Week 11 Reading: Eastern Stories and Legends, Part A

File:007 Buddha as King (9202987159).jpg
Buddha as King on Wikimedia

This week, I read Eastern Stories and Legends, and these are all Jataka tales. Jataka tales are tales about the Buddha’s past lives. I realized that I had read many of these stories in previous units. It is interesting to see how these tales changed according to different authors. I will discuss the ones that I had not read before here. The majority of these tales incorporate important morals to live by and demonstrate the effect that kindness can have on one's life and others' lives.
I had never read The Spirit That Lived in a Tree before. In this tale, the Buddha is the spirit living within a 600,000 year old tree. He also rules over many other trees who would would be able to feel his pain if he were to experience it, almost like a collective consciousness. When a greedy king decides that he wants to have the most extravagant palace that only rests upon one column instead of several, he calls for this ancient, worshiped tree to be cut down. The tree spirit goes to the king and asks to be cut down in pieces so that all of his tree children will not perish with him. This is similar to many other Jataka tales that I have read in that when the king realizes that the Buddha is willing to sacrifice himself for others, he weeps and pardons the Buddha.
Another tale was The King Who Saw the Truth. This story differs in that this time, the Buddha is the king, so he rules kindly and graciously. Every day he personally gives alms to his people. At first, he loves this, but then he realizes that he is unsatisfied. He begins to feel like he is really doing nothing at all for his people, so he decides that he would give a part of himself to anyone who asked. A god, wishing to test the king, shows up for alms as a poor blind man and asks for one of his eyes. Instead of giving one eye, the king gives both. Then, he acquires the sight of the truth and instructs his people according to it.


If you would like to read these tales, click here: link.
“Eastern Tales and Legends.” The Baldwin Project, 2000.

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