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Sakuna-Jataka
A tree in which birds dwell is grinding its boughs together and beginning to smoke. The wise birds fly away; the foolish ones are burnt.
Picture by : PongPang
Coloured by : Mint, PongPang
The End
Sakuna-Jataka
The Origin of the Story
Tradition says that a monk, having been given a theme for meditation by the Lord Buddha, went from the monastery of Jetavana to the land of Kosala and there abode in a dwelling in a forest hard by a border village.
Now, during the very first month of his dwelling there, his cell was burnt down. This he reported to the villagers, saying, ‘My cell has been burnt down; I live in discomfort.’ Said they, ‘The land is suffering from drought just now; we’ll see to it when we have irrigated the fields.’ When the irrigation was over, they said they must do their sowing first; when the sowing was done, they had the fences to put up; when the fences were put up, they had first to do the weeding and the reaping, and the threshing; till, what with one job and another which they kept mentioning, three whole months passed by.
After three months spent in the open air in discomfort, the monk had developed his theme for meditation but could get no further. So, after the Pavarana-festival which ends the Rainy Season, he went back again to the Lord Buddha and, with due salutation, took his seat aside. After kindly words of greeting, the Lord Buddha said, ‘Well, monk, have you lived happily through the Rainy Season? Did your theme for meditation end in success?’ The monk told him all that had happened, adding, ‘As I had no lodging to suit me, my theme did not end in success.’
Said the Buddha, ‘In bygone times, monk, even animals knew what suited them and what did not. How is it that you did not know?’ And so saying, the Lord told this story of the past.
The story of Jataka
Once on a time, the Bodhisatta was born a bird and lived round a giant tree with branching boughs, at the head of a company of birds. Now one day, as the boughs of the tree were grinding one against the other, dust began to fall, soon followed by smoke. When the Bodhisatta became aware of this, he thought to himself: If these two boughs go on grinding against one another like this, they will produce fire and the fire will fall and catch hold of the old leaves and so come to set fire to this tree as well. So he told the other birds:
‘My dear friends, we cannot live on here as our trusted stronghold harbors death; the proper thing to do is to hasten off elsewhere. Safety seek.’
The wiser birds who followed the Bodhisatta’s counsels, at once rose up in the air and went elsewhere in his company. But the foolish ones said:
‘It is always like this with him; he’s always seeing crocodiles in a drop of water.’ And they, heeding not the Bodhisatta’s words, stopped where they were.
‘In a very short time, just as the Bodhisatta had foreseen, flames really did break out and the tree caught fire. When the smoke and flame arose, the birds, blinded by the smoke, were unable to get away. One by one they dropped into the flames and were destroyed.
The revealing of the identities
‘Thus, monk,’ said the Lord Buddha, ‘In bygone times even animals who were dwelling in the tree top, knew what suited them and what did not. How is it that you did not know?’ His lesson ended, he preached the Truths, at the close whereof that monk won the Fruit of the First Path. Also, the Lord Buddha showed the connection and identified the Birth by saying, ‘The Buddha’s disciples were then the birds who hearkened to the Bodhisatta and I myself was the wise and good bird.
What are learnt from the story
1. Both worldly and spiritual tasks in order to be accomplished need the proper environment in execution the working plan.
2. It is beneficent to learn to be cautious and careful to the possibility of what could be happening
3. Do not cling too much to the physical comfort to overlook the possible danger.
4. The defiant heedless of the wise’s advice can end up in misery.
The End
