Reading Notes: Free Reading 14 More Jataka Tales Part A

As I read about the hawks and their friends, the story had a great value to teach. Those in need who have great friends will bear through the hard times together. Those in need without friends will not last very long at all. The hawk made friends with all the animals on the shores the lake and when he needed help they were there. When the hunters were about to get the young hawks, the kingfisher was soon there to help. When the kingfisher has been worn out, the turtle was right there continue the fight. When the turtle had done his part, the lion came along and finished the fight! The young hawks survived because of the hawks friends! I’ve always said that who you surround yourself with will either uplift you or bring you down. Having good friends will be a great help through life in the good times and the bad times. But having bad friends can be just as bad if not worse than having no friends at all. It is important to choose friends wisely and ensure that when you need help just like the hawk did, your friends will be there to help win the battle! Of course this story did make me wonder, if the lion had come in the first place, wouldn’t that have gotten rid of the hunters sooner? I’m other words, know your friends enough to know which one can be the best help in the right situation!

Making friends can be Hawkward!

Source: More Jataka Tales by Ellen C. Back

Reading Notes: Free Reading 13 Jataka Tales Part B

The story of the otters and the wolf is something that I can soon relate to. The wolf and his mate were resting one day when the girl wolf said she wanted fish as her meal. The guy wolf said he would go and get some fish for her to feast on. So he went to the river where he found two otters. The otters were waiting on a fish when a great big fish swam by and one of the otters grabbed its tail. The otter was not strong enough so he called for the other otter to help pull the fish in. They were able to bring the fish out of water and began to divide it. One otter said I’ll take the head portion and you take the tail. The other otter thought it was not fair so he disagreed. The wolf approached the two otters and the otters asked the wolf to decide for them. The wolf cut the head off and gave it to one otter while he cut the tail off and gave it to the other otter. The wolf took the middle portion and left the otters. The otters were speechless and realized they lost the best part! The wolf grout the fish to his mate and she asked how he got the fish. He said he found the otters couldn’t make a decision so he made the decision for them. He took the middle portion as his payment! This reminds me of an arbitrator in law. Being a pre-law student, I can relate to the wolf!

Lead the pack!

Source: More Jataka Tales by Ellen C. Back

Reading Notes: Free Reading 13 Jataka Tales Part A

After all of the reading I've done in the Jatakas, I've been waiting for that plot twist and this story gave me close to what I was expecting. In the story of the Woodpecker, the Turtle, and the Deer, there was a hunter who found the tracks of the deer and decided to set a trap near the pond so that he could catch the deer. All three of the animals were great friends and also stuck close together. While the deer was going to the pond to catch a drink, he was caught by the trap and let out a shriek that signaled he was trapped. The woodpecker and the turtle heard the shriek and went to the deer to find out what had happened. The woodpecker told the turtle to chew through the leather trap and she would fly to the hunters home and distract him so the deer could be set free. The turtle began gnawing and the woodpecker waited at the hunter's home. When the hunter had awoken, he grabbed his knife and went out the front door to see what he had caught. The woodpecker flew in his face and struck him in the head! The hunter went back into his house and laid down for awhile longer. Again, the hunter grabbed his knife and decided to exit through the back door to avoid the woodpecker. The woodpecker knew the hunter would try this, so the woodpecker waited and once again flew into the hunter's face. The hunter went back inside and laid down for just a little longer. When the sun had come up, the hunter grabbed his knife and went out the door determined to get his catch! The woodpecker flew to the deer and said "hurry, the hunter is coming!" The turtle had gnawed through all but one of the straps. The turtles teeth had become weak and the turtle was bleeding from trying so hard to free the deer. When the hunter had arrived, the deer used all of his strength to break the last strap and get away. The turtle was so tired though, that he was unable to get away and the hunter grabbed him and tied him in a bag to a tree. The deer grabbed the attention of the hunter and stayed barely ahead of the hunter while leading the hunter deep into the forest. The deer then quickly lost the hunter and went back to save the turtle. Knowing the hunter would eventually be back, the three split up and the hunter could not find them. I expected the deer to be set free by his friends but I did not expect the turtle to be caught and need saving! I was almost ready to accept that the turtle gave his life for the deer to be free, but then the deer came back to save him!

Stick Together!

Source: More Jataka Tales by Ellen C. Back

Tech Tip: Canvas Calendar

This tip was really helpful! I haven't really used Canvas Calendar so it was great to learn how I can use it to help me! I usually tell Siri to remind me or set something in my calendar and that's about the only digital calendar that I use. It syncs up with my google calendar so that makes it nice when I'm switching between my Iphone and my gmail account. I have been working so much this semester that it has made it difficult to actually adhere to the schedule I set at the beginning of the semester. I think the biggest thing that I missed was adjusting my schedule to work better rather than trying to force the schedule I thought I would have from the beginning. I'll definitely use this for the remainder of this semester and for next semester!

Week 12 Reading Diary: The Kings White Elephant

As I was reading this story, I was expecting some kind of plot twist to happen or change the attitude of the elephant. The story goes that the elephant was walking in the forest and limped up the the workers on three legs. The elephant lifted his hurt leg to the workers and they pulled a large splinter from the injured limb. They cleaned it and it healed quickly because of their actions. The elephant was so grateful that he decided to use all his strength to help the workers. He would pull up trees with his trunk, or he would roll the logs down to the river for them. The elephant had a son that was white all over and they called it the white elephant. The white elephant was taught by his dad that the workers took care of him in his time of need and that they should lend them their strength. The dad elephant grew too old to work and the white elephant took over as the helper to the workers. One day while the white elephant was playing in the river with the kids, a king came by and saw what work the white elephant was capable of. The king bargained with the workers and offered them a hefty sum to take the white elephant to his kingdom to work for him. The white elephant looked back as he saw the kids he grew up playing with and went on to serve the king as he had served the workers of the forest. I thought it was quite interesting to see that the story went so smoothly. Even when the king took the white elephant, it was implied that the elephant would miss his friends but he still went on to serve the king with no resistance. I also wondered what happened to the white elephant's dad. Overall it was a nice story that didn't have a crazy ending!

Mad Skillz

Source: More Jataka Tales by Ellen C. Back

Week 12 Story: Princeton and the Janitor

Updated Story Found Here:Princeton and the Janitor

There once was an owner of a great and prosperous factory, Mr. Kingston. There were many men and women who had been with him since the beginning of his company, who all loved him because he was a good man. All of his employees respected him, were loyal to him and worked very hard for Mr. Kingston because he was good to them. He also allowed his employees to buy shares of stock of his company. Mr. Kingston had a son named Princeton who had been around the factory ever since he was a young boy. The workers were always kind to him but as he grew older, he became cruel and saw them as nothing but assets to his father’s great company. As he became a man, he knew that he would one day inherit the business that his father had built from the ground up and too liberties in changing “minor” things here and there, that overall effected the moral of all of the employees. As Princeton grew in experience and gained more confidence, he punished any employee who crossed his path and even fired some for innocent mistakes they made. This stirred up anger among all of the employees since they were like family. His father, Mr. Kingston never noticed any of these things because he loved and trusted his son, and he was becoming older as time passed.

            One day, Princeton went on a walk outside around the toxic chemicals, despite all of the warning signs, thinking nothing terrible would happen to him for he had grown up walking around the place. As he walked across the creaking metal bridge that all the employees always avoided, they just stood and watched, secretly hoping that he would just fall into some chemicals. As they reached for the door to go back inside, they heard the medal give out but none turned back to check on him.

            Luckily for Princeton, he had not fallen into chemicals, but into a large container of thick glue. Though he was not burned from the warm glue, he was having difficulties staying afloat. He was so focused on escaping this glue that was willing to swallow him alive that he never noticed the three little puppies that also fell in the rusted bridge broke, plunging them into the white abyss.

            Princeton managed to croak out a gargled “Help!” just in time for the kind janitor to walk by. He quickly responded with, “Hang on! I’m coming to help you!” and scaled the ladder on the side of the large container of glue. As soon as he reached the top, he saw a large mass that was a man, and three smaller lumps that seemed to be struggling to stay afloat. Being a compassionate man, he reached for the three struggling lumps first to put into the pockets of his jacket, then reached to pull the man out. Princeton carefully climbed down the ladder to the bottom where the janitor was caring for the small brown animals who turned out to be puppies. After a few minutes had passed and panic had left his system, Princeton realized that the janitor only given him a towel and had not bent over backwards cleaning him up, and grew angry. Though the janitor offered to let him use the small shower in the back, in his pride, Princeton declined the offer. Embarrassed and outraged, Princeton thanked him and stormed off, back to his house. The janitor then moved the puppies to his custodial closet to give them a nice warm bath.

            A few months after this incident, the owner, Mr. Kingston fell very ill and could no longer run his growing company and passed it down to his son, Princeton. Neither Princeton nor the janitor had told anybody about this incident because Princeton was to prideful, and the janitor was too humble. The two men had not seen each other since the fall, but Princeton still held a grudge for the janitor saving the puppies first, over himself.  

            Several months after the transfer of power, the janitor and Princeton ran into each other. The janitor kindly greeted Princeton, inquiring as to how he was doing to which Princeton just turned and walked away. He then went straight to his manager, and ordered him to humiliate and force the janitor to quit, to which he complied.

            The manager went to the janitor, knocked him down and yelled at the janitor, trying everything he could do the make him resign from the job. The janitor however just took the abuse and began to tell the other employees about how he saved Princeton and the three puppies that now live with him. The managers also listened in, and checked the cameras and saw that what he said was true.

            The employees out of anger and loyalty to the kind janitor all gave their shares of the stock on the company to him. Though there were other investors, the janitor now owned the largest portion, and legally became the new owner of this large company. He was good to his employees and friends, giving them bonuses and extended leaves of absences. They also worked hard and well for their new boss and friend.

Image found here

More Jakarta Tales by Ellen C. Babbit


Author's note: 
This story is inspired from the short story, "Prince Wicked and the Grateful Animals". In the original story, it is a king and a prince, so I named the two characters Mr. Kingston and his son, Princeton but changed their occupation to owners of a company. Also like in the original story where the Prince's men purposefully left him behind, the employees also left Princeton behind on purpose despite hearing the bridge breaking. For the three puppies that the janitor rescued, I wanted to show how helpless they were compared to Princeton so the janitor really had a good reason for helping them first. I did change their role some in this story by having the puppies just live with the janitor, and not doing anything to help him monetarily like the grateful animals from the original story. For the ending of the story, I did not think it would be realistic for the employees to kill the owner, so I just had him overthrown from power, and had the janitor take up the new open position as owner of the company. In the end, the employees were loyal to the new owner because he was good, just as they were to Mr. Kingston in the beginning of the story. 

Reading Notes: Free Reading Jataka Tales Part B

As I read about the Prince Wicked and the Grateful Animals, I prepared myself for the ending that I probably wouldn’t expect! The prince was rude to everyone everywhere and did not care to be nice to a single soul! Not even his guards liked him and would think of ways to let him get kidnapped. One day while they were swimming, a great storm passed through and darkened the entire river. The prince cried out that he could not make it out of the river. The guards decided that tha was their chance and left him there to drown. When the returned, the king asked where the prince was and the guards all said it was too dark to see and they assumed he went back without them noticing. What really happened was the prince grabbed onto a log that a snake, a rat, and a parrot all found refuge on. The log was pulled in by a poor man that cared for the animals first and then the prince last. The prince was angered by this and while the animals promised riches to the poor man for helping them, the prince faked his appreciation and promised that when he is king, he would take care of the old man. Once the prince became king, the old man tested the animals and they all proved true to their promises and offered gold and riches to the poor man. The poor man then went to the kingdom and when the king saw him, the king ordered him to be beaten and beheaded before he could tell of how he saved the king when he was a prince. The poor man did not protest but kept saying that it is better to save the animals than it is to save the prince! The wise men in the crowd asked what prince he saved and when they found out, they said that the king should be killed and the poor man be made king! So in the end, the prince dig his own grave by being rude to the poor man.

Karma!

 Source: More Jataka Tales by Ellen C. Back

Reading Notes: Free Reading Jataka Tales Part A

Once again during my reading, I was surprised about the outcome. I read about How the Monkey Saved His Troop. The monkeys had lived near a tree that stood next to a river. They had feasted on the tree’s mangoes daily and were living a satisfied life gathering the fruit on the ground while also gathering the fruit that were in the branches. One day, a king and his men stumbled upon the fruit and asked where it came from. After they found out where it came from, the kind and his men decided to camp out and have more mangoes in the morning. The monkeys waited until the soldiers were asleep and then, finding that all the fruit had been taken from the ground, the monkeys gathered what they could from the branches. While gathering fruit from the branches, the king was awakened from the noise. The king ordered his men to grab their bows and arrows and wait until the monkeys come down from the tree. The men were ordered to kill the monkeys as they came down! The monkeys were so frightened that they begged their chief to find a way out of the mess they were in! The chief swung to a branch that was over the river but it did not reach completely to the trees on the other side of the river. He was sure that some of the monkeys would fall and drown in the river! So he grabbed the other branch and used his back as a bridge for the other monkeys to cross. He called them to cross and after all of the monkeys crossed, the king noticed what the chief had done for his monkey troops. The king said it was a noble thing to do and that he would promise that the monkey chief would be taken care of for the rest of his life! I didn’t expect the king to care much for the monkeys but once the king noticed what the monkey chief was willing to do for his monkey troops, it makes sense that he would honor that because he knew what it meant to lead troops through life and death!

Warning: Plot Twist!

Source: More Jataka Tales by Ellen C. Babbitt

Wikipedia Trail: From Jataka Tales to Middle Indo-Aryan Languages

The Jataka Tales https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jataka_tales

The Jaka Tales  are about the past lives of Gautama Buddha in human and animal forms. Typically, there are a lot of characters involved who cause trouble, but then the Buddha figure intervenes and solves the problem. These tales are a part of the Pāli Canon, which I looked at next. 

The Pāli Canon https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pāli_Canon 

The Pāli Canon are the standard scripture for Theravada Buddhism. There are 3 general categories called Vinaya Pitaka dealing with rules, Sutta Pikata about sermons, and Abhidhamma Pikata about philosophy. It is the most complete canon in the in the Pāli language. 

The Pāli Language https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pali

The Pāli language is also known as Magadhan, native to India. It is studied by many people because it is the sacred language of all Theravada Buddhism texts, and some for Hinduism as well. It is very closely related to Sanskrit. It is also a Middle Indo-Aryan language. 

Middle Indo-Aryan languages https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Middle_Indo-Aryan_languages

 Middle Indo-Aryan languages (MIA) were used between 600BC - 1000AD. It just shows where in the development of this language that Pāli was used. It is the predecessor of languages such as Hindustani, Punjabi and Bengali. I thibk it is interesting how languages transform overtime. 

  

Image found here

Week 11 Story: The Girl and The Black Lamb

There once was a farmer who loved farming all of his fruits and vegetables, and tending to livestock. He would go out every day to pick his fruits and vegetables, and to feed and water his animals. As years went by, he met his wife, they had children and his farm became bigger and bigger until he had to hire people to help him tend to his crops and livestock. As his farm grew, he noticed that more and more children from the area would come to eat an apple or two, and to pet his animals.
As months passed, spring came around again, when all his horses, sheep and cattle began having their babies. One sheep in particular was his wife’s favorite, because she had picked her out at the auction herself when it was still a lamb. Now, a few months later, it was old enough to have a lamb of its own. The Farmer’s Wife went out daily to check on her sweet sheep, until it was finally ready to give birth. To her surprise, the new lamb was as black as night in the sea of white wool. The Farmer’s Wife fell in love with the new lamb and cared for it day and night.
A few weeks later, the Farmer’s Family all went on a road trip to scout out some more livestock to bring back home. During their time away, one little girl in particular who lived in the area had also fallen in love with the little black lamb and took her to her home a mile away to care for her while the farmers were gone.
When the family returned, they found the black lamb missing, so all of the hired hands went out in search for the lost lamb. One of the hired hands had noticed that the girl who used to come over all the time had not been around for the past week, and went over to her house. There, he found her and the black lamb playing happily in the yard. Together, they went back to the Farmer and returned their beloved lamb.

Based off of the story: The Girl Monkey and the String of Pearls

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Author’s Note:
This story is based off of the short story, The Girl Monkey and the String of Pearls. In the original story, it is a King and the Queen who have the pearls go missing. In the story I wrote, I chose to use a farmer and his wife who still have a lot of land and wealth because that is more relatable living in Oklahoma. Also, just like it was normal for the monkies to be in the garden, it was normal for the children to be at the farm. I also found it interesting that the King did not seem angry in the original story, so in the story I wrote, the little girl did not have bad intentions and I focused on how it was returned, and the Farmers were happy.