skilled thought he could do more than he had the power to do, and came
to grief.
THE JUDAS TREE
The point of this story is the impossibility of a just judgment without
full knowledge of your subject. Each one has only a partial knowledge
and is therefore excluded from the knowledge of the whole.
THE RIVER FISH AND THE MONEY
The power of honesty restores the lost treasure. The Bodisatta is not
anxious about it, preserves his calm, and recovers it. Observe the way
in which he keeps only the money which belongs to him, refusing to
withhold it from the dishonest man.
THE DREAMER IN THE WOOD
I have hesitated to include this story as beyond the range of children
but I leave it for the abnormal child who may value the joy of solitude.
THE RICE MEASURE
The King falls easily into the trap that is laid for him. His craving
for greed leads him to appoint a fool and the fool leads to his failure.
THE POISONOUS TREES
Here we have the skill of knowledge. The Bodisatta knows how to
distinguish the mango tree from the What-fruit tree, and to save the
life of those who had eaten therefrom.
THE WELL-TRAINED ELEPHANT
Here we have the Bodisatta ready to do the miracle that he may convince
the King that he is unworthy to possess him. The whole picture is very
striking and the story lends itself to dramatic effect.
THE WISE PHYSICIAN
I am indebted to Sir Robert Morant, K.C.B., who has kindly been
interested in the preparation of my book as a whole, for the suggestion
that I should include this story (although it is not one of the series
of Buddha Re-Birth Stories to which all the others belong), also for the
reminder of this special version—namely, the woman’s own recognition,
through her personal experience, of the impermanence of those things
which seem to be lasting.
I should not suggest this story as one which would appeal to children. I
have included it for “children of larger growth” as embodying one of the
important tenets of the Buddhist Faith, and as showing how personal
grief may be assuaged in gaining sympathy with the sorrow of others.
* * * * * *
Transcriber's note:
Missing or obscured punctuation was corrected.
Typographical errors were silently corrected.
Spelling and hyphenation were made consistent when a predominant form
was found in this book; otherwise it was not changed.