by Sarah Shaw
1.‘Happy was my life until this draining bucket of a woman tormented me:
A thieving woman, a wife with little sensible to say, asking for sesame oil and salt.’
And then the Bodhisatta praised him, ‘So be it, son. Now off you go and practise loving kindness and cultivate compassion.’ And he told him about the four divine abidings and the preparations for kasina practice. 5 And it was not long before the son won the knowledges and the meditative attainments. And through the cultivation of loving kindness towards other beings, he was reborn with his father in a heavenly Brahma realm.
The Teacher gave this dhamma talk, revealed the truths, and made the connections for the birth. And at the completion of the explanation of the truths the monk became established in the fruit of stream-entry. ‘At that time the coarse girl was the coarse girl now, and the younger ascetic was the fretting monk. And I was the father.’
Notes
1 CPD II 396 Udancanin: draining, pulling up water. DP I 420 udancani—a bucket for drawing or ladling out water (used as a term of abuse?).
2 There is a cluster of these tales: 30, 63, 85, 106, 147, 207, etc. See Garrett Jones, Tales and Teachings, pp. 81–7.
3 See ‘The Wife of Bath’s Prologue’, Canterbury Tales, pp. 258–80. Hilda Rumpole presides like a horrifying goddess over her husband’s every move (see, for instance, John Mortimer, Rumpole on Trial, London: Viking, 1992). For Indian folklore, see ‘The shrewish wife’, Thompson and Balys, Oral Tales of India, motif no. T 251.
4 Jataka 477 (J IV 219–23) gives a slightly different version of the story, in which a village girl takes a shine to a monk, invites him to her house and eventually seduces him. This version also explains that ‘coarse’ does not mean physically coarse, but lascivious.
5 The four divine abidings are the meditations on loving kindness, compassion, sympathetic joy and equanimity. The kasina practice is a meditation using an external device, which is sometimes prepared by the practitioner himself. All of these practices lead to meditation (jhana) and rebirth in one of the highest heavens, the Brahma realm, after death.
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A rustic story
Bahiya Jataka (108)
Vol. I, 420–1
The practice of virtue often confers beauty in Jatakas. In this earthy story good training does not manage to do this but does produce desirable results, by revealing that beauty of character can be concealed in an unprepossessing and, in this case, rather fat lady. The way she finds happiness is surprising but an encouragement to all women struggling unsuccessfully with slimming diets unsuited to their body types! In ancient India the king’s courtyard would have many elephants, horses and other animals around, also relieving themselves, so perhaps human urine would not be obtrusive.
Story from the present
‘One should train in things to be trained’
While living dependent upon Vesali and staying in the peaked gable hall in the Great Forest, the Teacher gave a talk about a Licchavi. It is said that the Licchavi king, a man of faith with a clear mind, sent an invitation to a group of monks, with the Buddha at the head, and organized a big meal for the monks at his own house. Now his wife was a lumbering, heavy-limbed woman, dressed in badly arranged clothes, who looked in appearance very much as if she were bloated. The Teacher expressed his appreciation for the meal by chanting an anumodana, 1 went back to the temple, gave a talk to the monks and entered his perfumed hut. The monks met together in the dhamma hall and started up a discussion: ‘Sir, why does the Licchavi king have a wife with such an appearance—so lumbering and heavy-limbed? How can he take any delight in her?’ The Teacher came and asked them what they were discussing and they explained. ‘It is not just now, but in a past life too, that he has taken delight in a woman with a large body,’ he said and told this story of long ago.
Story from the past
[421] Once upon a time in Varanasi, when Brahmadatta was king, the Bodhisatta was his minister. Now there was a certain countrywoman with a massive body, wearing badly fitting clothes, who was working for wages. She had come near to the royal courtyard as she was oppressed by a great deal of urine in her body. So she covered her form with her cloak, squatted down and relieved her body of the water and then quickly got up again. At that moment the king of Varanasi was looking through a window at the royal courtyard, saw this and thought, ‘This woman has managed to relieve herself like that even in the courtyard without giving up her modesty and decency. She covered herself with her inner garment, let out her urine and quickly got up again. She must be in good health. Her property must be clean. Any son born in a clean house will be clean too, and virtuous. I’ll make this woman my chief wife.’ So he made sure that she had not already been spoken for by someone else, sent for her and put her in the position of chief wife. And she was loving and pleasing to him. Not long after, she gave birth to a son. This son became a wheel-turning monarch. 2
The Bodhisatta saw the success of this woman and took the opportunity of speaking in this way: ‘Sire: it is right to be trained in a skill that is to be learnt; why should it not be? As indeed this very meritorious lady, without giving up her modesty and decency, managed to relieve herself in a discrete way. Having achieved this, she delighted you.
1. You should train in the things in which one should be trained: people are so headstrong.
But a rural lady has, through a modest action, delighted a king.
So the Great Being explained the excellence of those who are correct in their training.
The Teacher delivered this dhamma talk and made the connection with the birth:
‘In this connection the lady and man of the house now were the ones then: And I was the wise minister.’
Notes
1 An anumodana is usually a blessing and sometimes a talk, during which the order of monks chant for the laity who have given them a meal and transfer the merit obtained to family and relatives.
2 A monarch who rules many kingdoms, through dhamma, not force: a mythical figure exemplifying an ideal of a just monarch. In accordance with his mythical status, he is described as living for multiples of eighty-four thousand years, builds wonderful palaces, gardens and cities and rules a kingdom of happy subjects. When the Buddha was born soothsayers said he had only two destinies: that he could become such a monarch, or be a Buddha.
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The kusa grass story
Kusanali Jataka (121)
Vol. I 441–3
In this eulogy to friendship, the Buddha’s disciple, Ananda, is the spirit of a large, auspicious tree and the Bodhisatta the spirit of a humble clump of kusa grass. 1 His friendship with the spirit of the most distinguished tree around gives a nudge at the Indian notion of caste: the Buddha did not challenge the caste system but ignored it amongst his own order of monks and nuns, as is demonstrated in Jataka 37. The practice of honouring particular trees, mountains or lakes as possessing an attendant spirit, a genius loci, is part of an innate respect for the natural environment that characterizes ancient rural cultures around the world. In Buddhist cosmology spirits who live in trees are loosely associated with the protective Heaven of the Four Kings, and are still honoured in Buddhist countries by the custom of making offerings to the gods of particular woods and mountain areas.
This is one of the few stories in which a male disciple of the Buddha is female in an earlier life. 2
Story from the present
‘Whether as an equal’
The Teacher told this story while staying in the Jetavana Grove about a firm friend of Anathapindika’s. The relatives, associates and friends of Anathapindika said, ‘You’re a great treasurer, and this man is just not your equal and certainly not your superior in birth, wealth and property and so on. 3 Why do you have a friendship with him? Don’t!’ They kept on warning him about this. But Anathapindika replied, ‘Good friendship cannot be based upon considerations of inferiority or equality or superiority.’ He refused to accept their advice and, when he went to a revenue vi
llage, he appointed him as the guardian of his household. 4 Everything happened in the same way as described in the Kalakanni(Bad Luck) Jataka (83). 5 This time, when Anathapindika returned to his own house and related what had happened the Teacher said: ‘Houselord, a friend that is called a friend is not an inferior. The measure is his capacity to guard the principle of friendship. A friend who does that should not be held as an equal, an inferior or a superior. All friends get one over a difficult patch. You are now master of your house because of a firm friend. Those in times past also stayed in charge of their dwellings because of a firm friend.’ 6
Story from the past
Once upon a time in Varanasi, during the reign of King Brahmadatta, the Bodhisatta was born in the king’s pleasure grove as the spirit of a clump of kusa grass. Now in the same pleasure grove, by the auspicious regal stone, there was a beautiful tree, also called ‘Mukkhaka’, the Foremost, that was greatly honoured by the king. It stood up straight and its branches and forks made a canopy. Here a certain King of the Gods, who was a great friend of the Bodhisatta, had taken rebirth. 7Now, at that time the king had only a single pillar to support his palace and that pillar started to wobble; so people informed the king about it. The king had carpenters summoned and said, ‘Good sirs! My lucky palace has only one supporting pillar and that pillar is wobbling. Take the heartwood of a tree and make one that is steady.’ They said, ‘Very good, sire,’ and obeyed his order. They hunted out a tree that was suitable, and, not seeing any other around, they went into the pleasure grove and spotted the Foremost tree. They went to the king and, when asked if they had seen a suitable tree, [442] replied that they had. ‘But, sire, we don’t dare chop it down,’ they said. ‘Why?’ asked the king. ‘We did not see any other tree and went into the pleasure grove. We didn’t see any there either, except for the ‘good luck’ tree. We don’t dare chop down a lucky tree.’ The king ordered, ‘Go and cut it down and make the palace firm. We’ll institute another lucky tree.’ They agreed and, carrying an offering of food, went to the pleasure grove. They brought out the food and offered it to the tree, and said that they would chop it down the next day. The god of the tree, seeing the reason for this, thought: ‘They’re going to destroy my home. Where will I take my children?’ Not seeing any place where they could go, the spirit clasped the children to her breast and grieved. The deities of the wood, the spirit’s devoted friends, [443] came and asked what was wrong. When they heard the cause they could not see a way of opposing the carpenters and, embracing the spirit, began to cry. Then the Bodhisatta went there, thinking he would see the spirit of the tree. He heard what had happened and said, ‘Let it be; do not worry. I’ll see that the tree is not cut down. When the carpenters come tomorrow you just see what I do!’
The spirit was relieved and the next day, when it was time for the carpenters to come, the Bodhisatta got there before they did, assuming the form of a chameleon. He went into the crossing at the roots of the tree and, working his way up the middle of the tree came out at the branches, making it look as if it had holes. Then he lay down, waving his head. The master carpenter saw the chameleon and struck the tree with his hand. ‘This tree is full of holes and worthless!’ he exclaimed. ‘We didn’t notice it yesterday when we made our offerings.’ He went off berating the quite solid great tree. Because of the Bodhisatta the spirit of the tree was mistress of her dwelling. A large number of gods met together in order to congratulate the spirit. The tree spirit was delighted that it had kept its home and extolled the excellence of the Bodhisatta amongst the gods. ‘Venerable gods, we possess great power but did not know this trick, because of our weak wisdom. The spirit of the kusa grass made sure I was the owner of my home, through his attainment to knowledge. A real friend can be an equal, a superior or an inferior. 8They all help out with a trouble that has turned up for their friends, according to their own strength, and even make sure they are happy too.’ Praising the way of friendship the spirit uttered this verse:
1.‘Whether as an equal, or as a superior, or as an inferior.
He should behave one and the same.
People should work for the highest good in troubles,
As did this spirit of the kusa grass plant.’ 9
‘Because of this, those wanting to be free from other misfortunes should make a wise man a friend and not consider whether he is equal, superior or even inferior in status.’ The tree spirit gave this teaching through a verse to the assembly of gods and stayed with the spirit of the kusa grass, until they went according to their kamma.
The Teacher delivered this teaching and made the connection with the birth; ‘At that time, Ananda was the tree spirit and I was the kusa grass spirit.’
Notes
1 Kusa grass, used in Brahminical ritual, has lucky associations, despite the low status of the spirit in this story. In the Kusa Jataka a queen brings back some as proof that she has conceived her child through visiting the Heaven of the Thirty-Three Gods (Jataka 531; J V 281).
2 See also Mahanaradakassapa Jataka (no. 544; J VI 255).
3 The ‘great treasurer’ (mahasetthi) is in the vocative, but the speech sounds more colloquial this way. A setthi can also be a foreman of a guild, a banker (PED 722).
4 Bhogagamam: PED 509.
5 Jataka 83 (J I 364–5). In this story a man called Kalakanni (Bad Luck) is an old friend, who used to make mud pies with Anathapindika when they were children. He falls upon hard times and so is taken in by Anathapindika, who gives him responsibilities in the house, despite the warnings of friends who do not approve of a friendship they consider unlucky. His trust is justified, however, and one day while he is away some heavily armed robbers surround the house. ‘Bad Luck’ goes around the house, getting all the servants to make a lot of noise everywhere. This frightens the thieves, who run away. Anathapindika is delighted that he had paid no attentions to the warnings, or the bad luck of his friend’s name.
6 The word translated as ‘dwelling’ or ‘home’, used throughout this story, is vimana, usually used to describe a floating palace, the home of gods in the sense-sphere heavens. As the spirit of a tree is a god associated with such a heaven, perhaps the tree is comparable to such a dwelling place.
7 There is a bit of a problem with this story. At this stage the spirit in the original is clearly male, even after rebirth in the tree. Later on, the feminine form is used, though one MS, Ck, keeps the male form for some parts of the tale. Perhaps the tale is an adaptation of an earlier story. This makes it a rare example of a disciple of the Buddha being a different sex in an earlier rebirth. In canonical Jatakas the Bodhisatta is always reborn male.
8 ‘Real’ is a loose translation for nama, which means ‘by name, certainly, truly’.
9 MSS say aham, ‘I’, which does not fit, so I have emended to ayam. This verse is tricky and I have tried to make the best sense of it.
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The cat story
Bilara Jataka (128)
Vol. I, 460–1
This cheerfully threatening story, told presumably as a veiled warning to the errant monk concerned, is of interest for the ‘cat and mouse’ theme, reminiscent of a Tom and Jerry cartoon, and the stagey and ruthless finale. 1 Here the Pali, with its highly technical account of the kill itself, its use of the term murumura (‘munch munch’), and its reliance on the evocative ‘it is said’ to describe the eventual end of the body, uses the same sort of storytelling techniques and emphases we would employ now in a nursery tale. A fine doctrinal issue is raised by the fact that the Bodhisatta does kill the cat, thereby breaking the first precept, the undertaking not to kill. The Bodhisatta has presumably acted according to the svabhava of a mouse: it is the behaviour natural and proper to his species and station. As Richard Gombrich writes of this important aspect of ancient Indian ethics, ‘everything is in a category which has its own nature, and its duty is to conform to that nature’. 2 Here it is certainly the only sensible course for the survival of the tribe. In ‘The story of the fish’ (Jata
ka 75), however, the Bodhisatta does rise above the limitations of his species and refuses to eat other fish. The issue of the Bodhisatta’s actions that produce animal rebirths is not addressed specifically in the Jatakas, though the courses of action that cause rebirth in all the bad destinies (dugatiyo), are discussed in other stories in this collection (1 and 55).
Story from the present
‘One who makes the marks of dhamma’
While living in the Jetavana Grove the Teacher told this story about a monk who was a cheat. At that time, when the Teacher had been told about him, he said, ‘It is not just now, bhikkhus, but before, too, this man was a cheat,’ and he narrated this story of long ago.
Story from the past
Once upon a time, when Brahmadatta was king in Varanasi, the Bodhisatta took rebirth in the womb of a mouse. On account of his intelligence and because he had a large body, like that of a little piglet, he lived in the jungle with a retinue of several hundred mice. Now, a certain cat used to wander here and there and saw the troop of mice and thought to himself, ‘I’ll deceive these mice and then eat them up.’ So he stood on one foot, face up to the sun, drinking the wind near where the mice lived. The Bodhisatta, going on his round for food, saw him and thought, ‘This must be a virtuous one.’ He went up to him and asked, ‘Good sir, what is your name?’ ‘My name is the Righteous One’ was the reply. ‘Why do you stand on one foot and not put four feet on the ground?’ ‘The earth cannot bear all four feet of mine standing on the ground, so I stand on just one.’ ‘Why do you open your mouth when you are standing there?’ ‘I do not eat food but I do eat the air.’ ‘And why do you stand with your face up to the sun?’ ‘I am paying homage to the sun.’ The Bodhisatta listened to what the cat said and thought that he must be very virtuous, so from that time on he went, morning and evening, with his troop of mice to pay respects to him. Now, at the time when he was paying respects, the cat used to take the last mouse of them all, eat its flesh, then wipe his mouth and stand still. In the course of time the troop of mice became small. The mice said, ‘Before, this dwelling was not sufficient for us and we stood firm without gaps. Now we are few and our dwelling is not even filled. Why is this?’ They asked the Bodhisatta about what had happened. The Bodhisatta pondered about why the mice should have come to this diminution. Harbouring a suspicion about the cat, [461] he decided to test him out. When it was time to pay respects he let the remaining mice go first and stayed himself at the back. The cat sprang up to him. The Bodhisatta though saw him springing forward to seize him and said, ‘Mr Cat, so this is the observance of vows and your wonderful righteousness! You carry on putting on a show of righteousness just for the sake of harming others.’ When he had said this he spoke this verse: