Two Jataka Tales: A Comparison Across Schools of Buddism

Two Jataka Tales: A Comparison Across Schools of Buddhism Abigail Elisabeth Bush Advisor: Dr. Christopher Bell Senior Research 11/30/15 Bush 2 Introduction While the Jataka tales, stories of the Buddha’s past lives, found in the various schools of Buddhism have their differences, their overall importance is unchanging. Depending on the school, values in the narrative may shift, highlighting different morals or philosophical positions. Some may frown on such changes to the canonical narrative, but there is a certain beauty in such deviations—a poetic change that mirrors the teaching of the religious tradition in which it is retold. Aesthetic appreciation aside, the alterations of the Jatakas are valuable because they show how the importance of Siddhartha Buddha changes between schools and cultures. While he is the main figure in Theravada Buddhism, the historical Buddha’s popularity begins to diminish in Mahayana Buddhism with philosophical innovations and the rise of the Bodhisattva ideal. Vajrayana Buddhism will place some of its importance on gurus. The Jatakas are various stories of the Buddha’s past lives. Brimming with emotion and rife with conflict, these stories engage readers regardless of age or beliefs. They are as dramatic as any novel, as intriguing as any mystery, as fun as any adventure, and it is easy to see their appeal. Yet, at their core they represent the Buddha’s path to becoming an enlightened being. John Strong writes that during these past lives “the bodhisattva is not so much striving for enlightenment, understood as a realization of the truth of the dharma, as he is building a Buddha body.”1 These narratives then illustrate how the Buddha stayed in the cycle of samsara in order to become a Buddha and teach others. As a whole the Jatakas act as a roadmap for the practitioner to follow, but different schools and regions approach these Jatakas in various ways. Theravada Buddhism brings the practitioner closer to the Buddha. Mahayana Buddhism will use the Jatakas to assimilate into foreign cultures—supporting filial piety in China and the cult of Kannon in Japan. Vajrayana Buddhism embellishes on the Jatakas, stressing the relationship 1 Strong, John. Relics of the Buddha. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 2004, p. 51. Bush 3 between Avalokiteśvara and his followers. These key differences are what this paper will examine and appreciate in the Jataka tales.2 Background on the Jatakas Birth stories are important. They tell us how someone was raised, what defines them, and, for the religious figure, what makes their story valuable enough to pass down from practitioner to practitioner. Sometimes these stories become inflated with the supernatural, the extraordinary, making them more legend than history, making the figure in question larger than life. Yet these exaggerations, whether taken literally or understood simply as part of the story’s rhetoric, form the backbone of the religious figure’s hagiography. This figure is a role model for the people from the very beginning. We can see what is valued about the figure through what remains the same after generations of the narrative’s retellings. What acts, what beliefs, and what stories are kept or discarded tell us what is important to different communities of practitioners. When we look at these religious figures, be they historical or legendary, it bodes well to start from birth, from the beginning. That is, of course, unless your figure has multiple births, multiple lives, and multiple beginnings. Such is the case with the historical Buddha, Siddhartha Gautama. The life that most know of Siddhartha is the one in which he achieved enlightenment. We know of his early years spent being pampered and protected as an Indian prince, when he became a renunciant after witnessing the Four Sights, and, finally, his realization that there is a middle way to obtain enlightenment. Out of all of the historical Buddha’s lives, this one is the most popular since it too marks the beginning of Siddhartha’s Dharma that is spoken about and taught to the world. However, that one life says nothing about the multiple lives Siddhartha lived before reaching enlightenment under the Bodhi tree. His past lives are just as important as the 2 While a single school of Buddhism can cover many regions and milieus, I am focusing on a few in this paper in order to produce a study that has substantial range without trying to cover all regions. Bush 4 one he lived as Siddhartha Gautama, perhaps even more so because they are the ones that influenced Siddhartha’s karma and shaped his life to become a Buddha. In scholarly studies of these birth stories, they have been examined as a collection of folklore and dissected as fairy tales. More importantly to the study of religion, these stories have been recognized as presenting an individual through a specifically Buddhist frame.3 The earliest form of the Jataka tales comes from the Theravada Pali canon dated as early as the fifth century BCE. They were originally passed down orally, allowing for discrepancies in the narrative or for new Jatakas to be added to the collection. This continued until around the third century CE when the stories were written down and standardized, forming the roughly 547 Jataka tales now available in the Pali canon.4 However, agreeing upon a solid date for the origins of the Jatakas is difficult. Likewise the authorship behind the Jatakas is muddled, unclear even with the information we know about these stories. And while the narrator of the Jatakas is the Buddha, there are still arguments about whether these accounts were actually spoken by the Buddha or someone else, perhaps after his death. There have been claims that many of the narratives were composed by Buddhaghosa in the fifth century CE but those too are uncertain. 5 Regardless of the authorship of the Jatakas, we can still examine how culture affects the narrative, especially in those tales adopted outside of the Pali canon. In order to know when the Jatakas were written and by whom, we need to examine why they were created. One obvious reason is clear to anyone who has been exposed to narratives similar to the Jatakas, such as Aesop’s fables or Christian parables, and that is for didactic purposes. While alternative reasons and uses of the Jataka tales will be discussed later in this 3 Rhys Davids, Caroline A. F. Stories of the Buddha: Being Selections from the Jataka. New York: Dover Publications, 1989, p. xvi. 4 Ibid, p. xvi. 5 Shaw, Sarah. The Jātakas: Birth Stories of the Bodhisatta. New Delhi: Penguin Books, 2006, p.l-lii. Bush 5 paper, for now we will focus on this didactic use to understand how they can be used as teaching tools. Sarah Shaw reveals how the Jatakas emerged from a vow that Siddhartha—referred to as the Bodhisattva in his past lives—made while prostrating at the feet of the previous Buddha, Dipankara. Siddhartha vowed to “postpone his own enlightenment and freedom from the endless round of existences until he is ready to become a Buddha and teach others.”6 In this narrative, called the Sumedha Jataka, the Bodhisattva begins his journey, leading him to his final life born as Siddhartha Gautama. The Jatakas then, being stories of that endless round of existences, show how the Buddha developed the abilities that made Siddhartha ready for Buddhahood. One such way was in perfecting the ten perfections. These perfections, present in all three schools though understood in various ways, are generosity, virtue, renunciation, wisdom, effort, forbearance, truth, resolve, loving-kindness, and equanimity. Sometimes a Jataka will focus on one specific perfection and the story will illustrate how the Bodhisattva mastered or demonstrated that perfection. In these cases the Jatakas are quite like a guide for monks and practitioners to follow and that is useful for teaching. Along with the ten perfections, we can see other central teachings of Buddhism in Jataka tales, like the four noble truths, the importance of compassion, or filial piety. However, to know what exact teachings are represented by the story, they need to be individually analyzed. That is what I wish to accomplish with an intense look at the Sama and White Horse Jatakas. The structure of the Jatakas depends on both the translator and regional context of the story. The original Pali Jatakas’ structure is, as put by C. A. F. Rhys Davis, in “full Jataka garb” without any sections left out.7 This garb includes the actual Jataka story framed by an 6 Ibid, p.xix-xx. 7 Rhys Davids 1989, p. xvii-xviii. Bush 6 introduction from the Buddha explaining what has lead him to narrate this particular past life. This introduction is often called the “story of the present” (Paccuppanna-vatthu) and the Jataka is “the story of the past” (Atīta-vatthu).8 Usually it is an action, a problem, or a question from the Sangha community (“story of the present”) that prompts the Buddha into telling his Jataka (“story of the past”). This introduction that frames the Jataka is brought back after the story is told, thus allowing the Buddha to say, ‘…and Person X in the Jataka is me.’ This is called the “ahaṃ eva” or “Indeed that was I.”9 The full Jataka garb then is (1) something prompting the Buddha to begin telling a Jataka, (2) the telling of the Jataka story itself, and (3) returning back to the Buddha as he explains who he was in the past life. In this latter segment the Buddha sometimes elucidates what the lesson found in the Jataka has to do with the present situation. Occasionally, however, this garb is condensed or altered depending on the translation and transmission of the narrative. Normally the framing “story of the present” is left out, vaulting the reader right into the past life. While the structure is heavily altered in these other tellings compared to the Pali canon Jatakas, they still offer the moral lessons learned from the birth story. Although readers may not know the circumstance behind why the Buddha is teaching this Jataka, they can still learn from it. The structure is further disrupted when a Jataka is taken out of its written narrative form and transplanted into other media, such as murals or relief carvings. Similar to the Theravada Sama Jataka and the Vajrayana White Horse Jataka we will see later on, these representations of Jatakas often eliminate the “story of the present” and sometimes portions of the “story of the past” as well. Mostly this is due to space limitations rather than not wanting to tell all of the Jataka, as there is only so much canvas on a stone relief or mural 8 Fausböll, V. Buddhist Birth Stories or Jataka Tales. Translated by T. W. Rhys Davids. New York: Arno Press, 1977, p. i-ii, lxxxii. 9 Shaw 2006, p. xxiii. Bush 7 compared to a written text. Yet, as we will learn, sometimes the removal of “the story of the present” is done on purpose for specific reasons tied to that school of Buddhism. Viggo Fausböll credits the creation of the collective Jataka tales in book form to the popularity of Indian Buddhists around the third or fourth century BCE. The Jatakas draw from other ancient Indian narratives at the time but it is the religious sacredness of these stories that distinguishes them from the rest. This holds especially true for Theravada Buddhism since any connection to the Buddha brings practitioners closer to him and his virtues. The transfer from oral story to written collection, at its earliest, is conflicted by two different sources that Fausböll discusses. The first is at the Second Buddhist Council in Vesāli and the second in the nine-fold division of scriptures found in the Anguttara Nikāya and the Saddharma Puṇḍarīka.10 The importance of these starting locations of the written Jatakas is found in the events themselves. It is beneficial to know the background and origins of the Jatakas, as best we can, in order to set up a foundation for the rest of this research. That being said, we will move on to the close readings and analysis of two Jatakas (Sama and White Horse) within the three major schools of Buddhism across different cultural contexts. Sama Jataka The first Jataka that we will examine is the Sama Jataka, also known as “Sama the Devoted Son” and “The Suvanṇasama Jataka.” It is listed as the 540th Jataka out of the 547 available in the Pali canon. This is particularly important because it makes the Sama Jataka part of the Dasajati (lit. ‘ten lives’), the last ten lives of the Buddha before his life as Siddhartha. The closer the Bodhisattva is towards his life as Siddhartha, the better his previous lives become at perfecting the virtues needed in order to obtain enlightenment. The Dasajati stories illustrate 10 Fausböll 1977, p. lxxxii-lxxxiii. Bush 8 those completed perfections.11 The Sama Jataka itself is often related to loving-kindness, the ninth perfection. What is truly impressive about the Sama Jataka is how it also warns against too much loving-kindness, illustrated in Sama’s very actions. This is quite interesting when we remember that this Jataka is part of the Dasajati and thus a “perfected perfection” story. The Sama Jataka Summary12 We begin with the “story of the present” that frames the Sama Jataka. In this story we have a young son living with his merchant family in Sāvatthi, the capital of Kosala, an ancient North Indian kingdom. During this time the Buddha visits the nearby Jetavana Grove to teach and news travels quickly around Sāvatthi. One day, the son decides that he would like to pay his respects to the Buddha and listen to the teachings. After traveling and hearing the Buddha’s Dharma, the son asks to be ordained. The Buddha then says that one who is “Thus-gone” is not able to be ordained without permission from his parents. Not discouraged, the son fasts for seven days and returns to the Buddha with his parents’ approval and is ordained. For five years the son lives with Buddhist monks and learns the teachings. However, he is dissatisfied with his progress so he travels to a hermitage on the outskirts of a forest. He practices there for another twelve years. In these seventeen years the son does not visit his parents and is unaware of the fate that has befallen them. With no son to assure their finances, the parents end up poor and homeless, surviving only by begging on the streets. Still unaware of his family’s collapse, the son meets with another monk hailing from Sāvatthi. The other monk grows uncomfortable when the son inquires about his old merchant family but eventually tells the son what has happened. The son laments that he is not good enough to be part of the monastic realm 11 Wray, Elizabeth, Clare Rosenfield, and Dorothy Bailey. Ten Lives of the Buddha: Siamese Temple Paintings and Jataka Tales. New York: Weatherhill, 1972, p. 15-16. 12 I will be taking this summary of the Sama Jataka from Shaw’s The Jatakas, p. 280-310. As stated in her “A note on the texts,” she takes her translation from the Pali Text Society, using a base translation from Fausböll, the grandfather of the original Pali canon translations, p. xiii-xv. Bush 9 since, after all this time, he has not made any progress. He resigns to becoming a layman in order to take care of his parents. As he walks home to Sāvatthi, the son comes across two paths, one that will lead to the city and another that will lead to Jetavana Grove. Knowing he will see his parents often and will not get the same chance to see the Buddha, the son travels to Jetavana. When he meets the Buddha, the Buddha sees that the son is ready “to experience a change of state or insight, but needs the right circumstances” (Upanissamyaṃ).13 The Buddha gives a speech and the son realizes that an ascetic can support his parents. With a renewed sense of devotion, the son stays a monk and goes out to collect gruel to give to his parents. When the son reunites with his parents he grieves because they do not recognize him. He cries with his parents when they finally do recognize him. The son goes out every day to collect alms for his parents and then for himself. At times, the son forgoes his rations in order to feed his parents and soon becomes pale and thin. The son’s companions notice how ill the son looks and scold him by saying it is not right for him to give alms to his parents when they were given by the faithful for him. Embarrassed, the son and monks go to the Buddha to seek his insight. The Buddha listens to the son’s dilemma and is pleased with the son’s actions. The Buddha then begins a story of how he too once took care of his parents as an ascetic. This is the “story of the present.” The “story of the past” begins with two villages not far from Vārāṇasi. The chiefs of each village agree that their son, Dukūlaka, and daughter, Pārikā, will marry. The children decline marriage since both have been reborn from the Brahma world and have no wish to partake in impure things, like sexual intercourse. The two are forced into marrying yet are allowed to leave the villages and live ascetic lives. The god Sakka notices the ascetics, and knowing that 13 See Shaw 2006, p. 307, note 13. Bush 10 something great (the birth of Sama) will come from them, he tells Vissakamma/another god to construct a home for them. The couple is pleased with their new home and they focus on expanding their loving-kindness to all the beings around them. Even the animals enter a mental state of loving-kindness by not attacking each other because of the ascetics’ nature. One morning Sakka clairvoyantly sees that the pair will lose their sight. Knowing that they have no child to take care of them, Sakka calls Dukūlaka over to convince him to have a child with Pārikā. Dukūlaka is shocked that Sakka would suggest such a thing, especially since the couple live an aesthetic life. Sakka then says that no coupling will have to take place, Dukūlaka simply has to touch his wife’s navel and she will conceive. They agree and bear a son, Suvanṇasama, which means ‘Sama with golden skin.’ When Sama is sixteen, he watches his parents leave to gather their food and drink. He knows the path they will take but stays behind with the deer and kinnari.14 A great storm soon billows across the forest and the parents take shelter under a palm, standing on top of a termite hill. Terrible rains sweep all around the couple, causing them to shake with fear. Sweat falls from their faces and onto the termite hill and then onto a sleeping snake. Angered, the snake wakes up and attacks Dukūlaka and Pārikā, spitting venom in their eyes to blind them. The ascetics despair, realizing they can no longer see and will not be able to find their way back home. Pārikā wonders what ill act they had committed in the past to have this fate befall them. Her husband then remembers that in a past life they were married and he was a doctor. To spite a rich customer who refused to pay them, the couple gave the patient medicine that made him blind and this is why they lose their eyesight to the snake. Meanwhile, Sama realizes how late it has gotten and searches for his beloved parents. When he finds them he begins to cry and laugh and his parents question why he would laugh at their situation. Sama explains that he laughs because he is happy that he will have to take care of 14 Kinnari spirits and the importance they have, especially in the Thai Sama Jataka, is explained further below. Bush 11 them because of their blindness. After leading them home, Sama constructs bridges and ropes so his parents can find their way around the house. He does everything he can to take care of them. One day, early in the morning, Sama leaves to collect water at a nearby lake for his parents. The king of Vārāṇasi, Piliyakkha, enters the same clearing and notices that none of the deer around Sama are afraid of him. Sama must be a god or naga, the king concludes, readying a poisoned arrow to shoot Sama. The deer scatter at the shot but Sama, keeping his composure, rests the water jug on the ground and creates a pillow out of dirt to rest his head. As Sama bleeds out on the ground, he wonders who would shoot him since he has no enemies here and knows his body has no value as food for him to be hunted.15 He calls out for the shooter to step forward. Because Sama does not blame him for what he has done, the king eventually shows himself. The king lies to Sama and says that he was trying to shoot the deer but Sama’s presence spooked the animal and caused him to miss. Sama catches the king in his lie and explains that no deer would ever run from him. Abashed, the king tells the truth and watches as Sama bleeds from his wound. Yet Sama does not think of his injuries but of his parents. They will die from dehydration, cries the devoted son, wailing that this fact is a “second arrow” that pains him more than Piliyakkha’s poisoned one. Realizing that he has harmed this excellent man, the king promises he will take care of Sama’s parents and watches as Sama faints and is rendered unconscious by the poison.16 Seeing this, Piliyakkha laments aloud that he will go to hell because of this evil he has committed. Before the king leaves to find Sama’s parents, a goddess17 sees what has happened and hears the king’s wailing. The goddess, Bahusodarī, knows that if she does not intervene then the Bodhisattva will die, his parents will perish, and the king will waste 15 Interestingly enough, Shaw’s translation shifts the story into verse at this point. See Shaw 2006, p. 290-306 for exact verse and prose lines. 16 Note, this version of the tale has Sama faint while others below will state he is dead. 17 She was the Bodhisattva’s mother lifetimes ago and is always watching him. Bush 12 away until he too is dead. So she descends before the king, invisible to others, and tells him that he will inform Sama’s parents of his death and take care of them until the end of their days. In this outcome, she alludes, they may all find happiness. Believing Sama to be dead, the king honors Sama’s body and goes to find the ascetics’ home. Dukūlaka and Pārikā hear the king’s footsteps and ask who is approaching. The king, believing that Sama’s parents will become angry at him for killing their son, says he is king of the Kāsis to use his royal status as a way to avoid such bitterness. As the ascetics welcome him warmly, the king is ashamed because he has not told them about Sama. The king confesses and Pārikā cries out, asking how she cannot be angry at the man who killed her son? Her husband then says that “wise men teach lack of anger,/ even towards the murderer of an only son.”18 Piliyakkha tells them he will now take care of them but the parents say that is not his place, he is king and they pay tribute to him. Seeing that, just like Sama, the parents do not have a hateful word to say against him, Piliyakkha praises them for speaking the Dharma and states that they are now his mother and father. The parents ask to visit Sama’s body and the king reluctantly takes them to the lake. As Pārikā weeps, she makes a declaration of truth19 and Sama shifts to one side. Hearing that his son is not dead, Dukūlaka then makes a declaration of truth and Sama turns to the other side. Finally, watching all of this, Bahusodarī makes her own declaration of truth and Sama wakes and rises to his feet. With the Bodhisattva’s recovery, his parents’ sight is also restored and the goddess reveals to them all that has happened. The ascetics cheer and Sama praises the king for what he has done. The king admits that he is confused, saying that he saw Sama was dead and now is alive. “Great king,” the Bodhisattva explains, “even a living man, who has a strong pain/ they 18 Ibid, p. 298. 19 A declaration of truth is a statement made that, ‘if this X is true then Y will happen.’ So if Sama has been a dutiable son then let the poison be removed. Shaw 2006, p. 302. Bush 13 think him dead while living, when mental activity has stopped.”20 Sama offers a penultimate teaching to the king and, amazed by this, the king declares he will turn to Sama for refuge. Sama then gives the king five precepts to rule by and Piliyakkha leaves for his kingdom, doing venerable things while the Bodhisattva continues to live with his parents. Upon his death Sama is reborn in a Brahma god realm. Returning to the “story of the present,” the Buddha explains to all listening that caring after one’s parents is proper. Finishing with the ahaṃ eva the Buddha says that he was indeed Sama. The Sama Jataka in Theravada Buddhism The importance of Siddhartha Gautama in Theravada Buddhism is central to the school and his previous lives in the Jatakas are no exception. The Pali canon Jatakas are some of the most translated Jatakas, allowing scholars to analyze the narratives in a Theravada context. From there we can determine what values and emotions Theravada Buddhists wanted the Jataka tales to invoke in those who listened to or read the narratives and those who viewed the stories engraved on plaques, stupas, and paintings. We can find Theravada themes and doctrines in these tales, like the importance of the Buddha’s teaching, the four noble truths, etc., no matter the medium used to portray them. Besides the medium used or what school of Buddhism the Jatakas are in, they also differ depending on the region. Theravada Buddhism in Thailand, for example, will have different ways of portraying its narratives than Theravada Buddhism found in ancient India, Myanmar, or even medieval Sri Lanka when Jataka tales were quite popular.21 For this particular study of the Sama Jataka we will focus on the temple murals of Wat No Phutthangkun 20 Ibid, p. 304. Shaw’s notes explain that it is unclear if Sama was unconscious or under great mental meditation, but he was certainly not dead. 21 We see this in Wray 1972, Brown 1997, Win 1996, and Berkwitz 2003. Bush 14 Suphanburi in Suphan Buri,Thailand22 and the Ananda Temple carvings found in Bagan, Myanmar in order to understand how their portrayal of the Sama Jataka narrative reflects practitioners’ values. Elizabeth Wray studies Thai murals found in temples across the region, with a particular focus on the last ten Jataka tales painted in these temples. She explains how the Thai murals have a unique way of representing scenes from the Jatakas. Like early Buddhist paintings in India, the Thai murals are a continuous narrative that encapsulates multiple scenes into one panel with little to no chronological sequence. However, she says the scenes are arranged by location rather than time.23 So if two events take place in a forest, like we have in the Sama Jataka, yet are separated by a period of time, then the two scenes will be near each other in the mural (Fig. 1). The Wat No Suphanburi mural depicting the Sama Jataka is, as Wray describes, arranged by location and not by chronological order. Plate 8 of the temple combines the following scenes together: Sama’s death with the king watching him from afar; Piliyakkha explaining what has happened to the ascetics next to it; and finally, the parents, the goddess, and kinnaris24 mourning over Sama next to that (Fig. 1). All of these scenes, though separated by time in the narrative, share the same plate. Wray says nothing as to why Thai murals are arranged by location instead of chronological order. As it is now, someone without specific knowledge of the Sama Jataka would be burdened with interpreting everything that is happening in the painting. This suggests that the murals are meant for devotees already familiar with the story. The Sama Jataka as a narrative makes for a good representation of Theravada values by connecting the devotee to the Buddha, but the Thai mural does not easily portray that. 22 Wray lists these murals as Wat No, Suphanburi. 23 Wray 1972, p. 135. 24 While the kinnaris are not present for Sama’s death in Shaw’s translations of the Sama Jataka, they are clearly present in the Wat No Suphanburi murals. Bush 15 Fig. 1. Sama Jataka at the Wat No Suphanburi temple, Thailand. Wray 1972, p. 40. Here the Sama Jataka is ostensibly influenced by Thai culture since the story references mythical beings like gods and kinnaris. Kinnaris, while found in other Asian milieus, have obtained specific importance in Thai literature. They are part-woman, part-bird creatures that are able to transcend both the human and spiritual worlds. More importantly, the addition of the Thai kinnaris reflects how important kinnaris are to that region, especially since, in another Thai Jataka, Siddhartha Buddha is married to a kinnaris named Manora.25 25 Sudhana Jataka. Ibid, p. 39-44. Bush 16 These details are lost when looking at the mural as a standalone telling,26 since it is difficult to interpret the narrative when the scenes are mixed as they are. Perhaps, given that the temple was visited by practitioners who likely knew the Sama Jataka, this narrative confusion would not have occurred. Yet this still evades the question as to why the Thai mural is arranged the way it is. What is the purpose behind communicating the narrative through a medium that does not give the full Jataka nor, for what it does showcase, even give the story in chronological order? Carved all around Buddhist temples throughout India and Southeast Asia, the Jatakas have sparked conversation about their use. If, like the Thai murals of the Sama Jataka, the Jataka reliefs of India are hard to read then what purpose do they serve? The assumption that the art of the Jataka stories are used for teaching purposes is possible but not buttressed by the fact that they cannot teach anything if the reader does not already know the story. For instance two stupas in Bharhut and Sanchi, India are covered with Jataka tales; however, they are difficult to view. This is similar to the Thai murals, though rather than the difficulty coming from mixed narrative scenes, like we see with the Sama Jataka, it is the physical placement of these reliefs that makes them hard to understand. Circumambulating the stupa, viewers are able to read the Jatakas in narrative order, however, the reliefs at Sanchi become challenging because they stretch to the top of the stupa over five meters off the ground.27 If the observer wished to view the Jataka chronologically and in its entirety, they must abandon their circumambulation and find a way to read these scenes that are out of reach. 26 We can assume that there are no descriptions paired with the paintings as Wray does not include this in her research. 27 Brown, Robert L. "Narrative as Icon: The Jātaka Stories in Ancient Indian and Southeast Asian Architecture." Sacred Biography in the Buddhist Traditions of South and Southeast Asia, 1997, p. 68. Bush 17 Robert Brown argues that there is a purpose to these kinds of visual Jatakas that are difficult to read and are found in regions where Theravada Buddhism is prominent. The “lack of narrative intent,”28 Brown explains, is evidence to support that these Jatakas are not used for didactic purposes. The Jatakas are not narrative illustrations representing the “Buddha’s sacred biography” 29 but rather they act as icons. Icons are inherently important to early Buddhism as the Buddha was first represented through these figures. Brown further expresses this by showing Jataka reliefs that are monoscenic in nature and would only make sense narratively to someone who has been exposed to the full story before they saw the single frame. These images, especially those of the Jataka tales that are connected to Siddhartha Buddha in the Theravada context, begin to “manifest and make real the Buddha and his history for the worshiper.”30 If the historical Buddha is the central figure of Theravada Buddhism then this could explain why the narrative aspects of the Jatakas are not always important. What is important is having practitioners connected to him and his teachings, the Dharma. Brown asserts that in these kinds of murals and reliefs, because they are difficult to read, their teaching value is diminished. Yet their value in connecting the viewer to the Buddha, his history, and his lives is raised, and that is what is important in Theravada Jatakas. Having this alternative use of the Jatakas in a Theravada milieu makes sense considering the factors that define Theravada from other Buddhisms. Donald S. Lopez Jr. writes that what is distinct about the Theravada bodhisattva is the path he takes in order to achieve nirvāṇa. “[T]he bodhisattva must rely only on himself, for there is no Buddha to teach him,” Lopez clarifies, adding that the bodhisattva reaches nirvāṇa through perfecting himself and his virtues, not by 28 Ibid, p. 75. 29 Ibid, p. 75. 30 Ibid, p. 84. Bush 18 any teachings since those have faded away.31 Thus, having a relief or mural of the Jataka story can be more than a way to teach that story or to teach important values, it is a way to connect the practitioner to the Buddha and his past perfected actions. Along with this viewpoint, Brown gives us another purpose that these Jatakas serve in Asian monuments. For this we travel to the Ananda Temple in Myanmar during the rule of a Pagan king, Kyanzittha (r. 1084-1113). Brown introduces another scholar, Henry Luce, who claims that the Ananda Temple and its carvings of the 547 Jatakas were for “teaching and proselytizing.”32 Brown disagrees, saying that while Kyanzittha did support Theravada Buddhism, why would he do it through Jataka paintings and carvings that cannot be clearly read? Brown’s alternative viewpoint is that Kyanzittha was in fact aiming for purity and completeness in Theravada Buddhism—an alternative to Luce’s didactic theory. Brown writes that “the power of Theravadin Buddhism lies in its accuracy and authenticity judged in its approximation to the Buddha, his teachings, and his monks.”33 Here he connects the use of the Jataka tales, not through their narrative use, to the values of Theravada Buddhism. The Jatakas are used to instill completeness and correctness, their iconography painstakingly labeled, arranged, and detailed with precision.34 They are icons to bring the viewer closer to the Buddha. Similarly, we can use the same observations in the Thai mural to see how the viewer is brought closer to the Buddha through his past life as Sama. In the Jataka, Sama portrays the epitome of loving-kindness, a perfection that must be achieved for one working toward enlightenment. The Sama Jataka is a way for practitioners to act out their loving-kindness as the bodhisattva did and become closer to the Buddha. 31 Lopez, Donald S. The Story of Buddhism: A Concise Guide to Its History and Teachings. First ed. San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 2001, p. 64-67. 32 Brown 1997, p. 89. 33 Ibid, p, 89. 34 Ibid, p, 91. Bush 19 Furthermore, it has been offered that Kyanzittha had these Jataka sculptures created for other reasons. One is that they show the on-looking practitioners or pilgrims that the king’s success comes from his closeness to the Buddha and that he is repeating his actions when he was a bodhisattva. It is said that Kyanzittha and his queen were perhaps “relating their own life-stories allegorically, if not actually” to the Jatakas they patronized.35 These sacred stories then become a message to those in Kyanzittha’s kingdom that not only shows how Theravada is greater than other forms of Buddhism or local religions because of its “completeness” and closeness to the Buddha’s original teachings, 36 but it also shows that, in order to achieve the same prosperity as the king, people should follow the actions of the Buddha. We can now see how Brown’s two explanations about Indian and Southeast Asian architecture portray the Jatakas as they do. Instead of teaching, the Jataka reliefs are used to connect the viewer to the Buddha, which is an important quality in Theravada Buddhism. It also establishes a sense of completeness and correctness, making these Theravada temples, like Ananda, a form of political and religious rhetoric that legitimizes the king. So while these Jataka tales may not communicate much in a narrative sense when the reader has not been previously exposed to the story, they are still productive conduits of Theravada values. This is not to completely discredit the idea that the Jataka reliefs are used didactically as Brown claims. Even the illiterate who might not have read the Jatakas were still involved with them orally, listening to the tales. There is no way to know that practitioners circumambulating the temples or stupas did not know the Jataka tales well enough to understand a monoscenic relief—they very well may have. And many art styles throughout India and Southeast Asia combine multiple scenes of the narrative into one plate, which does not make them inherently incomprehensible to read. In 35 Win, U Lu Pe. "The Jatakas in Burma." Artibus Asiae. Supplementum, 1996, p.103. 36 Ibid, p. 103. Bush 20 fact, claiming that the Jatakas serve as both teaching and devotional connection would be more accurate than one over the other. This is certainly something we will come back to later. There is yet another alternative use for the Jatakas besides didactic that we have not covered. Stephen Berkwitz focuses on Theravada Buddhism in medieval Sri Lanka, where he examines the use of the written Jataka narratives. According to him, the historical narratives of Siddhartha Buddha are both “devotional and ethical,”37 allowing for connectedness and teaching but also adding another element—emotional. There is a deliberate link between narrative and emotions, Berkwitz explains, and when it comes to Theravada, gratitude is the most prominent of all the emotions elicited. The ethical teachings that the Jatakas contain are ostensible in nature, Berkwitz states, claiming that gratitude is a state that is instilled by the Jatakas and then embodied by the practitioner’s actions.38 This idea, that emotions are evoked in the reader/viewer when they interact with the Jataka tales is a new but valid addition. Berkwitz does warn that Theravada texts work to “curb emotional excess” and manages to balance positive emotions, like gratitude, with reason in order to make a “virtuous devotee.”39 The important part of the emotional gratitude felt when reading the Jataka tales is not to get attached to them but to bring about “a self-awareness of having benefited from what the Buddha…did in the past.”40 Overall, much like Brown’s statement that the Jatakas bring a connectedness between devotee and the Buddha, so too does engaging with the Jataka tales inspire emotional gratitude that reminds the practitioner about the Buddha’s enlightenment and brings them closer to his teachings and to him. Practitioners are reminded of the hardships the Buddha underwent in his previous lives in order to obtain enlightenment and lead others to enlightenment as well. Often in the narratives, 37 Berkwitz 2003, p. 581. 38 Ibid, p. 582. 39 Ibid, p. 548. 40 Ibid, p. 587. Bush 21 the historical Buddha feels joy or compassion for those around him even when he sacrifices his own comfort or life, but he does not let these emotions overtake him. While the Sama Jataka is often categorized as representing loving-kindness as its principal emotion and virtue, we can undoubtedly see how it brings in the Theravada feelings of gratitude. First we can examine the actual characters. When his parents are first blinded, Sama is grateful for the opportunity to take care of them, even saying, “I laughed because now I will care for you. So do not worry, I will look after you.”41 This gives a purpose to Sama’s life and he is doing the right thing by honoring and looking after his parents. Likewise, we read that the king, Piliyakkha, is relieved and awed that Sama holds no animus toward him over the shooting, but these feelings also come across as grateful to Sama. Equally so, Sama’s parents are not outwardly angry at Piliyakkha, something that he praises them for. Reading into the text we can assume that the parents, Dukūlaka and Pārikā, are grateful that their sight and son are returned to them at the end of the narrative. Even the mural highlights the importance of gratitude. Out of all the actions in the narrative that the artists could have selected to paint on the temple, they chose these scenes. Available to the onlooker of the Thai mural are mixed scenes, such as the case with Plate 8 (see Fig. 1), which has the king explaining to Dukūlaka and Pārikā that he has killed Sama; the parents, the king, kinnaris, and the goddess mourning over Sama’s body; and a scene that is from another Jataka entirely.42 Excluding the latter scene, we see that the main scenes of the narrative that are showcased are ones ripe with emotion. Piliyakkha kneels before the parents explaining the wrongdoing he has committed. Then we have the poignant scene where mother, father, and goddess swear their declarations of truth as Sama lies seemingly dead on the ground. In Wray’s 41 Shaw 2006, p. 288. 42 This scene is from the Mahajanaka Jataka and is combined with images from the Sama Jataka on the mural. Wray 1972, p. 40. Bush 22 commentary on this particular scene, she notes that the king is sitting farther away from Sama’s body and the mourners: “The difference between the lamenting postures of the parents and the seated king shows that the king is an intruder and does not belong…”43 This observation is reflected in the mural itself as Piliyakkha’s physical body is located outside of the frame where all the other characters are located, with the tree acting as a natural barrier. What is important about this scene is that it shows the moment Piliyakkha realizes the parents hold no ill will toward him and he is grateful for that. The second scene comes moments before Sama is seemingly returned to life and his parents’ eyesight is restored. Out of all the scenes to immortalize on the Thai temple, the ones that show emotion, as well as gratitude, are the ones painted. Perhaps, like any dramatic work of art, these scenes were selected because they are just that—dramatic—or, when using the theories of Berkwitz and Brown, we can see how practitioners relate to specific parts of the narrative that show Theravada values. Those charged moments will be the moments when viewers feel most connected to the Buddha. Outside of the story’s characters, we can also see how viewers of this mural would be grateful for Sama as the Bodhisattva. The lack of anger that Sama displays towards the king, and even the king’s own good words as he promises to take care of the blind ascetics, instills a sense of gratitude in the audience. Sama devotes himself to his parents’ health, creating a world for them once theirs is uprooted by their sudden blindness. This sense of devotion to his parents, the happiness and contentedness that Sama feels, is appreciated by the viewer. So while this is, in its basic sense, a way to teach an ethical practice, it also brings the audience closer to the Buddha. They share in the same feelings that Sama has during certain points in the narrative where he too is grateful for what has happened. Readers are also grateful for Sama’s actions when he laments that his death will not just be his but the death of his blind parents, since no one will care for 43 Wray 1972, p. 41. Bush 23 them. The loving-kindness that Sama expresses towards his parents speaks to the audience, connecting them to the Buddha and making them thankful for what he has done in all of his lives. As part of the Dasajati, the Sama Jataka is often praised for its portrayal of loving-kindness. So while we can look at the importance of Theravada gratitude in the Sama story and in the Thai murals, it is also crucial to look at how the ninth perfection develops as both virtue and emotion. On the surface readers can easily see how Sama is praised for his acts of loving-kindness through his devotion to his parents. Though, just as Berkwitz warns that too much gratitude is dangerous, Shaw, in her introduction to the Sama Jataka, explains that too much loving-kindness is equally dangerous. When readers look deeper into the narrative they see that the Bodhisattva puts himself at risk because of the idyllic world he has created for his parents. Sama “lives in a familiar, inner world that does not prepare him for life outside his protected space,”44 Shaw writes, adding that Sama has tamed the animals of the woods out of “kindness alone.” He is so pure that it never crosses his mind that someone or something would hurt him, and it is this notion that gets Sama into trouble. Sama “loses the quality of alertness to the outside world which is the hallmark of Buddhist practice: he is ‘careless’ (pamattaṃ), despite his remarkable ascetic bearing.”45 In the Sama Jataka there is a warning against excess, even an excess of a perfection. Sama becomes so lost in his loving-kindness that he becomes careless and places himself, and thus his dependent parents, in danger. Of course, the story heals this blunder by the end of the tale and we are left forgiving Sama and knowing that the Bodhisattva has experienced and learned more, bringing him one life closer to his time as Gautama. 44 Shaw 2006, p. 276 45 Ibid, p. 276. Bush 24 Another Theravada flavor that permeates this rendition of the Sama Jataka is also something that Shaw brings up in her introduction.46 While in any other interpretation, especially a literary one, the scene of Sama falling unconscious from the poison arrow or dying may be seen as a crux, Shaw strives to make her translation clear: Sama is not completely dead. “To the king it looks like death, because Sama has no in or out breath or outward signs of consciousness. These are also, however, features of some higher meditative states.”47 Here Shaw suggests that Sama enters the fourth jhāna, or some other form of higher meditation that places him in a death-like state to those unknowing of Sama’s capabilities. If we look to Buddhaghosa, the fifth-century Theravadin scholar and commentator, we can see that there is merit to Shaw’s claim. In Buddhaghosa’s Path of Purification: Visuddhimagga, he sets up a situation in which a monk contemplates where in-breaths and out-breaths exist: “Then, as he [the monk] considered thus, he finds that they do not exist in one inside the mother’s womb, or in those drowned in water, or likewise in unconscious beings, or in the dead, or in those attained to the fourth jhāna, or in those born into a fine-material or immaterial existence, or in those attained to cessation [of perception and feeling].”48 Likewise, Gethin describes attainment of the fourth jhāna as the essentially complete process of stilling or calming the mind. He also explains the theory behind this state and says that “the fourth jhāna forms the basis for the development of various meditation powers: the iddhi or ‘higher knowledges’… knowledge of distant sounds, knowledge of the state of others’ minds, knowledge of his own and others’ past lives.”49 With this information in mind, Shaw’s interpretation and translation of the Sama Jataka places Sama in this higher meditative state that no one but he knows he is in. The miracle behind 46 See footnote 20. 47 Ibid, p. 277. 48 Buddhaghosa 1975, p. 279 (VIII, 209). 49 Gethin 1998, p. 185-186. Bush 25 Sama’s return to life is answered in a practical way—to say that he was never dead to begin with. As Shaw puts it, “This Jataka gives a happy ending—but still provides a thoroughly Buddhist explanation for it all.”50 So even if we have supernatural occurrences such as the appearance of kinnaris, gods, and goddesses, the Sama Jataka does what it can to stick to Buddhist doctrine and cosmology in order to explain the ending. Still, even if Sama places himself in an advanced meditative state in order to survive, he still needs the declarations of truths from his parents and the goddess in order to be revived. The Sama Jataka in Mahayana Buddhism For the Mahayana version of the Sama Jataka we turn to one of the three Chinese versions available. The one used in this paper is taken from Kenneth K.S. Ch’en’s larger work, The Chinese Transformation of Buddhism. While this text does not contain all of the Jataka, Ch’en gives us an appropriate English translation to work with for the purposes of this project. In the Chinese translation of the Sama Jataka, Sama is known as Shan-tzu. The Jataka is found in the P’u-sa Shan-tzu-ching, the translation of which Ch’en credits to an “unknown monk” roughly during the Western Chin dynasty (265-316 CE).51 The Chinese translation of the Sama Jataka excludes the framing “story of the present” completely, at least in Ch’en’s translation. This means that the ending ahaṃ eva is nonexistent, so the importance of having the historical Buddha as part of the Jataka is not a part of this translation. We can acknowledge this difference between the Theravada version of the Sama Jataka and the Mahayana retelling, since the Theravada version is all about connecting practitioners to the Buddha and bringing them closer to his teachings. This is not the case for Mahayana Buddhism. 50 Shaw 2006, p. 277. 51 Ch’en 1973, p. 20. Bush 26 If we look at Mahayana Buddhism, we know that its growth was gradual, like a series of innovations, and it allowed the monastic community more time for self-reflection and criticism. “Discovered texts” also became important to Mahayan, and revealed scriptures like the Prajñāpāramitā (The Perfection of Wisdom Sutra) were viewed as the true words of the Buddha that were hidden and only later revealed when humanity was ready to learn their teachings. Of course, Theravada does not acknowledge these texts as words of the Buddha, thus making these sutras and other Mahayana innovations irrelevant to them. Two other fundamental motifs to Mahayana Buddhism are the centrality of compassion and the existence of infinite buddhas—both help answer why Gautama seems to be missing from the Chinese translation. Compassion becomes important to achieving liberation in Mahayana and it is the bodhisattva’s path that helps attain this goal. We learn that “bodhisattvas, embodiments of compassion, vow to postpone their own final emancipation until all other sentient beings have been emancipated.”52 Compassion toward all sentient beings is vital, but so too is the concept of staying and helping/teaching others. The infinite buddhas and bodhisattvas that are emphasized in Mahayana Buddhism are also connected to compassion. These enlightened beings are less human and more cosmic. They fill space and time and are a part of every existence. Some of these other buddhas even surpassed Gautama Buddha in popularity depending on the region. Buddhas like Amitabha, Aksobhya, and Bhaishajyaguru are just some examples of these infinite, cosmic buddhas. Kevin Trainor comments that Mahayana thought allows “the concept of buddha… [to be] brought closer to the devotee, with the promise that everyone can attain this goal… [But] buddhas are described in such expansively cosmic terms—beyond the experience and imagination of most people—that the concept of buddha is almost impossible to grasp, thus 52 Trainor, Kevin. Buddhism: The Illustrated Guide. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001, p. 132. Bush 27 magnifying the divide between buddha and humankind.”53 Perhaps the Jataka tales can clarify this muddled thought. After all, they give practitioners an easy tale to absorb the Buddha as a bodhisattva. Cosmic buddhas they may be, but at least they began as humans, making them relatable. Mahayana also condenses the ten perfections found in Theravada to six.54 While some of the perfections are the same, others are left out and replaced with perfections unique to Mahayana. More important to this study, the ninth perfection, Sama’s perfection, is elided. Loving-kindness is not part of the six perfections in Mahayana. So what does this mean for a Jataka that is prized for being the perfection of loving-kindness? What does this mean for Sama who is critiqued in the Theravada context for his overuse of loving-kindness? For the Mahayana rendition this means that other values will be highlighted and interpreted from the Jataka. The lack of the ‘story of the present” allows for this Mahayana translation to focus on Mahayana doctrine and for regional concepts to become more prominent. As stated before, the Mahayana Sama Jataka only consists of the “story of the past” and begins with an unnamed bodhisattva watching over the world. The bodhisattva notices a blind couple wishing to retire as recluses in the forest, but who have no children to take care of them and so cannot. In order to help them the bodhisattva is born as their child. This is Shan-tzu. Shan-tzu devotes his life to serving his parents and does such a good job of it that his parents forget to move to the forest to live an ascetic life. It is Shan-tzu who reminds them of the vow they made before his birth and who promises to serve them as well as is he now even when they retreat to the forest. With this knowledge the parents sell their belongings and find a new home in the woods. There are some similarities to the Theravada Jataka, since Shan-tzu creates rope 53 Ibid, p. 134. 54 Trainor 2001, p. 137. Bush 28 bridges around their new dwelling and he continues to gather food and water for his parents. However, in the Mahayana version it is not Shan-tzu’s quality of loving-kindness that calms the woodland animals but simply his constant and peaceful presence. Shan-tzu “would don a covering of deerskin so as not to disturb the deer at the watering place,”55 whereas in the Pali version Sama’s very being attracted and settled the deer. This text takes that deerskin covering and uses it as the reason why the king shoots Shan-tzu with an arrow. There is no ulterior motive for the shooting of Shan-tzu in Ch’en’s translation besides the misrecognition of a man for a deer. Once shot, Shan-tzu falls56 and says that by killing him, the king has killed three people. Shan-tzu explains to the king his parents’ circumstances, telling him of the twenty years he has served his parents and that no wild animal has ever hurt him but now a human has. Suddenly, a wild storm billows into the tale. The king becomes frightened by the storm and swears he did not mean to shoot Shan-tzu on purpose. Shan-tzu calms the king, assuring the other man that he believes him and that it was his own karma that was responsible for this situation,57 but there is still the matter of his parents. This is where the Chinese rendition really shines on its own. Here the king applauds and praises Shan-tzu for his filial piety and is specifically noted as being moved by this devotion alone.58 So moved is the king that he offers to take care of the parents if Shan-tzu should die—which Shan-tzu does. “Shan-tzu gave the necessary directions [to the parents’ home], and died.”59 There is no unconsciousness or deep 55 Ch’en 1973, p. 21. 56 With not the grace or precision of Sama—though this could be due to how short the Mahayana translation is. 57 Shan-tzu says the shooting is due to his karma while the Theravada Jataka blames it on Sama’s carelessness and his parents’ karma. 58 Ibid, p. 21. 59 Ibid, p. 21. Bush 29 meditative state mentioned in this version and perhaps no question as to the fate of Shan-tzu, at least not so far. The story quickly wraps up as the king takes the parents to Shan-tzu’s body. Shan-tzu’s mother tries to suck the poison out, wishing that she would die rather than her son. And, like the Theravada story, the parents utter a ‘declaration of truth,’ which claims that “if it were true that Shan-tzu was the paragon of sincerity and filial piety, then let this arrow be plucked out, the poison eradicated, and Shan-tzu restored to life.”60 There is no goddess looking out for Shan-tzu in this version, so it is Sakka who hears this declaration and descends to the world in order to give Shan-tzu medicine. This medicine, once placed into Shan-tzu’s mouth, forces the arrow out and restores him to life. The tale ends by saying that the Buddha teaches “that people with parents must be filial to them,”61 which acts as its own brief “story of the present.” While even Ch’en notes some of the more obvious differences between the Pali version and the Chinese versions—the parents being blind from the start, the storm, the lack of a goddess—the most important observation is that the parents’ sight is not restored by the end of the narrative. We can conclude that filial piety is the reigning emotion in the Chinese translation of the Sama Jataka, not loving-kindness or gratitude. Because of this, we can also interpret that the narrative keeps Shan-tzu’s parents blind in order for him to continue serving them. With their sight restored, they would not need Shan-tzu’s assistance and, while he could still serve as a devoted son when the parents have their sight, this small change in the narrative forces Shan-tzu to stay, thus proving his powerful dedication. Ch’en notes that the story of Shan-tzu became a popular example of filial piety in Buddhist literature due to Confucian influences, but also states that the story was adopted out of 60 Ibid, p. 22-23. 61 Ibid, p. 20-23. Bush 30 Buddhist literature and into popular literature.62 There are other changes to this story, but it is amazing to note that the Sama Jataka captivated audiences so much that it became “one of the twenty-four standard models of piety in China.”63 Ch’en is not the only one who has noticed the combination of the Sama Jataka tale and filial piety in a Mahayana context. Guang Xing speaks of the Sama Jataka in the Chinese context as well. However, Xing’s summary of the Jataka ends the tale differently than Ch’en’s translation, with the restoration of Shan-tzu’s parents’ sight.64 While this restoration disproves our interpretation that Shan-tzu must stay in order to help his blind parents, thus illustrating his filial piety, it does demonstrate how malleable these tales are. Narratives are living, breathing things that change depending on the region and translation—without that, we would have no basis for literary and cultural comparison. Regardless of this detail, Xing’s article still examines filial piety in Mahayana Buddhism. Xing writes that “the bodhisattva ideal is a major doctrine in Mahayana teaching, and filial piety also comes under this ideal. This means that bodhisattvas consider all sentient beings as their parents because from numerous past lives in eons of time all sentient beings have been their parents and so they support and respect all beings and work for their salvation.”65 A sense of compassion and staying to help others achieve enlightenment are two concepts that we have mentioned briefly before and it is something that Xing expands on. In the Mahayana sense all beings have been a person’s mother or father, just as that person has been those being’s mother or father. This understanding helps us see why Mahayana Buddhism would take the Sama Jataka and make the Bodhisattva’s filial devotion the ultimate lesson. Xing gives other examples of where we find filial piety throughout Mahayana philosophical thought, with texts like the 62 Ibid, p. 23. 63 Ibid, p. 23. 64 Xing 2005, p. 90. 65 Ibid, p. 94. Bush 31 Dafangbianfo-baoen-jing (Sutra of the Great Skillful Means [mahopayā] by which the Buddha Requites the Debt to his Parents) and in the Saṃyuttanikayā.66 Through this, Xing proves one of the claims he makes in his thesis that Chinese Mahayana Buddhism is not the only school to capitalize on filial piety.67 Nevertheless, he also makes it clear that Chinese Mahayana Buddhism shares a special claim to filial piety, like we see in this interpretation of our Sama Jataka. For instance, Chinese Buddhists paid special attention to teaching filial piety from one generation to the next. Even more significant was the influence that Confucianism had on Chinese Buddhism. Xing writes that Confucianism emphasized filial piety as a supreme virtue.68 Given Confucianism’s focus on social propriety, moral conduct, and right action, the behavior of an individual to their parents is important. Those who treated their parents the right way would no doubt treat the state correctly. With Buddhism and Confucianism interacting as closely as they did in China, it is easy to understand how ideals from one religion bleed into its neighbor. Sometimes this was due to location, a mixing of popular religions and practices, and other times it resulted in the commentary of one onto the next. Indeed, the retelling of the Sama Jataka, with importance placed on filial piety, works as a way to “show that Buddhism teaches filial piety in order to respond to the Confucian accusation of Buddhist monks being not filial.”69 Here we have the Jataka acting as commentary and as a response to other contending religions and ideals of the region. Previously we have had the Jataka as didactic, as a devotional connection, and as a way 66 Ibid, p. 95. 67 In fact, Xing takes the time to list when filial piety is mentioned in Theravada (p. 95). He says that Buddhaghosa also speaks of how loving-kindness is applied via filial piety (p. 95)—which proves how the Sama Jataka really does capture it all. 68 Ibid, p. 96. 69 Ibid, p. 96. Bush 32 to express and hone emotions; in some ways we have that in the Mahayana version as well, but truly we can also see it as part of a larger discussion and social interaction between two religions. Xing’s further examination of the tension and interaction between Buddhism and Confucianism helps buttress why the translation of the Sama Jataka is so important to Chinese Mahayana practitioners. In another article, Xing addresses the critiques that Confucian scholars had towards Chinese Buddhists and the defense that Buddhists created in order to not only refute those attacks but, in some cases, retaliate. Part of this defense was the use of popular stories and parables in a public realm in order to prove that Buddhism is just as adequate, if not better, at expressing filial piety than Confucianism. In fact, one of the stronger attacks that Confucianism leveled against its new religious neighbor was over filial piety. In a series of Confucian criticisms and Buddhist rebuttals, Xing mentions the critiquing text, Sanpo Lun, and how two Buddhists, Liu Xie and Sengshun, responded to these critiques.70 While this paper will not look at all of the criticisms, it will look at those connected to the issue of filial piety and how literature, like the Jatakas, help ease those anxieties attendant to it. One of the attacks that the Sanpo Lun makes against Buddhism is that it “was destructive to the family, because monks left their family and parents, hence it was unfilial.”71 Liu Xie’s response to this argued that filial piety was in its “ultimate form” in both the Buddhist lay and monastic community. The laity practiced filial piety in a general Confucian sense while the monastic community showed their filial piety in cultivating virtue and, more importantly, by “saving their departed relatives.”72 This means that the laity, by taking care of their parents, acts under proper social beliefs according to Confucian doctrine. Yet, it is the Buddhist monastic community who takes this base idea of filial piety and expands it to all living beings, not just the 70 Xing 2013, p. 256-257. 71 Ibid, p. 256. 72 Ibid, p. 256. Bush 33 ones in their current family. The Buddhist argument is that monks, by leaving their families, are promoting good merit for everyone, not just themselves or their single family units. The Sanpo Lun also critiques Buddhism by stating it is “destructive to the person because monks cut their hair and were without posterity.”73 This is troubling to Confucian values because without an heir or future the family line cannot continue. If the family cannot continue then who will take care of the older generations and deceased ancestors when they cannot take care of themselves? Questions like these led to anxiety and an attack on Buddhism. Liu Xie’s refutation to this attack, however, is both humorous and connected to his last defense. Firstly, Liu Xie says that filial piety is “not found in the hairs but in the mind” and, secondly, that by abandoning “minor filial acts,” such as staying in the laity and serving their parents, monks achieve “greater filial acts” because they can then focus their energy on saving all ancestors forever.74 This is also tied to a notion that we have addressed before: that everyone has been or will be each other’s mother or father. Instead of focusing on this lifetime’s parents, the compassionate monk working to bring all to enlightenment is helping all his mothers and fathers, all of his ancestors. Finally, the last critique and defense we will look at is from Han Yu, a mid-Tang period Confucian scholar. Han Yu criticized the Buddhist teachings, calling them the “teachings of barbarians” and claiming that they were harmful to Chinese people practicing Confucian values.75 Xing writes that there are two different responses to this particularly slamming critique: popular and intellectual. It is the popular response that we will focus our attention on since it is the popular realm that includes the story of the Jatakas. In particular, the narrative of Shan-tzu is a way to convey the importance of filial piety through a Buddhist medium. Set in a Buddhist world with other Buddhist teachings and ideals, the Mahayana Sama Jataka proves to critics that 73 Ibid, p. 256. 74 Ibid, p. 256. 75 Ibid, p. 257. Bush 34 filial piety is just as important to Buddhism as it is to Confucianism. In it we see a cosmic Mahayana bodhisattva concerned about the welfare of two individuals. Out of compassion, he chooses to be reborn as their son in order to serve them. Not only do we see a core Confucian idea like filial piety in the Sama Jataka as Shan-tzu continues to stay with his parents and take care of them no matter where they live or the condition of their sight, we see a Mahayana Buddhist idea as well. As the bodhisattva looks down on the world and notices the blind couple, he sees their struggles and the troubles they will suffer in the future and feels compelled by compassion to help them. They are not the bodhisattva’s current parents, but since all beings are worth showing love and compassion, the bodhisattva decides to help them. With the arrival of their son, the parents’ concern for renunciation vanishes and we are given a tale where renunciation in the Mahayana context is not as important as in Theravada Buddhism. Xing describes the Buddhist idea of filial piety as one that serves not only a person’s current parents, but all sentient beings,76 which is what Shan-tzu’s tale illustrates. In this fashion the Mahayana Sama Jataka and other responses to Confucian critique show that Chinese Buddhism encourages a form of filial piety, one that is arguably better than that of Confucianism. It is in the Mahayana Sama Jataka that we see the Jatakas’ rhetorical ability to defend themselves and one-up other surrounding religious positions. While we can assume the Sama Jataka in Chinese Mahayana works as a teaching tool as well, it is also appreciated as a weapon to defend from doctrinal attacks and even provide a more valid form of filial piety than Confucianism. Overall, the Sama Jataka in the Mahayana context stays true to the Pali canon by essentially providing the same story. Yet differences like the exclusion of the “story of the 76 Ibid, p. 258-259. Bush 35 present” and minor plot changes allow us to see the Mahayana, specifically Chinese Mahayana, values when reading this Jataka through a different cultural lens. The Sama Jataka in Vajrayana Buddhism It is telling that the Sama Jataka cannot be found in the Tibetan Vajrayana context. While there are Jatakas that have been translated into Tibetan, such as a collection by Aryasura—which has even been visually represented in nineteenth-century Mongolian paintings77—the Sama Jataka is not one of them. This is curious given how important and popular Sama is in Theravada and Mahayana regions. The significance given to the final ten Jatakas in the Pali canon does not seem to translate over to Tibet or, at the very least, to the Sama Jataka in Tibet. So while we cannot comment on a translation that is not there, we can still discuss what the absence of the Sama Jataka means. Just as what is directly shared in a narrative is important, so too is what is omitted, what is not widely transmitted. We must ask and discuss why the Sama Jataka did not make it into the Vajrayana context and perhaps assume some reasons as to why this happened. These reasons may not be comprehensive but they will allow us to further the discussion and contrast Vajrayana Buddhism with the Theravada and Mahayana contexts we have explored. After all, the White Horse Jataka made it into Tibetan translations, so why not Sama? Perhaps one of the reasons the Sama Jataka finds little to no attention in the Vajrayana context is that the story focuses heavily on loving-kindness and filial piety, depending on which school you look at it through, and those are not reigning concepts in Tibetan Buddhism. Vajrayana Buddhism is esoteric and concentrated on extreme experiences and visually powerful iconography. For a story like the White Horse Jataka, which concerns demons who attack and eat 77 "Jatakamala: Previous Life Stories of the Buddha." Jatakamala: Previous Life Stories of the Buddha. http://www.himalayanart.org/pages/jataka.cfm. Bush 36 merchants, there are plenty of opportunities to visually embellish those moments. But the very nature of the Sama Jataka seems quieter than other Jatakas. Vajrayana also focuses on the powerful relationship between guru and practitioner, which is also seen in the White Horse Jataka, while the Sama Jataka is more of a familial or dutiful story. The Sama Jataka is an expression of emotions and a didactic lesson that may not have caught Vajrayana interest. There are arguments to be made that a different Jataka should have been picked for this selection seeing as it is missing from the Vajrayana context, but I think the questions that a missing or untranslated Jataka pose are too beneficial to omit. A void in scholarship may also be a reason for the omitted Jataka. Some have been translated and adapted to fit into the region and culture, but the popularity of certain Jatakas is just not there compared to other Buddhist regions. It is a compelling question to consider. The White Horse Jataka The White Horse Jataka, or Valāhassa Jataka, is categorized as number 196 out of the 547 Jatakas in the Pali canon. Unlike the Sama Jataka, which is special for being part of the Dasajati, the Valāhassa Jataka is situated somewhat in the early middle of the collection. While on the surface there is little importance to this particular story—it is not in the Dasajati, it is not openly praised for perfecting the perfections—there is something about the White Horse Jataka that draws many to it. Compared to the Sama Jataka, the Valāhassa Jataka is more translated and adapted by different cultures. Perhaps the Sama Jataka has been given more academic attention, generating multiple translations and scholarship, but it is the White Horse Jataka that has been transmitted the most. The characters of the Valāhassa Jataka illustrate the most significant changes over its translation from school to school and culture to culture. In the Pali canon the White Horse is Gautama Buddha while in the Mahayana and Vajrayana translation he is the Bush 37 bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara. The White Horse Jataka is also not as long as the Sama Jataka. It is unknown whether this is due to the narrative’s actual length or because the translations are not as in depth. Regardless, the Valāhassa is as equally enrapturing as the Sama Jataka. The White Horse Jataka Summary78 The Valāhassa Jataka’s “story of the present” vaults us into the narrative as the Buddha is told of a monk who has started to stray from his path. The Buddha asks this monk if he truly is a backslider, one who has slipped and forgotten or abused his vows. The monk confirms this accusation, saying that he has been aroused by a beautiful woman. The Buddha warns the monk that women will tempt men through “their figure and voice, scents, perfumes, and touch, and by their wiles and dalliance…”79 The Buddha continues, in an arguably vehement way, that women will ruin a man through all their evil ways and deserve the name of yakshini.80 He tells the monk that in days long ago a group of yakshinis tempted passing traders, ruled over them, and, once bored, killed and ate the men as “blood ran down over both cheeks.”81 Thus begins the “story of the past.” We arrive at the island of Sri Lanka in a town named Sirīsavatthu, populated by evil and monstrous women called yakshinis82. It is said that whenever a ship crashes on the shore, the women dress and primp, gathering rice and water to bring to the battered sailors. These women will have illusory slaves follow them or carry “children on their hip”83 so that when they do meet the merchants they are believable and safe. Adding to this false display, the women make their city appear as if there are men working the fields and that there are animals kept in pens so that 78 For this summary I draw from E.B. Cowell’s The Jātaka or Stories of the Buddha's Former Births, 1895, p. 89-91. 79 Cowell 1895, p. 89. 80 Ibid, p. 89. 81 Ibid, p. 89. 82 Yakshinis are fierce and cannibalistic spirits who take on the form of beautiful women in this tale. 83 Ibid, p. 89. Bush 38 everything appears normal. The women invite these merchants back to the city and offer them food and water. The merchants eat, unaware of the women’s identities, and rest with the women for some time. The yakshinis say that they have lost their own husbands three years ago when the men went to sea and never returned. Because the lost husbands and these survivors are both merchants, the women continue, it seems right for them to marry the stranded men. The yakshinis continue to lead the men astray until they lead the merchants all the way back to Sirīsavatthu. If the yakshinis already have men captured from a previous wreck, they take these men and silence them with magic charms, locking them away in “the house of torment.”84 One day, five hundred merchants shipwreck on the coast near this perilous city. The yakshinis come down in their disguises, toting gruel and water for the stranded men. After enticing them, the yakshini lead the merchants to their city where they then lock up the old captured men in the house of torment. The demonic women and merchants pair off, all five hundred of them, with the chief yakshini and the chief merchant bedding together until all become husband and wife. After consummating this new marriage, the men fall asleep and the yakshinis wait. The chief yakshini leaves her husband and travels to the house of torment where she kills some of the captured men and eats them. The other yakshinis follow after her and do the same. Once they have their fill they return back to their merchant husbands. When the chief yakshini embraces her husband he remarks that she feels cold and he realizes what she truly is. Knowing that the rest of the wives must be yakshinis as well, the chief merchant knows he must escape with his men. The next morning he tells the other merchants that the wives are not human but yakshinis. “As soon as other shipwrecked men can be found,” he 84 The narrative also makes a note that if no ship wrecks on their island, the yakshini will travel far away in order to steal men; see Cowell, p. 90. They are quite tenacious. Bush 39 explains, “they will make them their husbands, and will eat us; come—let us escape!”85 Half of the five hundred merchants follow the captain while the others refuse to go, adamant that they cannot leave their new wives. Those willing to leave with the chief merchant flee the city. During this event the Bodhisattva is living his life as a flying horse. Even as a horse he possesses powerful supernatural abilities. Flying from the Himalayas, he reaches Sri Lanka and eats from the rice paddies growing near the city. As he flies he cries out three times, his voice filled with mercy, “Who wants to go home?”86 The merchants hear this and cry back, “We are going home, master!” and they join their hands together, raising them to their foreheads in a respectful gesture. The Bodhisattva tells them to climb onto his back and some of the merchants do so while the others take hold of his tail. The Bodhisattva takes the two hundred and fifty men back to their own country, setting each one down gently at his home. The other two hundred and fifty merchants who stayed behind are later killed by the yakshinis after a new ship crashes on the island. We now return back to “the story of the present” as the Buddha explains his narrative. He warns against being like the merchants who refused to leave the yakshinis, and to be more like the merchants who obeyed the calls of the horse. Those who neglect the advice of the Buddhas suffer, while those who follow such advice will achieve great things. He then speaks these verses: “They who will neglect the Buddha when he tells them what to do,/ As the goblins [yakshinis] ate the merchants, likewise they shall perish too. They who hearken to the Buddha when he tells them what to do,/ As the bird-horse saved the merchants, they shall win salvation too.”87 85 Ibid, p.90. 86 Ibid, p.90. 87 Ibid, p.90. Bush 40 For the ahaṃ eva the Buddha says that his followers were the two hundred and fifty merchants who followed the flying horse, while he, the Buddha, was the white flying horse. The White Horse Jataka in Theravada Buddhism Although the Valāhassa Jataka is important throughout different Buddhisms and regions, there seems to be a lack of scholarship on the White Horse Jataka in Theravada regions. This is a curious reflection on how certain narratives are not only emphasized in different regions but in academic studies as well. Regardless, some comparisons can still be made with the Theravada White Horse Jataka. Naomi Appleton focuses on an expanded version of the Valāhassa Jataka found in the Pali canon. She identifies a key component of what constitutes a Theravada Jataka: “that one of the characters [the white horse] must be identified as the Bodhisattva.”88 True to this we have the historical Buddha connected to the Theravada Valāhassa Jataka; however, that importance is taken away and given to other figures in Mahayana and Vajrayana renditions. Appleton expresses that the “Buddha-to-be” shows compassion in this story and acts as a teacher by warning the merchants that they must not be too attached to their demonic wives.89 We will see how compassion and teachings are highlighted in Mahayana and Vajrayana versions of the White Horse Jataka, but the Theravada version connects those features directly to the Buddha. As we find in the Sama Jataka, Theravada Buddhism brings the practitioner and the Buddha closer together. Appleton also mentions a metaphor in the Valāhassa Jataka that “is obvious to any Buddhist or scholar of Buddhism.”90 The dangers of the frothing waves around the island, the ocean’s vastness and unpredictability, its allure, is all a metaphor for the endless cycle of rebirth. 88 Appleton, Naomi. "The Story of the Horse-King and the Merchant Siṃhala, in Buddhist Texts." Buddhist Studies Review, 2006, p. 191. 89 Ibid, p. 191-192. 90 Ibid, p. 192. Bush 41 Such is the case, then, that the island is a metaphor for this world, the safety of the other shores is nirvana, and to get to that point you must pass through the ocean of samsara. The only way to get to that other shore is with the help of the flying horse, a vehicle for the Buddha.91 Therefore, the White Horse Jataka reflects the importance and necessity of the Buddha—which is an explicitly Theravadin concept. Appleton continues to expand on the significance of the Valāhassa Jataka by noting how it mirrors the story of Gautama Buddha in the life in which he achieves enlightenment.92 When the Buddha lived his life as a prince and was given everything he could ever want, his father made sure that this illusion was never broken. This rings familiar to the merchants who are pulled in by the yakshinis and given a whole illusory city. The Buddha escaped from these entrapments when he discovered the truth outside of the illusion, which is similar to the merchants finding out what is real and what is unreal, and having to decide what to do with this new truth. After this moment of revelation, the Buddha, as Appleton puts it, “chooses to quit the world, to cross the ocean of samsara;”93 we can see the same resolve when the merchants decide to leave the island with the white horse. Again, the importance of the life of the Buddha is illustrated in this Theravada reading of the White Horse Jataka. Like the Sama Jataka it also connects the reader to the Buddha and his teachings. This Jataka is also more of a roadmap for Theravada Buddhism, especially using Appleton’s metaphor. Practitioners come closer to the Buddha by acting as he did as a bodhisattva. The White Horse Jataka in Mahayana Buddhism There are many versions of the White Horse Jataka present in Mahayana regions, such as a Japanese rendition discussed by Julia Meech-Pekarik. She notes that “with the emergence of 91 Ibid, p. 192. 92 Ibid, p. 192. 93 Ibid, p. 192. Bush 42 the cult of the great Mahayana bodhisattvas, many older legends were grafted onto the literature of supernatural exploits surrounding these powerful new beings.”94 Such is the case for the Valāhassa Jataka, since the white horse is no longer a previous life of the Buddha Siddhartha but a form of the bodhisattva Kannon (Avalokiteśvara). Avalokiteśvara, the bodhisattva of compassion, is often transformed throughout different regions; in Japan he becomes Kannon, the goddess of mercy.95 Kannon completely takes over the Jataka, and understandably so since the merchants in this story are in great need of someone to show them compassion and mercy, and to save them from the mistakes made on the island. Meech-Pekarik explains that the Japanese version of the White Horse Jataka must stem from the Chinese Hsi-yü chi (Journey to the West), as the latter half of the narrative—when the chief merchant makes it back to his home—follows the same story.96 In this Mahayana rendition the merchants utter a prayer directly to Kannon for help from the cursed island and, springing out from the sea, “a great white horse…came swimming over… Realizing that this was the answer to their prayers, the whole party [of merchants] climbed on to the horse’s back and clung on.”97 Unlike the Theravada version (and the Vajrayana version discussed below) Kannon, as the white horse, does not routinely visit the island but actively responds to prayers. Given that Kannon is often associated with saving sailors from drowning and the like, it makes sense that she would save these shipwrecked merchants who call out to her. The action in this version of the Japanese Valāhassa Jataka98 is quite short when compared to other regional adaptations. While there is always the possibility that this is due to 94 Meech-Pekarik, Julia. "The Flying White Horse: Transmission of the Valahassa Jataka Imagery from India to Japan." Artibus Asiae 43, no. 1/2 1981, p. 111-112. 95 Trainor 2001, p. 138-139. 96 Meech-Pekarik 1981, p. 113. 97 Ibid, p. 113-114. 98 A fuller version is found in Mills, D. E. A Collection of Tales from Uji; a Study and Translation of Uji Shūi Monogatari. Cambridge: University Press, 1970. Bush 43 personal preference and available space given to the translator, there is also the notion that this is intentional. In this version, as soon as the merchants mount the horse and fly off, the demonesses99chase after them, transform into “ten-foot-tall demons,”100 and start to stack up, one on top of the other, in order to reach the merchants. One merchant turns back to see this and ultimately falls to his death, his body devoured by the women. Comparing all three renditions of this narrative gives us three different outcomes with the merchants, the horse, and the female flesh-eaters. Theravada has half of the five hundred merchants make it out alive; this Mahayana version has all but one, while, as we will see later in the Vajrayana edition, only the captain will make it out alive. This is a vivid example of how narratives change over time and space. The Jataka is still, at its core, the White Horse Jataka, but the embellishments of the narrative change between oral texts, written works, and paintings and scrolls. The influence that the Valāhassa Jataka has on Japanese Mahayana culture is evident in the scrolls that Meech-Pekarik takes great care to share with her readers. The first scroll is a twelfth-century visual representation of the Lotus Sutra entitled Heike Nōgyō (fig. 2). The landscape, Meech-Pekarik describes, is simplified when compared to the striking paintings of the white horse galloping across the sea. Men cling to the horse’s mane, bridle, and back. Two other merchants are depicted in the sea, one trying to grab the horse again, the other looking back at the pursuing women. Described as demon-like and hideous, the attackers are only wearing loin cloths and stretch their arms wide to grab the fallen men.101 Likewise, the second painting that pairs with a Kamakura era (1192 1333) Kannon Sutra also reflects scenes from the Valāhassa Jataka (fig. 3). In this scene we have “a tiny golden Kannon supported on a magical silver 99 The demonic women are called rāḳsasīs in this rendition instead of yakshinis, but for continututiy’s sake I will continue to refer to them as yakshinis. 100 Ibid, p. 114. 101 Ibid, p. 114. Bush 44 cloud,”102 which hovers above the following scenes. There is a ship located in the right hand corner of the sea; there are a handful of lovely women walking to the shores by the lower left; and, reflecting the climax of the story,103 there is a red demon plunging towards a white horse and the men situated on that horse. Meech-Pekarik compares the two versions, remarking that the latter “reflects the growing realism of… [the] times, but…loses some of the naïve expressive power of the earlier painting.”104 She states that the terrifying visage of the first attackers pales when compared to the demon of the second. Fig 2. Heike Nōgyō scroll. Meech-Pekarik 1981, p. 121. 102 Ibid, p. 114. 103 The layout and scenes depicted in this one painting remind us of the multiple scenes painted in the Thai Sama Jatakas. An entire paper on analyzing the art and narrative of Jatakas could be dedicated to such similarities. 104 Ibid, p. 114. Bush 45 Fig 3. Kannon Sutra image. Meech-Pekarik 1981, p. 119. We too can relate the different scroll renditions to the overall collection of the White Horse Jatakas we will examine. Some, like the upcoming Vajrayana adaptation, add great and terrifying details to the story, while others, as we have noticed earlier with the Japanese Valāhassa, skims over certain details in order to get straight to the point of the story. Actually, from this research and Meech-Pekarik’s essay, it seems that this Jataka has more influence in art and inspiring other stories in Japan than it does serving as a Jataka. This is not to discredit the use of it as a Jataka in Japanese Mahayana but to emphasize how versatile these stories are and how a region and people use them in different ways. It also adds a facet of visualization to these Jatakas that we may not otherwise experience with just reading the stories and imaging them as we go. For the Valāhassa Jataka in Japanese Mahayana the story acts as a way to praise Kannon, her acts of compassion, and her mercy. The Valāhassa Jataka in Vajrayana Buddhism Unlike the Sama Jataka, the White Horse Jataka is found in Tibetan literature, more precisely in the Tibetan history entitled ‘Mirror Illuminating the Royal Genealogies’. In this Bush 46 paper we look at two translations of the Tibetan Jataka, the first in the above text and the second in an article by H. Wenzel that gives a bit more background onto the Valāhassa and another translation of it. To begin with we will look at the translation found in the Mirror Illuminating the Royal Genealogies.105 Much like the Mahayana rendition of the Sama Jataka, the Vajrayana Valāhassa also leaves out the “story of the present.” There is no Gautama Buddha dealing with a present situation that prompts him to share a past life story. The Mahayana Sama Jataka does loop back to the Buddha and his teachings, albeit very briefly, but the Vajrayana Valāhassa does no such thing. What makes this version one of the more transformative pieces out of the Jatakas we are studying is that Gautama Buddha is again replaced by Avalokiteśvara, similar to the Mahayana version. It is Avalokiteśvara who turns into the horse, Balaha, in order to work for the sake of all sentient beings. The text says that Avalokiteśvara does this by “give[ing] a[n edifying] parable of [how] the wholesome [should] be accepted and [how] the unwholesome [should] be rejected.”106 The wholesome in this story would be those who are rescued by Balaha and the unwholesome those who are trapped by their attachment to the island and the demonesses. This switch to Avalokiteśvara from the historical Buddha is not difficult to understand. Avalokiteśvara is one of the most popular bodhisattvas in Buddhism and there are numerous stories that focus on him saving others. Being the embodiment of compassion, Avalokiteśvara will save those who call out to him and he will take on any form necessary to save his devotees. In the White Horse Jataka it is the horse king, Balaha, that Avalokiteśvara becomes. Other major differences in the Vajrayana translation is the amount of embellishment found in this story compared to the Pali narrative. The graphic details found in the Tibetan Jataka 105 Sorensen, Per K. Tibetan Buddhist Historiography: The Mirror Illuminating the Royal Genealogies. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1994, p. 117-124. 106 Ibid, p. 119. Brackets in translation. Bush 47 are noted by scholars as being one of the defining features of this version. Examples of this can be found in the motives of the merchants who, in this tale, have low-merit and are searching for beautiful jewels. The storm scene is an excellent example: the low-merit merchants are surrounded by a storm that knocks their boat towards the island—much like in the Pali version. In the Tibetan translation, however, the storm is described in verse as such: “[At] noon black clouds gathered like thick mist,/ Obscuring the rays of the sun, [causing] darkness to prevail,/ A terrifying gale [raged] as if the earth trembled,/ The forest and all the trees fell about;/ The waves of the ocean resembled a leaping lion;/ Whirlpool of waves almost made earth and heaven meet.”107 The language of the verse is beautiful and awe-inspiring, terrifying in what it portrays and it is positively brimming with details often found in Tibetan literature. This is fitting given the attention Vajrayana Buddhism gives to visual imagery, whether in narratives, paintings, murals, etc. Likewise, other Tibetan narratives, no matter the genre, also take great pains in providing vivid details, as we see in Tibetan ghost stories where demons are often grossly described. In the Jataka, the demonesses, once they cast away their beautiful illusions, are described in equally grotesque fashion; their faces are rugged and “their breasts were placed upon their shoulders,… their teeth protruded…”108 Such details are terrifying to imagine and are perhaps even more terrifying for those listening to the tale. No other translation provides as many memorable descriptions as the Tibetan version of the Valāhassa Jataka. Great imagery and language, however, are not the only things that set the Vajrayana White Horse Jataka apart from its Theravada and Mahayana cousins. There are other crucial differences that we can examine as well. Some are only worth mentioning briefly, such as the lack of the illusionary town and children that the demonic women create in the Pali version; the 107 Ibid, p. 119. 108 Ibid, p. 123. Bush 48 disguised demonesses being described as goddesses; and the merchants drugging their demon wives before escaping to meet Balaha. These disparities are not worth expanding on, but are certainly worth reading to compare with other versions. A more notable scene is the pairing off of the merchants and demonesses upon their first meeting and consummation of the marriage. After that a voice breaks the narrative. In the English translation, Sorensen writes this as a voice from above who says to the audience: "[the] merchants suffering from ill-fated karma,/ When they were carried along by an adverse and unwelcome storm,/ Like [an animal] when going astray is caught in a hunting-net,/ [They] fell into the hands of the Lord of Death (Yama) with no means of escape.”109 While this narrative break in the story is worth studying from a literary point of view, we should focus on what the disembodied voice says. In the Pali version the Buddha does not break his storytelling to explain to the listeners why the merchants suffer the fate that they do, yet that is exactly what the Vajrayana version does. It accentuates the fact that it is the merchants’ bad karma that brings them to the island. So while the Vajrayana version lacks the framing “story of the past,” it still manages to clarify why the merchants suffer the way they do. It does this without bringing up the Buddha, allowing Avalokiteśvara to take center stage. Another difference between Theravada and Vajrayana is what Balaha says to the merchants as they escape from the island. Balaha enters the scene on “a moon-beam accompanied by a light of rainbow”110 and, after eating from the paddies as we see in other versions of this Jataka, he calls out into the night: “All [ye] merchants who have been caught up on the Island of the Ogresses, ride on my back! Keep your eyes [completely] shut and remain completely unattached to the youthful appearance of the rākṣasī-ogresses, your offspring and 109 Ibid, p. 120. 110 Ibid, p. 122. Bush 49 [all] enjoyable pleasures! I shall bring you to your native country!”111 Once mounted the captain repeats this warning to his fellow merchants as the demonic women wake up and chase after Balaha and their husbands. The demonesses beg and reprimand the merchants for leaving them and their children and, disregarding Balaha’s instructions, all the merchants but the captain opens their eyes and fall off the flying to horse. They are soon devoured by the women, suffering one final moment of terror as they see the demonesses for what they really are instead of the beautiful glamour they wear. Note too, that unlike the Theravada rendition where only half of the merchants ultimately go with the captain and the flying horse, the Tibetan translation has all the merchants ride Balaha. However, the Tibetan Jataka does not make a point to list how many merchants are on the island or how many ride Balaha, whereas the Pali canon specifically states only two hundred and fifty of the five hundred merchants join the flying horse. This may connect back to the excluded “story of the present” and the different teachings that are stressed in the Vajrayana version. The Buddha’s ahaṃ eva connects the two hundred and fifty merchants who followed the white horse to his current followers while the Vajrayana version knocks those unnumbered merchants off and focuses just on the chief and Balaha. Instead of connecting the Buddha to all, there seems to be greater focus on Balaha as the guru and the one “pupil” who follows his instructions. When Balaha finally lands and tells the captain he can dismount and open his eyes, both captain and horse mourn over the lost merchants. The captain cries and Balaha throws his hooves to the ground, bitterly weeping. When asked what happened to the other merchants, Balaha explains that these men lacked in merits as they think not of their native home, or their family, but thought too much of the demonesses and the children they bore with them. A combination of ill karma and being too attached to the women dooms the merchants to their fate. Balaha then 111 Ibid, p. 122. Bush 50 speaks what could be argued as the most Vajrayana sounding lines out of the whole Jataka: “Alas! Alas! Indeed the sentient beings are to be pitied! The disciple who has killed [his] Tantric teacher (vajrācārya)/ When he [becomes] imprisoned in the hellish place of Avīci,/ Even though the guru's compassion is great [then] what can he do [to help]?”112 One of the main tantric features found in Vajrayana Buddhism is the connection between teacher and student—between guru and initiate. The relationship between guru and practitioner allows for the transmission of rituals and yogic practices in an esoteric fashion. There is an emphasis on the guru that is found in Vajrayana, especially as the school shifted away from the vinaya113 and to the samaya, a personal contract with the guru. Understandably, the relationship between guru and pupil is an important one, but just as Balaha explains, there is only so much a guru can do no matter how great the guru’s compassion is. With Balaha being a form of Avalokiteśvara, the bodhisattva of compassion, there is no one more compassionate than he is as he tries to save these merchants from the island. But the other merchants are too far gone for his help and he likens them to being trapped in the Avīci Hell. Avīci is a terrible place to be reborn as it is considered one of the worst of the eight hells. This hell is the destination for those who commit the worst crimes—killing one’s father or mother, killing or wounding an arhat or a buddha, causing a schism in the sangha, or for those whose wholesome faculties have been eradicated.114 And it can certainly be believed that the merchants who are too attached to demonesses and pleasures fall into this category. There is nothing that Balaha can do more than rescue the merchants from the island and warn them to keep their eyes closed. If they open them, which they did, then that is their fault and beyond 112 Ibid, p. 123. 113 The monastic code that makes up one of the three baskets found in Buddhism. 114 Buswell, Robert E., and Donald S. Lopez. The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2014, p. 86. Bush 51 Balaha’s powers as a guru and savior. Yet, despite the mourning and tears Balaha and the chief merchant shed for the deceased, the King of Horses speaks once more: “Therefore do never get attached to the [fleeting] happiness [offered] by the [ephemeral] cycle of transmigration!”115 After saying this, Balaha gives a discourse on the Four Noble Truths and the merchant chief stops crying and returns home. The Four Noble Truths and a reminder not to become too attached are certainly not notions confined to just Vajrayana Buddhism. Yet, they are specifically brought up in this translation of the Valāhassa in contrast to the Pali canon where the Buddha warns about backsliding. This makes Balaha’s speech an explanation and guide for the merchant chief as it is for those reading it—this is what happens when you follow the path, your guru, and this is what happens when you do not. H. Wenzel’s Valāhassa translation is similar to Sorensen’s. Most of these discrepancies between them seem to involve differences in the translation of the Tibetan into English, since Wenzel’s translation expands on moments that we see in Sorensen’s. For example, when the merchants are waiting for Balaha to arrive, they implore him by saying, “Now there is for us no other means of escape, we implore the help of the merciful horse-lord.”116 This line show reliance on Balaha and his mercy to save the merchants who cannot save themselves from their “low-merit” that has placed them in this situation. And with Balaha offering this servicel we see how compassionate Avalokiteśvara is to take up the form of the greatest horse alive to rescue men from the island. Another deviation comes at the very end of the Jataka when the merchant chief returns to his village after Balaha leaves.117 Since only the captain lives in this version, he is the only one to 115 Sorensen 1994, p. 124. 116 Wenzel, H. "A Jataka-Tale from the Tibetan." The Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, 1888, p. 507. 117 Balaha leaves “like a vanishing rainbow.” A wonderful embellishment present in both Tibetan translations. Bush 52 tell the rest of the village what has happened. He tells everyone, in explicit detail, what has occurred and ends the account with a teaching. In Wenzel’s version this comes as a speech, whereas Sorensen has the lesson come from the narrator rather than one of the characters. Despite how the medium of this teaching differs between the translations, the actual teaching is the same: Clinging to life is harmful, and to err, just like we see with the merchants who look back at the demonesses and “commit sin.”118 Those who do not cling to life and have received the true Dharma and obtain salvation, like the captain, will become a buddha.119 So while the Vajrayana White Horse Jataka does not have an ahaṃ eva, it does have this message, which takes the place of the ahaṃ eva. There is no flash back to the framing “story of the present” to hear what the Buddha makes of his Jataka, so we have characters like (Balaha and the captain) speak the teachings to others and the readers instead. Moveover, credit to these teachings goes to Balaha/Avalokiteśvara in this version rather than to the historical Buddha. Concluding Remarks The Sama Jataka and Valāhassa Jataka are both stories of the Buddha’s past lives. They illustrate how the bodhisattva mastered the perfections, build his Buddha body, and transform himself into a being that would be able to help others escape from samsara. Regional influences and the school of Buddhism in which these stories are read change what is important about the Jatakas. Sometimes the focus is taken off of the Buddha directly in order to emphasize another bodhisattva or practice. Despite these changes, however, the Jatakas are indelible expressions of Buddhist principles. It was important to discuss two different Jatakas in this paper instead of focusing on one close reading. The two stories are completely different in setting and function, allowing for 118 This phrasing is taken directly from Wenzel and, personally, I found it a bit etic in nature. However, even Sorensen’s translation pens it down as “sin” as well. 119 Ibid, p. 509. Bush 53 different morals, values, and doctrinal concerns to be brought to the foreground. Examining two Jatakas also allows for a comparison within different schools of Buddhism. By limiting ourselves to just one Jataka we would not be able to explore how two Theravada or two Mahayana stories compare to one another. We would not be able to see that different Jatakas tend to portray different values even within in the same school. Through these cross-narrative and cross-cultural comparisons we can appreciate how much these life stories have to offer everyone, not just the practitioner, the monastic, or the secular academic. Moreover, the scholarship on the individual Jatakas varies—what research is abundantly available on one story, like the Valāhassa Jataka in the Vajrayana context, is limited in another, such as the Sama Vajrayana version. Focusing on a single tale would not allow for as robust a contrast, nor would it reveal the lacunae that still exist in the scholarship. Through this project I hope that readers have gained new insight into the Buddhist Jatakas and what they encompass. While the media of these narratives may change and the numerous versions may diverge from the canon structure, every alteration contributes something. Different tales are popular in different communities and across different schools because, the Jatakas, despite the variations they have faced over time and travel, are still Buddhist at heart. Bush 54 Bibliography Appleton, Naomi. "The Story of the Horse-King and the Merchant Siṃhala, in Buddhist Texts." Buddhist Studies Review, 2006. Berkwitz, Stephen C. 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