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Showing posts with label Unit: Jataka (Shedlock). Show all posts
Showing posts with label Unit: Jataka (Shedlock). Show all posts

Myth-Folklore Unit: Jataka Tales (Shedlock)

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Overview . This selection of jataka tales, or "birth stories" of the Buddha, is taken from Shedlock's Eastern Stories and Leg...

Jataka: The Spirit that Lived in a Tree

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As you can see here, in the Buddha's previous incarnations, he was not always a human or an animal; in this story, he is the incarnation...

Jataka: The Hare that Was not Afraid to Die

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You will see a reference to Sakka (Sakra) in this story, who is the lord of the gods in the Buddhist cosmology. He is associated with the go...

Jataka: The Parrot that Fed His Parents

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The theme of the generations — supporting both elderly parents and dependent children — is an important one in folktales throughout the worl...

Jataka: The Man Who Worked to Give Alms

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This story makes reference to the five virtues of Buddhism (pañca-sīla), which are sometimes referred to as the five precepts (pañca-sikkhāp...

Jataka: The King Who Saw the Truth

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You will notice the phrase "Wisdom-Child" here, which is being used to render the Pali term Bodhi-satta, Sanskrit Boddhi-sattva, ...

Jataka: The Bull that Proved His Gratitude

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Here you will read about story of a Bodhisat, which is another way to refer to a Bodhisattva, an enlightened being who is motivated by self-...

Jataka: The Horse that Held Out till the End

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In this story, you will see a reference to the city of Benares (now spelled Varanasi) in English, which is located on the Ganges. Benares is...

Jataka: The Monkey that Saved the Hero

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If you read the Aesop's fables earlier on, you might recognize a shared motif here! In this jataka, the wise king of the monkeys sees th...

Jataka: The Merchant Who Overcame All Obstacles

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The grass that the merchant sees here - kusa (kusha) grass - has great symbolic resonance in India, having been used in religious rituals da...

Jataka: The Elephant that Was Honored in Old Age

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In the original text of the Jataka tales, the moral of the story is spoken in verse, and in the Francis and Neil translation at Sacred Texts...

Jataka: Grandmother's Golden Dish

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This story is about the Buddha's past lifetime as a traveling merchant, and it is also a story about the past life of Devadatta, a cousi...

Jataka: The Elephant that Spared Life

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This story makes reference to the Five Commandments (Five Precepts) of Buddhism; you can read more about these precepts at Wikipedia . For t...

Jataka: How the Antelope Was Caught

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The name of this antelope in the Pali language in which the jatakas are written is vata-miga, the "wind-deer" (antelope) because i...

Jataka: The Pupil Who Taught His Teacher

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The city referred to here Takasila (Taxila) is located in the Punjab region of modern Pakistan. The city has a special importance in Buddhis...

Jataka: The Man Who Told a Lie

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If you look at the complete version of this story — Kakkaru-Jataka — you can see the circumstance in the Buddha's life that prompted hi...