Indian Epics: 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.