Reading Notes: Eastern Stories and Legends Part A

Thai Art: Wikipedia

Reading Notes:
  • The Hare That Ran Away
    • The Buddha was born again as a lion to help his fellow animals for example a small and nervous Hare
    • The Hare was nervous something bad was gonna happen to earth, and in the midst of the worrying, there was a large crash behind the Hare. 
    • The Hare began to run thinking the world was splitting apart and gathered a bunch of animals into a stampeded until the Lion roared asking what was wrong
    • The hare answered saying the world was falling apart and the lion took the hare to show him the world was not falling apart
  • The Monkey and the Crocodile
    • There was a king reincarnated into a monkey who lived at the edge of the ganges 
    • Two crocodiles wanted to eat the monkey's heart, but had to convince him to get on their backs to drown him
    • One of the crocodiles went to the monkey and pointed out a beautiful tree that the monkey could eat from, and so the monkey jumped on his back for a ride across the river
    • The crocodile revealed his plan and the monkey said his heart was on a fig tree, and when the crocodile went to drop him off, the monkey swung away from the crocodile 
  •  The Spirit That Lived in a Tree
    • Buddha was reborn as a mighty tree and everyone worshiped the ancient tree
    • The king wanted a magnificent house, so he ordered the tree to be cut down
    • The tree-spirit went to the king when they heard the news and told him how to cut him down, but the king was so moved that he decided not to cut down the tree
  • The Hare That Was Not Afraid to Die
    • Buddha was born into a Hare 
    • The Hare had three friends, the otter, monkey, and jackal
    • The hare taught the friends morality and proposed that they give any food they find to beggars for a day
    • The next day they all found food except for the rabbit who would offer his whole body 
    • A Brahmin came to all of them individually to see if they would give up their food
    • All obiliged including the rabbit, and because the rabbit offered himself, the Brahmin let the four live happily ever after
  • The Parrot That Fed His Parents
    • The Parrot had parents that grew old so he flew the flock to the Himalayas to feed everyday on rice fields 
    • The farmer of the fields grew tired of it and caught the king parrot in a trap
    • The farmer than asked the parrot what he was doing and the parrot responded that he was getting food for his elderly parents and so the farmer let all of the parrots eat the rice without trouble
  •  The Man Who Worked to Give Alms
    • There was a rich merchant who gave alms to thousands of poor people per day 
    • The king of gods grew suspicious and took away all of his wealth because he thought the merchant was trying to dethrone him 
    • The Merchant kept giving alms to everyone even though he had no wealth and so the king of the gods restored his wealth
  • The King Who Saw The Truth
    • There was a king who gave Alms to everyone, but had no joy because all of the things were external, and so he decided anything anyone desired
    • The king of the gods decided to test this by seeing if the king would give him his eyes
    • The king obliged and after a few days of pain, the king began to see more than anyone else
  • Bibliography:
    • Title: Eastern Stories and Legends
    • Author: Marie Shedlock
    • Source: Blogspot

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