Jataka Tales

Authors Notes: The Jataka tales are a group of short stories that were influenced by the teachings of the Buddha. The stories serve as teachings, but are also very entertaining to read. As I read through these stories, I was very excited moving from one story to the other, figuring out what the lesson was in the story, while also learning about the different constructs of the Buddhist way of life. Each different story portrayed a different lesson that an individual could put into their day to day lives to become more successful as a person and more well rounded. Some of my favorite lessons from these stories really had an impact on how I look at life and made me want to make those same changes in my own life. I think that each person could benefit from reading this collection of stories by Ellen C. Babbitt. The way that the author is able to create a summarized form of the traditional Buddhist tales by using animals as main characters is very helpful for the reader. In my own writing, I like to use animals or other nonhuman objects to create characters. I created a couple of short stories myself for this story post, and I hope you enjoy them.

Story 1: The Kind Horse

There was once a kingdom that was ruled by a great king. This king had a beautiful palace, a beautiful queen, and several beautiful children.

The king also had a passion for raising some of the most spectacular horses in all of the kingdoms. He would only select the finest horses to bring back to his herd, and if they had any blemishes, he would mock them for not being good enough.

One day, though, while out hunting alone, the king stepped into a pile of quicksand and quickly began to sink. He saw a snake roll by him and he asked the snake to help free him, but the snake could not.

He then saw birds in the sky and cried for them to help, but they were all too busy.

One of his own horses even came by and when he asked for the horse's help, the horse told him that if he were to help pull the king from the quicksand, he would likely become blemished and that is no way for a kings horse to look.

Then finally, a horse with many blemishes came upon the king. He immediately realized that the man was in trouble and quickly threw a rope to the king, and then once the king had grabbed on tight, the horse began pulling as hard as he could to free the man. When the horse finally freed the man, the man came up to the horse and asked if the horse knew who he was. The horse did not and the king asked why he stopped and helped then. The horse told the king that when he saw the man was in danger, and it didn't matter who he was, or where he came from,. The horse told the king that what mattered most at the time was saving him.

The king took the horse back to his kingdom and had him groomed. This horse then became the leading horse for all the kings horses.

This story was based on the Jataka Tale of The Ox Who Won the Forfeit. This story was about a man who presented his ox in a strength contest and publicly embarrassed the ox by yelling at it and calling it names. When the ox and the man finally returned home after loosing the contest, the ox told the man that he did not like being shamed in front of others, and also reminded the man that he had never treated the ox like that in the past. The next day when they went back to reclaim their money, the man was much more motivating and positive and the ox pulled more weight than any other ox could. This story is about a King who only had eyes for the best horses until one blemished horse came to his rescue and saved his life.

Story 2: The Pessimistic Opossum

There was once an opossum who lived all alone. He lived under a tree that dropped branches every day. Each day, the opossum would wake up and there would be more and more branches piled up in front of his door way. He always had a negative attitude when he would clean up the branches.

One night, while he was sleeping, there was a loud crash that woke him up, and when he opened his eyes, he realized the entire tree had fallen to the forest floor. The must have been the worst day ever, he thought. It was a cold night, and now he had no protection. He muttered to himself, "How can this get any worse?" All of a sudden he heard the loud roar of thunder, and a quick crack of lightning, and the rain began to pour down like a waterfall. He stood there, screaming to himself, pissed off at the world, and finally realized that even though he had to wake up every day and clean the branches from his door way so he could get out, at least he had a shelter. He then began to think of all of the good things he had in his life, and even started smiling because of all of them. At this point he noticed the rain had stopped, the sun came up, and there was a beautiful smell of flowers in the air.

This story, while not based specifically on one of the Jataka tales, is about living life with a positive attitude and being grateful for the blessing that you have. I think that it incorporates many of the same ideas that the Jataka Tales talk about, and I think it shows the importance of being grateful for life as it is and not, "letting the small stuff get to you."