Sara Janet Shaw - The Jatakas: Birth Stories of the Bodhisatta

When my concentrated mind was purified, I directed it to the knowledge of the recollection of past livesThe Buddha on the night of his enlightenment

Associated with the living traditions of folk tale, drama and epic, the Jatakas recount the development of the Bodhisattathe being destined to become the present Buddha in his final lifenot just through the events of one lifetime but of hundreds. Written in Pali, the language of the Theravada Buddhist canon, the Jatakas comprise one of the largest and oldest collections of stories in the world dating from the fifth century BCE to the third century CE . Generations in South and South-east Asia have grown up with these tales.

This volume contains twenty-six stories drawn from various ancient sources, and each story reflects one of the ten perfectionsgiving, restraint, renunciation, wisdom, strength, acceptance, truthfulness, resolve, loving kindness and equanimity. A detailed introduction elaborates on the ten perfections, explains the forms of enlightenment as well as the structure, and the historical and geographical contexts of the stories. Sarah shaw brings to life the teachings of Buddhism for the scholar and lay reader alike.

Translated, with an introduction, by SARAH SHAW

Cover: Illustration of Rescue at Sea (Ms. Pali a.27R)
Bodleian Library, University of Oxford

PENGUIN CLASSICS

THE JATAKAS

SARAH SHAW was educated at Manchester University, where she read Greek and English. She did her doctorate in English Literature there and went on to the study of Pali and Sanskrit in Oxford. She has written a book about meditation in the Pali canon, which is being published as part of a series in connection with the Oxford Centre for Buddhist Studies. She is a teacher and writer and is married with three children. A Buddhist for some years, she practises with the Samatha Association in Britain.

THE JATAKAS

Birth Stories of

the Bodhisatta

Translated from the Pali by

SARAH SHAW

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First published by Penguin Books India 200

This translation copyright Sarah Shaw 200

Cover image courtesy Bodleian Library, University of Oxford

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ISBN 978-01-4400-147-7

This Digital Edition published 2010. e-ISBN: 978-81-8475-034-8
Digital conversion prepared by DK Digital Media, India.

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This book is dedicated to
the memory of my parents,
Hamish and Kathleen Bremner