Reading Notes Jataka
The Foolish, Timid Rabbit, Ellen C. Babbitt, source
Buddhism is known for its truthful inquiry and was against
the following of blind faith. The first story in the reading exemplifies this
idea. In “The Foolish, Timid Rabbit I was able to notice the underlying moral
of the story being not to blindly trust what one has to say without first
having proof. If it was not for the wise lion asking the rabbit who thought the
Earth was breaking what was going on they would all still be running today. By
standing up and asking the question it is shown that if one does not inquire
there can be dire consequences to those who blindly follow the leader.
The next story that I was able to take some points away from
was The Turtle and the Geese. In this story the turtle is being helped by
friends but the only stipulation is that the turtle cannot speak or open his
mouth. The turtle then disobeys and opens his mouth to fire back at some
children and then falls to a certain death which could have been easily avoided
if only the turtle would have kept a shut mouth.
In The Cunning Crane and the Crab, the story told emphasizes
the notion of karma, what goes around comes around. With the crane tricking
fish into riding in his mouth, he deceives them and gains easy meals, however
this comes back to haunt the crane when the plot of trickery fails to work
against the crab who is rightly hesitant and ends up decapitating the devious
crane.
The thing that I found in common with these stories is that
the writing style made it very easy to get the point across so that one can
spend more time focusing on how to apply the concept. Which is how I would
prefer to write a story
Cane and Crab, Source Link
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