Namaste, Welcome to SAM-VAD (Together In Conversation), This week let me bring to your attention another monumental work, ‘The JĀTAKAS – Birth Stories of the Bodhisatta (the one bound for, or to, enlightenment). A Jātaka is a story about a birth, and this collection of tales is about the repeated births – and – deaths of the Bodhisatta.

According to Sara Shaw only a selectionof 26 stories have been included in this current translation out of the 547 stories with at least one story linked in one ancient source to each perfection.

The Ten Perfections (pāramis) are:

Generosity (dāna)

Virtue (síla)

Renunciation (nekkhamma)

Wisdom (paññā)

Effort (viriya)

Forebearance (khanti)

Truth (sacca)

Resolve (adhiţţhāna)

Loving Kindness (mettā)

Equanimity (upekkhā)

The characters in Jātakas inhabit an intricately meshed network of almost familial relationships. They are constantly interacting with each other, discussing their problems and giving advice on how to live. Links between characters extend far back into the past; events tend to recur as old habits are repeated in later lifetimes. Underneath it all is the assumption of the Jātakas that each being lives as an independent locus of consciousness, capable of choice and of finding enlightenment for him or herself.

The Kusa Grass Story

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. Now, 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 carpenter’s 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, 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 other, 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 friend, 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...