![The Jataka tales [English], Volume 1-6 - book cover](/uploads/a/IDC224-Jataka.jpg)
The Jataka tales [English], Volume 1-6
by Robert Chalmers | 1895 | 877,505 words | ISBN-13: 9788120807259
This is the Jhanasodhana-jataka (English translation) including a glossary and notes. The jatakas (buddhist birth history) are a category of literature within buddhism and narrate the previous births of the historical Buddha (Siddhartha Gautama). They include various obstacles which a Buddha-character encounters and must overcome. Alternative title: Jhānasodhana-jātaka.
Jataka 134: Jhānasodhana-jātaka
“With conscious.”--This story was told by the Master while at Jetavana, about the interpretation by Sāriputta, Captain of the Faith, at the gate of Saṁkassa town, of a problem tersely propounded by the Master. And the following was the story of the past he then told.
_____________________________
Once on a time when Brahmadatta was reigning in Benares,...etc.... the Bodhisatta, as he expired in his forest-home, exclaimed, “Neither conscious nor unconscious.” And the recluses did not believe the interpretation which the Bodhisatta’s chief disciple gave of the Master’s words. Back came the Bodhisatta from the Radiant Realm, and from mid-air recited this stanza:—
Dwells sorrow. Either ill eschew.
Pure bliss, from all corruption free,
Springs but from Insight’s ecstasy.
His lesson ended, the Bodhisatta praised his disciple and went back to the Brahma Realm. Then the rest of the recluses believed the chief disciple.
_____________________________
His lesson taught, the Master identified the Birth by saying, “In those days Sāriputta was the chief disciple, and I Mahā-Brahma.”