Reading Notes

The Foolish, Timid Rabbit
Jataka Tales by Ellen C. Babbitt

  • Rabbit and Lion: main characters; Monkey, Elephant, Fox: secondary characters
  • Story similar to children's movie, Chicken Little
  • Monkey drops coconut on ground, Rabbit thinks the earth is breaking, causes a frenzy to other animals to join in on rampage
  • All mighty lion comes in to prove all rumors of the earth to be false

The Monkey Who Gathered Lotuses
Tayodhamma Jataka in The Jataka: Volume 1 translated by Robert Chalmers.

  • Main Characters
    • Bodhisatta--> monkey son
    • Monkey father
    • Ogre
  • Secondary Characters
    • Monkey mother 
  • Son grew up without a father because it was known the father was frightened by his children that they would one day surpass him as King
  • Son was eager to meet his father, so he questions his mother on where he resides. He finds out he is located at the foot of a certain mountain, so thus he goes to seek out his father. 
  • Weary of his son coming to meet him and overtaking the throne, the King sends him on a journey that he surely believes will kill the son. 
  • Mission: to bring back lotuses from a river that contains an ogre. footsteps are leading up to the river but none returning: there it is known that no one comes back alive
  • Knowing of his father's intentions, the son devises a plan to outsmart the King. He will leap back and forth from the bank, grabbing lotuses that float on the surface without ever touching the water 
    • this he succeeded
  • the Ogre, seeing this, was impressed with the young monkey as he had never seen someone so wise. thus he agreed to walk back with the monkey carrying the lotuses
  • the father seeing this tremendous success, cried out and his heart burst into seven pieces
  • the son reigned King following his father's immediate death
    Lotus Flower
    Click here for link


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Introduction to Jinal Wani

Image
Hi! My name is Jinal Wani, I am twenty one years old and a third year undergraduate student here at the University of Oklahoma. I am currently studying health and exercise science in hopes of one day being a physical therapist or an athletic trainer. I grew up in Flower Mound, Texas, a suburb on the outskirts of Dallas. I grew up in a household with my mom, dad, brother and dog. My brother is a recent graduate of the University of Texas at Dallas with a degree in mechanical engineering.  Although I am a third year student, this is only my second semester attending the University of Oklahoma. My first two years of undergraduate school were spent at the University of Texas at Austin, of course I just had to make the switch between the two most rivalous schools. I found myself in Austin to be very lost amidst the big city, and overwhelmed with the culture shock from my hometown to a busy part of town. It took a lot of humbling myself to finally admit I needed to make a change
Read more

Storytelling: The Twins

Image
Once upon a time there lived two twin girls who lived in an attic of a beautiful mansion. They were the servant girls of a horrific woman and her three daughters. The two twin girls lost their family long ago to a car accident and found themselves with no place to live and no money. The girls, Sarah and Tara, accepted jobs as maids in order to support themselves and gain a place to live. Their boss made them do ridiculous tasks just because she had to the right to. She had a tight leash on them because she knew that they had very little money and would not survive on their own.  One day when Tara and Sarah were cleaning the homeowner’s closet, they came across something quite peculiar. Tucked away in a corner, was a plethora of gold bars. The girls had never laid their eyes on anything as precious and valuable as this. They were overcome with mixed emotions as they pondered what to do. Sarah thought they should leave it alone as the mother might notice they were gone, but Tara sugge
Read more