that another merchant, a young and stupid man, was going to make the same journey. If they traveled at the same time they would tear up the road and it would be difficult to find enough water, grass (for the oxen to eat), and firewood. So the Bodhisatta went to discuss the situation with the young merchant, and given a choice, he decided to go first and the Bodhisatta would leave later.

As the foolish young man’s caravan reached the middle of the wilderness, a goblin who lived there devised a plan to make the travelers discard their drinking water so he and his small gang could easily attack and eat the weary men. Using his magic powers, he conjured up a majestic carriage, and the goblins, disguised as humans and soaking wet, with lotuses and water lilies on their heads, rode toward the approaching caravan. The young merchant stopped to talk with the goblin, who told him the difficult part of the journey was over and there was plenty of rain and many lakes up ahead. The goblin suggested that the merchant lighten his load and ease the journey by dumping his water. Not doubting the goblin’s story, the young man ordered his men to smash their heavy water jars. But, of course, they found no water the rest of the day and went to sleep weak and hungry because they had nothing to drink and couldn’t cook their rice. The goblins came during the night and devoured all the men and oxen, leaving nothing but bare bones behind.

Six weeks later, the Bodhisatta began his journey with five hundred carts, and halfway through, the goblins approached him with the same story. His men believed the lie and wanted to ditch their water so they could travel faster. But the Bodhisatta recognized the ruse and refused, explaining to his men that if there really was rain ahead, they would hear thunder, see storm clouds and lightning, and feel wind. When they came to the place where the foolish young merchant’s group had been massacred, they circled their wagons for the night to make a fortified camp and kept watch, swords in hand, until morning. When they left, they swapped their weakest carts for some of the abandoned ones that were stronger and took the most valuable merchandise. All the men made a great profit and returned home safely.

In the Lifetime of the Buddha

Anathapindika, a wealthy supporter of the Buddha known for his extreme generosity, brought five hundred of his friends, all followers of other sects, to hear the Buddha preach. After listening to his lesson, they all became dedicated followers of the Buddha, keeping the precepts and showing charity. But later, when the Buddha went away for many months, these men reverted to their former faiths.

When the Buddha returned, these fickle men came to see him again, and the Buddha reminded them that his teachings were the only complete, indisputable truth, and nobody who followed his path would suffer in hell. Then he told them this story to emphasize his point.

The foolish young merchant was an earlier birth of Devadatta, a disciple of the Buddha who became his nemesis, and the caravan workers who died were earlier births of Devadatta’s followers. The Bodhisatta’s workers who safely reached their goal were earlier births of the Buddha’s followers.

Vannupatha Jataka (#2)

The Bodhisatta was once a merchant who led large oxcart caravans to trade with distant lands. On one trip, he had to pass through a desert so extreme that travel was only possible in the cool of the night and all necessities needed to be brought along from home. There was no track; the “desert pilot” needed to navigate by the stars like ship captains do.

On the final night of the journey, with the end of the desert up ahead, the Bodhisatta ordered the water and firewood discarded to lighten the load and speed their travel. But during the night, the pilot fell deep asleep and the oxen went off course. When morning arrived, the caravan was back where it had been the day before. The men set up camp in despair due to the lack of water.

The Bodhisatta, fearing they would all perish, walked around looking for water and found a clump of kusha grass. Assuming it could only grow if there was water underneath, he directed his men to dig a hole. After thirty meters they struck rock, and the men lost hope. But the Bodhisatta climbed down and placed his ear on the rock and heard water running beneath it.

A young serving boy was the only one who had not given up. The Bodhisatta ordered him to go down and break the rock with a sledgehammer, telling him that if he lacked courage and refused, they would all die. The boy did as he was told and his blow broke the rock that had dammed the spring’s rise. Water shot up out of the hole as high as a palm tree. Everybody drank and bathed; then, using spare axles and other gear, they cooked rice. That night they completed their journey, and after making a great profit, they returned home safely.

In the Lifetime of the Buddha

The boy who broke the rock was an earlier birth of a disciple of the Buddha who was unable to attain insight after intense meditation in the wilderness. When he decided to give up, the Buddha told him this story of his past life to motivate him to continue trying.

The other men in the caravan were earlier births of the Buddha’s present followers.

Serivanija Jataka (#3)

The Bodhisatta was once a traveling pot and pan salesman. He and another salesman came to a new city at the same time and they each took half of it to do their business. The other salesman called at the home of a destitute family, just a girl and her grandmother, whose ancestors had been wealthy merchants. They had no money, but asked if he would take their grimy old dining bowl in trade for a small trinket. The greedy salesman suspected their bowl was made of gold, and a sly pin scratch through the tarnish confirmed it. In a ruse to get the bowl as cheaply as possible, he tossed it on the ground and declared it worthless.

Later, the Bodhisatta passed the same house and got the same request. Examining the bowl, he also saw it was made of gold, but he told the family the truth: it was worth one hundred thousand coins. But he couldn’t buy it as he did not have nearly that much money. Believing the bowl must have turned to gold due to the innate goodness of the Bodhisatta, the grandmother agreed to accept whatever he wanted to pay. He gave her five hundred coins and all his stock (which was also worth about five hundred), keeping only his scale, his bag, and enough money to pay for a boat ride across the river.

Soon after, the greedy salesman returned to the house, intending to buy their bowl for a pittance. But, when told what had happened, he lost his mind. Believing the bowl was rightfully his, he threw everything he had on the ground except the beam of his scale, which he intended to use as a club, and rushed to find the Bodhisatta. But the greedy salesman found him too late; the Bodhisatta was already halfway across the river. Full of rage, with blood gushing from his lips, the greedy salesman had a heart attack and died on the spot.

In the Lifetime of the Buddha

The greedy salesman was an earlier birth of Devadatta, a disciple of the Buddha who became his nemesis, and this was the first time he felt anger toward the Buddha. The Buddha told this story to one of his disciples, who had stopped working toward reaching enlightenment, so he would know that he should not quit because the reward for his efforts was great; if he stopped, he would forever regret it.

Cullaka-Setthi Jataka (#4)

The Bodhisatta was once a royal treasurer. He had an innate understanding of signs and omens. One day, when he saw a dead mouse along the road during a special position of the stars, he remarked out loud, to no one in particular, that anyone who took the mouse would have good luck starting a business and finding a wife. A poor young man with a good heart overheard these words and, knowing that the Bodhisatta was a wise man, picked it up and promptly sold it for one farthing to a tavernkeeper as cat food. And this set up a series of events that would prove the Bodhisatta’s prediction.

The young man used his farthing to buy molasses that he gave, along with drinking water, to some flower gatherers in exchange for some of their flowers. He sold these flowers and the next day bought a larger batch of molasses. This time, the same people gave him flowering plants, which he quickly turned into eight pennies profit.

Later on, a storm blew down leaves and rotten branches all around the king’s palace. It was far too much work for the gardener to manage by himself, but the young man agreed to remove it all if he could keep everything, and the gardener happily agreed. The young man got children from a playground to help him gather the debris by offering them molasses. When it was all piled up in front of the palace, the royal potter, in need of fuel for his kiln, passed by and bought it for sixteen pennies plus some pottery.

Then the young man took a jar of drinking water to serve five hundred grass cutters working near the city gate. Appreciative of his deed, they asked the young man how to repay him and he said he would return soon to ask a favor from them. He had also become acquainted with a wealthy merchant in the town, and this man informed him that a horse dealer would arrive tomorrow with five hundred horses to sell. The young man went back to call in his favor with the cutters and they gave him a bundle of grass and agreed to delay selling any of theirs until he had sold his first. When the horse dealer arrived, he had no choice but to buy grass from the young man at the premium price of one thousand coins.

A few days later, his merchant friend informed him about a large ship arriving in port, and the young man made another plan. He hired a fancy carriage to make a grand entrance at the port, where he convinced the ship’s owner to sell him all its cargo on credit. Other merchants arriving later to buy from the ship were told the goods were no longer for sale. But the young man, presenting a facade of power, had them escorted into his pavilion by three successive ushers to meet with him. There, each of them agreed to buy a share in the ship, and the young man earned a fast two hundred thousand coins.

Now a very wealthy man, just four months after picking up a dead mouse, he went to see the Bodhisatta and expressed his gratitude by giving him one hundred thousand coins. After hearing the entire story, the Bodhisatta was so impressed by the young man that he took him into the family by marrying him to his daughter. And after the Bodhisatta died, the young man replaced him as royal treasurer.

In the Lifetime of the Buddha

The young man was an earlier birth of a disciple of the Buddha named Little Wayman. Little Wayman’s mother was the daughter of a wealthy merchant, and when she fell in love with a slave, the couple had to run away to another city because their relationship was unacceptable. When she got pregnant, she decided to return to her parents’ home and hope for forgiveness. Her husband reluctantly agreed to go with her, but kept putting off their departure until she was nearly ready to give birth. Finally, she left on her own.

When the husband returned home and found that his wife had departed, he hurried down the road after her. And just as he reached her, she went into labor. A son was born and they named him Wayman since he was born along the way. They returned home rather than go see her parents. Soon after, she got pregnant again and everything happened exactly the same; the second son even got the same name.

As the children, called Great Wayman and Little Wayman, grew up, they heard their friends talk about their relatives, so they asked their parents about their own. They began to beg to meet them and their parents agreed to take them. When they reached the city, they sent a message announcing their arrival. The woman’s parents replied that they would never forgive her or her husband. But since the children were innocent, they were invited to come live a better life with them. The children’s parents were given some money and sent away back to their home.

When Great Wayman was old enough, he became a disciple of the Buddha. He studied intently and eventually became an arahant. Later, he invited his younger brother to join him. But Little Wayman was very stupid, and after four months of faithful intent and effort, he had not even managed to master a single small section of text. Seeing how bad things were, Great Wayman expelled his little brother from the sangha and disinvited him from a gathering that was to be held the next morning at the home of Jivaka, a renowned doctor and dedicated lay supporter of the Buddha.

Little Wayman cherished dharma and did not want to leave, but he knew that his brother was right. The Buddha divined Little Wayman’s situation and knew his struggle in understanding had nothing to do with his present circumstances; rather it was a result of bad karma earned in a past life for mocking another person who was struggling to learn scripture. So, early the next morning, the Buddha waited near Little Wayman’s quarters. When he came out to start his journey home back to lay life, the Buddha said he would help him. He materialized a perfectly clean cloth and told Little Wayman to sit and handle it continuously while repeating, “Removal of impurity.” While Little Wayman did as he was told, the Buddha left to attend that morning’s gathering.

Not long after starting with the cloth, Little Wayman noticed it had become dirty, and he instantly understood that all things are impermanent, that death and decay are inevitable. The moment it happened, the Buddha perceived that Little Wayman had reached a breakthrough and he sent an apparition of himself to preach that the evil impurities of lust, anger, and delusion were still in his mind, and removal of these would bring salvation. Suddenly, Little Wayman went from not knowing a single verse to full arahantship.

Meanwhile, Jivaka was about to begin a “water of donation” ceremony, but the Buddha stopped him and asked whether any disciples were back at the monastery. Great Wayman said there were not, but the Buddha corrected him and Jivaka sent one of his servants to check. Little Wayman, wanting to send a message to his brother, multiplied himself a thousand times and had these visions fill the whole mango grove where he sat. After the servant reported what he saw, the Buddha sent him back to tell Little Wayman to come. But when the servant asked for Little Wayman, all one thousand replied. Again the servant reported to the people at Jivaka’s home what had happened, and this time the Buddha told him to bring back the first one claiming to be Little Wayman; he would be the real one. This time, the servant returned with Little Wayman, and the Buddha had him perform the ceremony with Jivaka.

Later in the day, the Buddha heard some of his disciples discussing what had happened that morning. He told them this story to explain that while Little Wayman had risen to great faith in this life, in a previous life he had risen to great wealth—in both cases by following the Buddha’s advice.

Tandulanali Jataka (#5)

The Bodhisatta was once a king’s appraiser. He alone determined the cost of everything the palace bought, and sellers had no choice but to accept his prices. The king was greedy and did not appreciate that the Bodhisatta paid fair prices, so he replaced him. Since he sought like-mindedness rather than competence, the king chose a random peasant he saw walking by his window for the job. The man was a complete idiot and he chose prices for things based entirely on whims rather than their true value.

One time the foolish new appraiser decided that five hundred horses were worth only one measure of rice. The horse dealer was beside himself and asked the Bodhisatta what could be done. He told the man to offer the appraiser a bribe if he would agree to answer, in front of the king, the question, “If five hundred horses are worth one measure of rice, then what is the value of a measure of rice?” The appraiser accepted the seller’s money, and at his next audience with the king he said that one measure of rice is worth “all the city and its suburbs.” The assembled advisors broke out in laughter and applause, exclaiming how the king and the appraiser were so well suited for each other. Made to look like a fool, the king restored the job to the Bodhisatta.

In the Lifetime of the Buddha

The foolish appraiser was an earlier birth of Laludayi, an elder disciple of the Buddha who was quite stupid and often said one thing when he meant another. Each morning at the monastery, rice was distributed to the disciples, with the elders getting the best rice and the inferior rice going to the youngest disciples. As Laludayi had a middle rank, sometimes he got good rice and sometimes not. When he did not get it, he complained. Eventually the steward told him to do the distribution himself, but he failed miserably at the task and was quickly relieved of the duty.

When the Buddha heard about Laludayi’s failure, he told this story so people knew that Laludayi had also been a dullard in the past.

Devadhamma Jataka (#6)

The Bodhisatta was once a crown prince. His mother died after giving birth to a second son, Prince Canda. The king took another chief queen and had a third son, Prince Suriya. The king was so overjoyed by the birth of this boy that he granted the queen any wish she desired. She didn’t call in her wish until the three princes had all grown up, and then she asked that her son be the one to take the throne. The king refused her request, but she persisted so zealously that he feared she would unleash some evil plot to get her way. The king explained the situation to the Bodhisatta and his brother, and with great sadness sent them out to live in the forest until he died, at which time they could return to rule. When Prince Suriya, who was thoroughly honorable, heard why his half-brothers were departing, he joined them.

One day as they traveled, Prince Suriya went down to a pond to bathe and drink. In it lived a demon who devoured everyone entering the water if they could not answer the question, “What is truly devadhamma (“god-like”)?” When Prince Suriya stepped into the pond, the demon seized him and asked his question. The prince answered confidently, “The sun and the moon,” but this was wrong. The demon dragged him down to the depths of the pond and kept him in a cell. When Prince Suriya did not return promptly, Prince Canda went down to find him. As he stepped into the water he was also seized and quizzed. “The four quarters of heaven” was his answer, but it was also wrong and he was imprisoned.

When Prince Canda did not return, the Bodhisatta knew something had gone wrong and figured there was a demon in the pond. He went to the shore and waited. When the demon saw that the Bodhisatta was not going to enter the water, he took the shape of a forester and encouraged him to refresh himself in the pond. Not fooled, the Bodhisatta knew this was the demon and asked why he took his brothers. The demon explained that he was allowed to eat all who entered the water and could not pass his test. The Bodhisatta said he knew the answer, but was too weary from his travels to tell him. This persuaded the demon to bathe the Bodhisatta; bring food, drink, and perfumes; and construct a gorgeous pavilion for him to rest in. Refreshed, he had the demon sit at his feet and told him that devadhamma is avoiding sin.

Pleased with this wise answer, the demon agreed to release one of the brothers. The Bodhisatta asked for his half-brother, Suriya. The demon criticized this choice, accusing the Bodhisatta of understanding devadhamma but not practicing it because Canda, being older, should be granted the esteem that comes with seniority. The Bodhisatta countered that his choice really was the most god-like. Nobody would believe him, he explained, if he returned to the kingdom claiming a demon devoured Suriya; he would be presumed a murderer in pursuit of the throne and would be reviled. Impressed by this wisdom, the demon set both brothers free.

The Bodhisatta explained karma to the demon, telling him that he was born into his odious life because of the evil deeds he had done in the past, and the only way to break this cycle was to avoid doing evil in this life. The demon accepted this truth and stopped eating people. The three brothers chose to live at the pond with the demon until one day the Bodhisatta read in the stars that his father had died. He returned to the kingdom and took the throne, with Prince Canda serving as viceroy and Prince Suriya as commander-in-chief. The demon also went there and lived a comfortable life with a home, food, and flowers provided by the king.

In the Lifetime of the Buddha

The demon was an earlier birth of a wealthy landowner who became a disciple of the Buddha but did not completely give up luxuries. He owned many robes, maintained a storeroom full of food, and had his servants come cook for him.

When other disciples uncovered this prohibited behavior, they took him to talk with the Buddha. The wealthy disciple got angry and threw off his robes, standing amidst them wearing only his loincloth. But after some reassuring words from the Buddha, he put his clothes back on and listened to the Buddha tell this story so he knew that he had overcome bad behavior in the past by following the Buddha’s advice. And thus the Buddha convinced him to change his ways.

Prince Canda and Prince Suriya were earlier births of Sariputta and Ananda, two of the Buddha’s top disciples.

Katthahari Jataka (#7)

The Bodhisatta was once an illegitimate son of a king. While a king was out picking fruits and flowers in the forest, he met a peasant woman gathering firewood. They became intimate, and the Bodhisatta was conceived. The king gave the woman his signet ring in case she became pregnant: if she had a daughter she could sell the ring and use the money to raise her; if she had a son she should bring him to the palace.

One day, while he was a young boy, the Bodhisatta was out playing and the other children teased him for having no father. Upset, he ran home and asked his mother who his father was. When she told him, he demanded to go see the king, and she took him to the palace. The king knew she told the truth, but out of shame he denied his relations with her, claiming the ring was not his.

To prove she was telling the truth, she grabbed the Bodhisatta by the leg and hurled him into the air, telling the king, “If you are indeed the father of my child, I pray he stays in mid-air. But if not, may he fall and die.” The Bodhisatta floated cross-legged in the air and begged the king to accept him, which he did. His mother became the queen, and the Bodhisatta took the throne when his father died.

In the Lifetime of the Buddha

King Pasenadi, a righteous ruler and devoted supporter of the Buddha, always provided food for the Buddha’s disciples, but they did not stay and eat at the palace because the people there were not friendly. When the king found out that they went to eat at their friends’ homes, he decided to marry a woman from the Buddha’s Sakya clan in order to build closer relations with the Buddha and his disciples. However, the Sakya clan was arrogant and insular and did not want to marry into a relationship with the king; but because he was their leader, a request like this could not be refused without consequences. So they sent a daughter of a nobleman born to a slave woman and told King Pasenadi she was noble.

Knowing the Sakya clan’s reputation, the king’s assistants wanted to be sure the woman they were taking back was truly noble-born. So the family faked eating a meal together as proof. This was done by having what was claimed to be a very important letter delivered to the father at the start of the meal, so after taking just one bite he sat at the table reading rather than eating. This made it appear that he had dined with his daughter, but since he didn’t actually eat, he didn’t degrade himself with a slave.

King Pasenadi truly loved his new consort and made her his chief queen. Soon a son was born and he grew up receiving all the advantages a prince deserved, except he did not get gifts from his maternal grandfather’s family. Not wanting her son to know about her life, his mother lied and told him they sent nothing because they lived very far away. Once he grew up, he decided to visit his other family; and though she tried, his mother could not stop him.