Storytelling: The Ox Who Won the Forfeit

“I think I can. I think I can. I think I can. I think I can.”, The ox muttered to himself as he pulled the wagons down the road for his master. This ox was the strongest ox in all the land. He was so strong that his master would brag to anyone he saw that he had the strongest ox of all the world. In fact, his master would see other men and their oxen and laugh at them saying, “That’s nothing compared to what my ox can pull!”. Nobody believed this man though, they knew him as the poor, crazy man from the farm out north. But every night the man would go to sleep boasting still about his mighty ox. 

One day the man came up with a brilliant idea. He would go prove his ox to the world. “Come on my beautiful ox! We are going to show the world of your strength!”. As they made it into the town the man boasted proudly of his ox. “My ox is the strongest in the world! If he can pull one hundred wagons, pay me one thousand silver pieces!”, the man shouted to the people in the village. 

“There is no way you ox can do that! I will take you up on your bet!”, the villager laughed and laid down one thousand silver coins. They hitched up one hundred wagons to the yoke of the ox and sat back to watch the show. 

“Come on, you rascal! Move! Get off your butt and go!” The master began to yell at his ox and whipping him to make him move. 

“What the heck?! My master has never said such cruel words, I will not move for him”, the ox thought to himself. After many minutes of this, the master conceded defeat and paid the one thousand coins. The two of them went home and went to bed without a word to each other. The next morning the master went to the ox, “Hey buddy. So, uh, you wanna tell me what happened yesterday? You have always been able to pull more than what was yoked up yesterday.”.

“You were being a jerk. Why on earth would I move for someone calling me foul names and whipping me? I am a strong ox, I don't need to be treated like a dumb ox.” The ox replied. 

“You are right,” the master said, “I will never treat you like that again. I am sorry.”.

“If you yoke me back up and take me to the village I will win you your prize, just don't be a jerk this time, okay?”, the ox said to his master and they began to make their way to the village. 

As they approached the village they saw the man they bet against yesterday. “Come to lose more money? I am willing to lay down double today!”, he said to them. 

“Deal!”, said the master, “Yoke him up!”. And they yoked up the ox and began to watch as the wagons began to move. 

“I think I can. I think I can. I think I can.”, The ox was muttering to himself over and over. And the wagons were moving forcefully one after the other, until the last stood where the first was originally. All of the villager’s jaws had dropped and the master of the ox took his winnings. They went home happily and celebrated their winnings together. 

"Get along, you Rascal"

Link to Photo

Author’s note:

So in my story today, I decided to tell about The Ox Who Won the Forfeit. I wanted to tell this story because I found it very interesting when I originally read it. I didn't want to change much of the story, but I did want to tell it with more dialogue than was originally given. I thought that one major change I would add was a simple “I think I can.”, to what the ox was saying to himself as he was pulling his yoke. The first thing I thought of when I read that an ox was pulling so much as Thomas the Train when he would go up the hills. I thought that it would give it a comic relief, but also bring back memories to a lot of people who might have at least seen the show back when they were kids. I think that being able to add this simple change in made the story a little more fun. Also I decided on having more dialogue about how I would think that the situation would play out between the ox and his master. I think that as well gave it more comic relief than just the seriousness of the original story. 

The Jataka Tales of India

Ellen C. Babbitt

Link to Story

Reading Notes: The Jatakas tales of India part B

Another great story of the Jataka Tales that I got to read this week was about The King’s White Elephant. This one showed, in my opinion, that good can come from working hard. I liked to read this one because it was useful for me to ponder over as I read it. When you work hard good things happen, and that is what happened in this Jataka. It starts with a great elephant who had a splinter in his fought hobbling over to some carpenters. The carpenters saw that he was hurt and aided the elephant by pulling out the splinter. Thankful for their help he decided to help the carpenters with pulling down trees and moving them around. He was happy to help since they helped him. The carpenters fed him well and treated him very well. When this elephant had a baby elephant that was all white, he told the young elephant to go help the carpenters because they helped him first. So the young white elephant helped the carpenters in the same way that his parent did. At the end of the day this white elephant would go into the river and play with the carpenters kids. That is when the king saw this elephant and loved its beauty. So he paid the carpenters for the elephant and it went home to the palace where it was kept very well. So really this story ends up being kinda sad in the fact that he leaves his play mates and his family. And it might actually be a story of the better of looks that you have the better chance good things would happen to you… I want to think otherwise so I have decided to think that it means the harder you work good things will happen to you. 

The Elephant used to pull up trees for the carpenters.

Link to Photo

The Jataka Tales of India

Ellen C. Babbitt

Link to Story

Reading Notes: The Jatakas tales of India part A

One of my favorite pieces of literature that I have read this year has been the Jatakas. I am particularly interested in them because I am writing my story book over them, but they are also really interesting to read. Like in most Indian epic writings, the animals and humans have verbal communication to each other. I think this is particularly interesting and I wish I could do this… But they have tons of wisdom in each story. And each is equated to the spirituality of the Buddhist who have wrote and studies these. One of the interesting ones that I read this week was the story of The Ox Who Won the Forfeit. I was intrigued by this title because I did not know what it meant to win a forfeit. So I dove into this short story to get a good understanding of what it was. In this story a man who owns an ox claims that he has the strongest ox in the world. He boasted so much about this ox that he made a wager with some town folk for 1000 coins. He said his ox could pull 100 wagons. He yoked his ox and he yelled at him to pull and shouted bad names to his ox. His ox would not move so he lost his forfeit of 1000 coins. Later he went home and spoke to the ox who said that the bad names and whipping were cruel and so he did not move, but if he were to treat him better he would win his master his forfeit back. So they went back to the city and his master treated him so well. The ox pulled and won the forfeit. These tales are super interesting to me and I have loved to get to read each of them. I am looking forward to trying read and understand more. 

"Get along, you Rascal"

Link to Photo

The Jataka Tales of India

Ellen C. Babbitt

Link to Story

Story: The Patient Buffalo

Once there was a man who was sleeping under a beautiful tree. He was not a lazy man but he got to spend his day sleeping because of the beautiful sunshine and the fact that it was a Saturday. This man loved to be outside so every Saturday he would go outside to spend time resting under the tree and taking a long nap. But every once and a while something slightly annoying happened. There was a little boy in town who loved to play some jokes on people. This boy loved to play jokes on this man in particular because he always saw him sleeping under the tree. 

Today this little boy had some friends with him and he wanted to show off what all he would do to this man to be funny. He said to them, “Watch this guys, I am gonna make him so mad!” Referring to the man under the tree. The boy picked up a stick he found on the ground and started poking the man in the arms and in the face. He was trying so hard to make the man mad but the man just sat patiently watching doing nothing. Finally the man got up from his nap under the tree and began to walk down the road. The little boy had another idea of how he could make the man mad. “Let me jump on his back, I will force him to give me a piggy back ride.”. As the boy ran towards the man he jumped and got on his back. He waved his stick around and pretended the man was a horse he was riding into a battle. Yet, the man did nothing but hold the boy on his back and continued to walk down the road. It seemed to the little boys friends that the man cared for this little boy and that he would never be mad. So the friends started to walk away thinking that the show was over. The boy hopped off the mans back and began to walk with them, admitting defeat. 

As the man continued to walk down the road he came across a monk who had watched the interaction between the little boy and this man. The monk asked the man, “Why do you not act harshly towards the little boy who persistently annoys you. Don't you know that you have authority over the younger people and that you could force him to stop what he is doing?” 

“Now why would I do that to the little boy?” The man asked the monk, “This boy is not smart, and he will learn, but I have no reason to force that on him. He is not a smart boy and I understand the mind of a child.” The man finished. 

“You answer well, sir.” The monk pulled off his hood to show his beauty, he was not just a monk but a fairy. “I grant you this, peace from all things on this earth, you will be happy and no little boys will be able to mess with you ever again”. 

Buffalo & Monkey

Link to Photo

Title: Twenty Jataka Tales

Author: Noor Inayat (Khan)
Illustrator: H. Willebeek Le Mair
Year: 1939

Link to Story

Author’s Note:

In this story I decided to base it off of one of my favorite Jatakas that I read, The Patient Buffalo. In the Patient Buffalo, a buffalo is being messed with by a monkey and the monkey is trying to make the buffalo mad. I chose to make the buffalo and monkey into human characters in order to give it a bit of a change. I liked the story though, so I wanted to keep it based off the same aspects. The fairy in the end I chose to make a monk because I wanted to relate it to something we could know better. I wanted to keep him a fairy though so that I could grant something magical to the man and it still make sense. I really enjoyed seeing the patience and resolve of the buffalo in the story and the man in my story because I feel that it really shows the way that the Buddhist people live. Not putting their own desires first, but keeping no desires at all. I thought this was important and I hope that I was able to relate this as I wrote my story. I hope that you enjoy my version of this Jatakas. 

Reading Notes: The Jatakas part B

As I continued to read the Jatakas tales, I was happy to understand more and read more and more bout them. They are some of the most interesting tales and they have great fun and wisdom inside each of them. One of my favorite stories that I got to read in part of the stories was the Patient Buffalo. This story was so good to me because one, I love buffalos. Also because it shows the patients and the resolve of the Buddhist people. I believe that this story is filled with wisdom of how to treat yourself and how to treat others. Knowing that Buddhist are people of no desire, and that desire itself is a bad thing. Seeing how the buffalo did not desire anything for himself but only to not cause this monkey harm was his priority. And with his patients to this monkey he was able to find peace through the magic fairy. Another tell that I really enjoyed was the Sarabha. I enjoyed this story so much because it was a lot like one of the stories that I used in my storybook project, the Banyan Deer. I liked the was that the deer talked to the king, having been able to communicate with humans just like in the other stories. I liked this story because the Deer spoke with the king and was able to connive the king to not hunt in the forest again. This is just like the story that I used in my storybook project (though i retold it so much better,,,). This was truly a great story to get to read and i really enjoyed getting to read something similar to what I already knew. I have loved getting to read the Jatakas because of the wisdom and the fun stories that are in them. They are filled with greatness in each story and I always look forward to reading more of them. I will probably be reading more of these stories as we finish out the rest of the semester. 

Buffalo & Monkey

Link to Photo

Title: Twenty Jataka Tales

Author: Noor Inayat (Khan)
Illustrator: H. Willebeek Le Mair
Year: 1939

Link to Story

Reading Notes: Jatakas part A

This week I chose to read the Jatakas tales. Seeing as I am writing my storybook project over some of the Jatakas tales, I decided that I would read more of them to gain a better understanding o the tales. I have really enjoyed guttering to read the stories that I have read this week and am looking forward to reading more later on. I believe that each tale has so much to offer on the wisdom of the buddhas and gives great wisdom for people. This week I got to read about the stories of the Monkey Bridge, which was a very good story in my opinion. I really enjoyed reading about how monkeys would not pay attention to their leader then realized they needed to. I liked how the monkey chief was the selfless one who aided and sacrificed himself for the good of the community and of his followers. This was a really good story. It made me think of my own religion, in how the people did not listen to God, and how Jesus came to sacrifice himself for everyone else. This story stood out to me the most because of this. I really enjoyed getting to read this story. One other story that I read was the story of the Guilty Dogs. I enjoyed reading this story for a couple different reasons. One of which is because I love the fact that the animals and the humans can talk to each other. This is the same in just about every Jatakas that I have read. All animals can have conversation with the humans. And most times the conversations take place between the chief of animals and the chief of man. This is interesting because it is not just conversation between a child and his puppy, but a chief dog and a king. This Jatakas also tells of the wisdom of the Buddhist, because you see just how the chief dog is able to tell that the palace dogs are the guilty party and not the city dogs. I think it is telling and important to know the wisdom of the Buddhist, because all of their stories illustrate just how wise these are. 

The Monkey Bridge

Link to Photo

Title: Twenty Jataka Tales
Author: Noor Inayat (Khan)
Illustrator: H. Willebeek Le Mair
Year: 1939

Link to Story

Story: Little Krishna

One day many years ago there was a happy village. This village had many happy people. Everyone went around doing there jobs and helping out the village as it needed to be. Everyone loved what they did and loved the village even more. Everyone knew each other in this village. So when something happened to one person, the entire community knew about it. If it was good then they celebrated, if it was bad then they morned. Everyone loved each other and took care of each other. That is until a certain boy came along…

One day a little baby was born. His name was Krishna. He was born with the color of his skin being blue. Everyone thought it was just something that would go away by the end of the day, but as days went along his color never changed. This was mysterious to everyone. “Why is he blue?” everyone questioned each other, “Is he a special gift?” some would ask. Nobody really knew what had happened to Krishna. As Krishna grew up he always made trouble. It started with him eating mud off the ground. No child ever ate mud. And people worried about this. Krishna’s mom went to him worried. “What are you eating, son?”. As she opened his mouth. That instant she knew he was not just an ordinary child. As she gazed into his mouth she saw worlds beyond this world. She saw galaxies vast and distant. She saw every star in the sky. Marveled at this sight fell to her knees. Grabbed her little boy and hugged him tight. 

Many years later, Krishna began to be not only different from the rest of the community, but a bad child. And it didn't end with Krishna but he influenced many of his friends to be bad as well. “Come on” he would say, “they are making butter in here, lets take it!”. Krishna and his gang of misfits would rush into the house and take the butter that the woman was making from her, while she was watching. People were appalled by his behavior and his immaturity, while the kids thought that they were bringing real life into the village. What was seen as fun to the kids was evil to the adults. The people began to call them the “Butter Thieves". They took pride in this and stole more and more butter. 

The day came when powerful god came into the village. This god was an evil god, a god of destruction. He was feared in all the land and hadn't set foot in the village in many many years. This god brought a storm that was more powerful than any that had ever been seen by this village. Rain, thunder and lightning terrorized the village. As the villagers sought for shelter they had no place to go. Their homes were flooding and trees were falling. Before their eyes they saw a miracle like no other. Krishna was lifting a mountain. He raised the mountain onto his finger as he told everyone to climb underneath. All the villagers filled underneath the mountain in awe of the fact that Krishna was lifting it with his pinky. All the sudden the boy that was a menace became a hero and the awestruck villagers recognized this in Krishna. 

Krishna Holding the Mountain

Link to photo

Krhisna Comes

Link to Video

Authors Note:

In my story today I decided to write about Krishna in his many works as a young child. I wanted to tell of his misbehaving to his amazing works. I thought it would be fun to tell a story in the way that shows the village he grew up in. I wanted to show how his coming changed everything. I thought the best way to show this would be to show how his village was all happy always, and when he came a lot of things changed. Like the wonder of his skin to the misbehaving attitude and actions he had growing up and stealing butter. The whole butter part is one of my favorite things to hear. Because out of like everything that you could have stolen, why did he chose butter? I think that is hilarious, so I have to keep that part in. But people thought he was a menace in some ways, so I wanted to be sure and tell how thoughts changed as he saved everyone from the god who was attacking the villagers. This is a huge part of the story just because it show the strength of Krishna and also the love that he has for his community. Even though he was a menace, he loved his community and this showed just that in a huge way. I hope that you enjoy my telling of this famous story. 

Reading Notes: Epified Krishna Comes part B

In the second part of the story Krishna does many more miracles and mighty acts to display his strengths. It starts with Indra going to see Krishna and seeing that he really loved his friends and shared food with him. Knowing Krishna was a god he thought that it was crazy that he would share his food with them. So he wanted to see if Krishna really loved his friends, so he stole them and all the cows that he was tending to. When Krishna could to find them, he created them with his mind and Indra only saw all of the Krishnas. He was very impressed. Later Indra set a storm against Krishna’s village, this made it pour rain and lighting for many days and was flooding the ground. Krishna took the mountain that they were next to and raised it up with just his pinky. Everybody was so impressed and marveled at his strength. When the villagers thought that he had been holding it too long they tried to take over and none could hold it so Krishna took it back. More and more people were amazed at his powers and continued to believe that he was more and more of a god. As he grew up he was told that his parents were not his parents and that his real parents were being held by his uncle, the king, in prison. He found his uncle and his uncle realized that he was the eight son of his sister, the one who was supposedly going to kill him. So they fought and Krishna killed his uncle with the help of his brother. This then set his family free. It is important to understand the story of Krishna because we begin to see who the Hindu’s believe in. They also know one of the most important gods of the Hindu faith. I really love this story. I love the movie that was made about it to. 

Krishna Holding the Mountain

Link to Photo

Krhisna Comes

Link to Video

Reading Notes: Epified Krishna Comes part A

This week I decided to watch the epiffied version of Little Krishna. In this video, they tell the story of Krishna, how he was born to all the epic acts he did. It starts with his parents being imprisoned by his uncle who was told that he would die by the the eighth son of his parents. When he was born his father escaped his prison and went to a village where he exchanged his son with a daughter from the villager. When he returned the king was happy because he saw they had a daughter and not a son. The villager woke up the next morning and thought she had a daughter but woke up to a son. She was confused, but happy that she had a child. It didn't take long for her to realize that Krishna was special and not just an ordinary baby. She found Krishna eating dirt and when he opened his mouth, Krishna’s mom saw the universe in his mouth. Krishna became known as the trouble maker of the village, he would go around and steal from the villagers. I find it strange that in Hindu religion, people watch the gods and know that they came to show what not to do, instead of what to do. I am a Christian, so this was different to me. But anyways, the story is good. Krishna and his friends became known as the butter thieves for all the butter that they stole from the villagers. One day Krishna and his friends decided to go to the lake, it was a dangerous lake that had a deadly snake that poisoned the water along with the air. So while Krishna was playing his famous flute, all his friends became poisoned by the air. Krishna being upset about this summoned the snake and played his flute. While he played the snake was wrangled and his poison left. So his friends woke up and they all went home safely. This was the beginning of the story of little Krishna and his growing up. As He grew up he did a lot more awesome things and rescued many people in his village. I am excited to get to watch these stories because I really love the story of little Krishna. I think that his younger days were the best days and his adventures then were a lot of fun. I am looking forward to reading more. 

Little Krishna

Link to Photo

Krhisna Comes

Link to Video

Storytelling: The Bhagavad Gita

Allan spoke Kris with worry in his voice. He was trying to discern whether or not he should tell the girl he had been crushing on that he was the one that saved the puppy from the cars, not Steve. “Kris, I am the one who saved that puppy, shouldn't Dorothy know that? I mean, cant you imagine how much more she would like me if she found out that that was me?” Allan said with a fair bit of anger that Steve had been taking credit. 

“Allan, you are not supposed to do good things just so you can get recognition. Couldn't you imagine how the world would be, if everybody was only doing good for the recognition. I mean, everyone would be selfish jerks on the inside. And what good is it to do good outwardly if your heart doesn't reflect the good that you are doing” Kris replied, trying to persuade Allan not to go rambling about his good deeds to the girl he liked. “Besides, if you go off and tell her that it was you, she would probably just think you are trying to take credit and like you less. You should just let your deeds speak for themselves as she sees you do it without you knowing” Kris added. Allan grumbled a little, he really wanted to tell Dorothy that it was him. She loves puppies and would love him more if she knew he saved the puppy. 

“But Kris, she loves puppies and would love me for saving that little thing. She would be all about me after that. I mean she would probably marry me on the spot for saving that little thing. That would be the dream, man. Dorothy and I forever” He finished and looked back at the much wiser Kris. Kris looked back at Allan with pity for him. 

“I know that you love her, and I know that you want to marry her, but think man, would she really marry you just because you saved that puppy from the street? I think she would need a little more convincing than that. Just do your good deeds and do not think about her. Do not try to obtain the fruit of labor, just labor for the good of others” Kris said to Allan. Allan knew that Kris was right, he just did not want to admit that. Why would he not care about what Dorothy thought of him, he loved her and wanted her to love him back. But he finally came to understand what Kris was saying. 

“Okay, Kris, I will give up on chasing her with this. Steve can have the victory today. Hopefully my love for her will be enough to pursue her rightfully. I just hope that I am a good enough man. I will try and do as I ought to do because I ought to instead of chasing the fruits” Allan said with a sigh of relief. He was happy to know, although still upset, that he can just be himself instead of trying to always be noticed. 

Krishna & Arjuna

Link to Photo

Authors Note:

My story is a reflection of a piece of the Bhagavad Gita where Krishna tells Arjuna that he needs not to chase the fruit, but instead just work hard because it is his duty to. I like this story because it talks of Dharama and how that is a huge piece of the society and Hindu religion. Allan plays the part of Arjuna and Kris plays the part of Krishna. I wanted to make this into a story that we can imagine happening all the time in our society. We try to impress people by our good deeds a lot of times. That philosophy is what Krishna speaks against and wants Arjuna to know is not the way to live, but instead just follow your dharma. I think that my story hits the point well in a way that is understandable for us today. This Chapter of the Bhagavad Gita is one of my favorite chapters to read, so I hope that I did, indeed, do it justice. 

The Bhagavad Gita

Link to Story

Reading Notes: The Bhagavad Gita part B

In this section of the Bhagavad Gita I learned that the that the character, Arjuna, was speaking to Krishna really with what seemed to be a loss of hope on his end. He did not want to fight his family but he was weighed down by the conviction of duty, dharma as they call it. So throughout this section of the story Krishna is really persuading Arujna to fight because of his dharma. This is important because Arjuna was really convicted against this but knew that Krishna was the god who was going to tell him what to do even through an undesired to do as Krisna commanded. Throughout this section we learn different stories that Krishna tell that relate to the faith that one must have. In each of these chapters of the Bhagavad Gita Krishna tells what it means, through story and theology what it means to have faith. So he described different types of faith so that Arjuna could really understand him. These theologies of the different types of faith help build the Hindu religion and what it looks like to follow on these different paths that one must take. These stories of theology also help build the backbone of the society that begins with the different types of classes that we still see today. It is important to understand as we read this book that it is not just an epic but it builds the religion and the society of India itself. I really enjoyed this book as I read because I got to lo ok at the conversation that was going on between Arjuna and Krishna during the Mahabharata. It is also great because we get to see how distraught Arjuna was over fightin his family. He was so upset about it that at one point he tells Krishna to become his charioteer again so he doesn't have to listen to a god telling him what he should do. I am excited that I will be reading the rest of this book because I want to dive deeper into an understanding of just how hard it is for Arjuna to fight and also learn about all the types of stories that were used to create an entire religion and society.

The Bhagavad Gita

Link to Photo

The Bhagavad Gita
Link to Text