In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

According to the Jatakamala of Arya Zura (fourth century C.E.), the person known historically as the Buddha was born as an elephant during one of his earlier lifetimes . This huge elephant lived alone like an ascetic (a preview of his later life) in a verdant forest far from human habitation. On a particular day, he heard human voices coming from the direction of the desert area. Upon investigating the source of the voices, he encountered several hundred of an original group of a thousand men, who had been abandoned by their king as they now wandered despondently, lost, starving, thirsty, and desperate. The elephant felt compassion for these men clinging to life. After gaining their trust and hearing their sorrowful tale of hardship, the elephant told them to go in a particular direction where they would find water and the body of a dead elephant; they could use the flesh for food and the entrails for bags to collect water. The elephant went ahead of the men, threw himself off the steep cliffs, and died where he reported there would be a body. Finally, the men arrived to find the body of the elephant, and they slowly came to realize that the dead elephant was the same one with whom they had spoken earlier. Impressed by the elephant’s self-sacrifice, they considered honoring the animal and cremating its body, but they realized that this would be defeating the wishes of the elephant, which sacrificed his life to save their own. Thus they made use of the elephant’s body as it had intended. The elephant’s original intention had been to use his body as a vehicle to save the lost men.1 Although this tale represents a later addition to Buddhist literature, this narrative demonstrates six important themes in early Buddhism. It introduces the metaphor of the raft that is used to convey others to safety; we will see the metaphor of the raft equated with the teachings (Dhamma) of the Buddha. Second , the elephant plays an important role in the infancy narrative of the Buddha, and later an enraged elephant is sent to destroy the Buddha during his adulthood. The importance of the figure of the elephant to the narrative of the Buddha is evident when Buddhaghosa, an important commentator and philosopher, compares 21 2 The Elephant and the Buddha the stature of the Buddha to that of an elephant in his Path of Purification (5.26). Third, this tale manifests the spirit of compassion and self-sacrifice in Buddhism. Moreover, it and many others emphasize the importance of giving (dana), a very important virtue in Buddhism. Fifth, it shows the Buddhist acceptance of and conviction in the belief of rebirth. Finally, it manifests a belief that someone as extraordinary as the Buddha needed prior modes of existence and good deeds in order to be born as a human being with the potential of becoming a Buddha, an awakened or enlightened being. The spirit of selfless giving is evident in the narrative of the final reincarnation of the historical Buddha in the tale of Prince Vessantara in a Jataka story (547). In a narrative reminiscent of the spirit of a Native American Indian potlatch , Prince Vessantara gave away everything. Among his gifts was a white elephant , considered to be a very valuable and auspicious animal and a kind of good luck charm for any king, which he gave to a neighboring kingdom. These caused his own citizens to rebel and chase him away. As he wandered with his wife and children, the gods and nature provided for their welfare because of the virtue of the prince. Finally, a wandering Brahmin came to him and asked for his children. After giving away his children, Vessantara also gave away his wife. In some versions of the narrative, everything is eventually restored to the prince, and in his next life, he is reborn as a man destined to become the Buddha. These examples of the Buddha’s past lives are an indispensable part of the frame of reference of the narrative of the Buddha. As in the case of many other great religious leaders in religious history, we do not know what the exact words of the historical Buddha were because his teachings were transmitted by an oral tradition for a long period of time. We do not know anything about his physical stature or facial appearance. We know little about his personality with...

Share